What Does Genesis 29:10 Mean?
And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel, daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, that Jacob drew near and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well, and gave drink to the flock of Laban his mother's brother.
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 it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother.THE KEY
The stone does not contain the water; it covers the mouth of a well already holding life-giving water.
THE MEANING
Rachel (רָחֵל, Raḥel, “ewe”) stands beside her father’s flock at a well whose opening is covered. Jacob rolls the stone away, and the water reaches the flock. The scene speaks now in a concrete image: what sustains life can be present while its opening remains covered.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that what is inaccessible is absent: the well is there before the stone moves, and its water becomes available when the mouth is uncovered.
THE ROOT
וַיַּגֶל
wayyāgel from galal
GROWS FROM
גלל
to roll, roll away
English gives us the simple action “rolled,” but גלל (galal) also appears in words for a scroll and in the phrase “roll your way” onto the LORD. The well’s source is not created here; its covering is rolled away so its water can reach the flock.
ALSO GROWS
galal: to roll or roll away
גָּלַל
This is the root behind Jacob’s physical act of moving the stone from the well’s mouth.
gōl: roll; in Psalm 37:5, “commit” your way
גּוֹל
The Hebrew keeps the image of rolling something onto another; English “commit” conceals that physical picture of entrusting.
megillah: scroll, a rolled document
מְגִלָּה
The word for a scroll preserves the same rolling image in a familiar object.
וַיַּשְׁקְ
wayyašq from shaqah
GROWS FROM
שקה
to give drink, to water
“gave drink to the flock” in this verse is wayyašq from shaqah. The verb is causative: Jacob does not merely find water; he gives the flock drink. This root also names a drink and the act of irrigation, linking the source, the giving, and the life that receives it.
ALSO GROWS
mashqeh: drink or beverage; also a cupbearer
מַשְׁקֶה
The root names both what is given to drink and a person who serves it.
shiqquy: watering, irrigation
שִׁקּוּי
The same root describes water being carried to what needs it, as it is here to the flock.
THE PATTERN
Life-giving water is pictured as a source held within or behind something, then flowing outward to sustain life.
He opened the rock, and waters gushed out, and walked through the dry places like a river.The one who leans his weight into me, as the writing has said, rivers of living waters will flow from his belly.THE THREAD
And the LORD said to Joshua, This day I have rolled away the taunt of Egypt from off you. Therefore the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.The verb translated “rolled” here and “rolled away” in Joshua comes from גלל (galal, “to roll”). In Joshua, what is rolled away is reproach; the shared root lets the stone’s physical removal at the well echo the removal of a burden.
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