What Does Genesis 24:29 Mean?
And Rebekah had a brother, and his name was Laban; and Laban ran to the man, to the well.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Rebekah had a brother, and his name was Laban: and Laban ran out unto the man, unto the well.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “well” is also “eye”: Laban runs toward the spring whose name also holds the image of sight.
THE MEANING
Laban runs toward the man at the spring, and the verse gives his name before showing his movement. The spring is called ayin in Hebrew, a word that also means “eye,” joining a source of water with the word for seeing.
THE ROOT
עַיִן
ʿayin
GROWS FROM
עין
ʿayin
Eye; spring or source of water.
Hebrew uses the same word for an eye and a spring, while English gives the reader only “well.” Laban runs to the ayin: a water source whose name also carries the image of sight.
ALSO GROWS
ʿayin: Eye; the organ of sight.
עַיִן
This is the other meaning of the word translated “well,” bringing sight into the scene.
ʿayin: Spring or well; a source of water.
עַיִן
This is the sense used here: the place toward which Laban runs.
maʿyan: Spring or fountain.
מַעְיָן
This related form extends the image of the ayin as water rising from a source.
לָבָן
Lavan
GROWS FROM
לבן
l-b-n
White; become white.
Laban’s name carries the quality of whiteness as part of his identity. The verse offers that name and then shows him moving toward the spring, without specifying whether the whiteness is visual, moral, or symbolic.
ALSO GROWS
lavan: White.
לָבָן
This is the word embodied in Laban’s name.
levanah: Moon; literally, “the white one.”
לְבָנָה
This branch shows the root’s whiteness named as a thing in the world.
libben: To whiten or make white.
לִבֵּן
This verb shows the same root as an action that produces whiteness.
THE PATTERN
Urgency turns what is encountered into movement toward the source, the question, or the witness.
And she hurried, and emptied her jar into the trough, and ran again to the well to draw the waters, and drew for all his camels.As he went out on the way, one came running, knelt before him, and asked him, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit the life of the ages?So she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They have lifted away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have placed him.THE THREAD
And she hurried, and emptied her jar into the trough, and ran again to the well to draw the waters, and drew for all his camels.Both verses use the Hebrew verb רוץ (ruts), “run,” and direct that movement toward the well. Rebekah runs to draw water there; Laban runs toward the man there, making the spring a meeting point for service and encounter.
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