What Does Genesis 24:29 Mean in the King James?
And Rebekah had a brother, and his name was Laban: and Laban ran out unto the man, unto the well.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
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 hasted, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels.And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.THE THREAD
And she hasted, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw water, 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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