World English Bible · The patriarchs
Genesis 29
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Then went on his journey, and came to the land of the children of the east. He looked, and saw a well in the field, and saw three flocks of sheep lying there by it. For out of that well they watered the flocks. The stone on the well's was large. 3There all the flocks were gathered. They rolled the stone from the well's , and watered the sheep, and put the stone back on the well's in its place. said to them, "My relatives, where are you from?" They said, "We are from ." He said to them, "Do you know , the son of ?" They said, "We know him." He said to them, "Is it well with him?" They said, "It is well. See, , his daughter, is coming with the sheep." He said, "Behold, it is still the middle of the day, not time to gather the livestock together. Water the sheep, and go and feed them." They said, "We can't, until all the flocks are gathered together, and they roll the stone from the well's . Then we will water the sheep." While he was yet speaking with them, came with her sheep, for she kept them. When saw the daughter of , his mother's brother, and the sheep of , his mother's brother, went near, and rolled the stone from the well's , and watered the his mother's brother. kissed , and lifted up his voice, and wept. told that he was her relative, and that he was son. She ran and told her . When heard the news of , his sister's son, he ran to meet , and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. told all these things. said to him, "Surely you are my bone and my ." stayed with him for a month. said to , "Because you are my relative, should you therefore me for nothing? Tell me, what will your wages be?" had two daughters. The name of the elder was , and the name of the younger was . eyes were weak, but was beautiful in form and attractive. loved . He said, "I will you seven years for , your younger daughter." said, "It is better that I give her to you, than that I should give her to another man. Stay with me." seven years for . They seemed to him but days, for the love he had for her. said to , "Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in to her." gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast. In the evening, he took his daughter, and brought her to . He went in to her. gave his servant to his daughter for a servant. In the morning, behold, it was ! He said to , "What is this you have done to me? Didn't I with you for ? Why then have you deceived me?" 26 said, "It is not done so in our place, to give the younger before . Fulfill the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the which you will with me for seven more years." 28 did so, and fulfilled her week. He gave him his daughter as wife. gave , his servant, to his daughter to be her servant. He went in also to , and he loved also more than , and with him seven more years. saw that was hated, and he opened her , but was . conceived, and bore a son, and she named him . For she said, "Because has looked at my affliction; for now my husband will love me." She conceived again, and bore a son, and said, "Because has heard that I am hated, he has therefore given me this son also." She named him . She conceived again, and bore a son. She said, "Now this time my husband will be joined to me, because I have borne him three sons." Therefore his name was called . She conceived again, and bore a son. She said, "This time I will ." Therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing.
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The world at this moment · The patriarchs, 2000 BC to 1600 BC ›
Abraham's family as herdsmen among settled Canaanite city-states, in a world where Egypt and Mesopotamia are the great powers and Canaan is the corridor between them.
- Mesopotamia
- Abraham's own century is Hammurabi's. The great empire of Ur has already fallen, and Babylon rises under a king who published a law code on a stone pillar for everyone to see. Reading Genesis alongside Hammurabi's laws is illuminating in both directions: some provisions are strikingly similar, and the places where Israel's later law diverges are the places worth stopping at.
- Egypt
- The Middle Kingdom, wealthy, bureaucratic, and organised around the Nile flood. Egyptian tomb paintings from this period show Semitic traders arriving with donkeys and striped cloaks, which is more or less the picture Genesis gives of a family going down to Egypt in a famine. Toward the end of the era the Hyksos, rulers of Semitic origin, take the delta.
- Anatolia and the Aegean
- Assyrian merchants run a long-distance trading colony at Kanesh in Anatolia, leaving thousands of clay letters about copper, tin, and debt. On Crete the Minoan palaces are at their height, with plumbing, frescoes, and a script nobody has yet read.
- Further afield
- The Indus Valley cities are in decline after centuries of grid-planned streets and drains. In China the Erlitou culture is building the first palace complexes. Stonehenge is standing and already old.
All of Genesis