Genesis 29:7 Commentary and Bible Study

Jacob, who was a long-standing shepherd himself, was puzzled by this local arrangement. They are all waiting here: waiting for what? When you read what time of day it was – ‘Lo, it is yet high day’, that is, ‘It is still the middle of the day’, it seems all wrong to him. This is not good productivity; that is a sheer waste of grazing time. What they should be doing is watering each flock as they arrive and then going off to graze, and so, no doubt politely, he tells them, ‘You are wasting time, you are losing grazing time.’ He cannot bear the idea that the hours of the day are passing, and the sheep are not being fed, and as an experienced shepherd he knows that is no good for fattening the sheep. There are these shepherds just sitting about wasting time waiting, and it is all going to be done in the least efficient way. He speaks to them with some authority as an older and more experienced shepherd. He says to them, ‘What are you waiting for?’ He addresses them very cordially, ‘Brethren’. He is very courteous to them, but he has the temerity to ask them why they are doing what they are doing. He says, ‘Since you have gathered them together, then go ahead and water them, but then release them so they can get back to grazing.’ In due course the shepherds explain to him what is going on, and it is really quite an amusing scene. They seem to be men of few words. Some people say there are a rather rough lot, and they do not like Jacob because he is a stranger, so they are not going to say much: one-word answers to his questions will do. Others say no, they are young men and of course Jacob is very much older, and so they are being courteous to him, speaking only when they are spoken to. They volunteer that Laban's daughter Rachel is a shepherdess, and she is going to bring a flock of sheep and then they will move the stone together; they will shift it. They say, ‘We cannot take the stone away, because we have a local agreement that we all wait and all do this together.’ It seems that these shepherds did not particularly have the flourishing of their flocks at heart. Perhaps they like to meet here at the well, and spend time there with each other, even though it meant the flock lost grazing time.Some people say he tries to get rid of them all. He says, ‘You go and water your sheep and move your sheep.’ As soon as he hears Rachel is coming, he seems to want them to finish watering their flocks and leave so that he can meet her alone – perhaps we can read that into the text. But, if so, they are not having any of this. They are a lazy bunch, and they are going to do things the way they have always done them. But when Rachel comes Jacob single-handedly moves the stone. He breaks the rule out of chivalry towards Rachel. Probably it was an enormous stone. They may have been teenagers for all we know; it may have needed the strength of all of them to shift it. If that is the case, it suggests that Jacob is a very strong man. At 70 or more, he is stronger than all of them. With alacrity, he moves the stone for Rachel's flock. So Jacob is the man of action.