What Does Genesis 29:15 Mean?
And Laban said to Jacob, Because you are my brother, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what will your wages be?
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 Laban said unto Jacob, Because thou art my brother, shouldest thou therefore serve me for nought? tell me, what shall thy wages be?THE KEY
The verse lets the word brother sit beside service for nothing, exposing how closeness can make labor seem valueless.
THE MEANING
You can be treated as family while your labor is assumed to cost nothing; this verse makes that pressure audible. It also makes the value of work something that can be asked about plainly.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that closeness alone makes another person’s labor free to take.
THE ROOT
וַעֲבַדְתַּנִי
vaʿavadtani
GROWS FROM
עבד
To work; to serve.
The verb עבד (ʿavad, “work, serve”) names both the action and the person whose labor is given: עֶבֶד (ʿeved, “servant, slave”) and עֲבֹדָה (ʿavodah, “work, service”) grow from the same root. English “serve” can sound like a role alone; this root keeps the labor itself visible beside the word “brother.”
ALSO GROWS
ʿeved: Servant; slave.
עֶבֶד
The same root names the person who gives service, keeping the worker visible within the act.
ʿavodah: Work; service.
עֲבֹדָה
This branch holds labor and service together in one word, as the verse does.
מַשְׂכֻּרְתֶּךָ
maśkurtəḵā
GROWS FROM
שכר
To hire; to pay wages.
The word for wages carries the language of hiring and payment: שכר (śākar, “hire, pay”), שָׂכָר (sākār, “wages, reward”), and שָׂכִיר (śāḵîr, “hired worker”) share this root. Laban makes Jacob’s work and its wage an explicit question rather than leaving the labor as an unnamed favor.
ALSO GROWS
sākār: Wages; reward.
שָׂכָר
This branch names the return attached to work and clarifies what Laban asks Jacob to state.
śāḵîr: Hired worker.
שָׂכִיר
The same root names the worker in relation to wages, joining the person’s labor to its compensation.
THE PATTERN
When service is spoken plainly, the worker’s due can also be named plainly.
On his day you give him his wage, and the sun does not go down upon it, for he is bowed down and carries his living soul toward it. Lest he call out against you to the LORD, and it be missing in you.And remain in that same house, eating and drinking what they give, for the worker is worthy of his pay. Do not step from house to house.For the writing says, "You shall not muzzle the ox while he treads out the grain," and, "The worker is weighed worthy of his wage."THE THREAD
And he said, Name me your wages, and I will give it.Genesis 29:15 asks what Jacob’s wages will be; this later question uses מַשְׂכֻּרְתֶּךָ (maśkurtəḵā, “your wages”) from the same root, שכר (śākar, “hire, pay”). The repeated word makes the wage an explicit term in their arrangement.
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