What Does Genesis 29:16 Mean in the King James?
And Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.
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 verse pairs a name often linked to weariness with one that literally means “ewe,” letting weariness and flock-life enter the story before either daughter speaks.
THE MEANING
You meet this family through names before you hear either daughter’s voice: Leah’s name is often associated with weariness, while Rachel means ewe. The verse lets those images sit together in one household, showing that a name can hold more than a role in a list.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A name is only a label, with no older word or image inside it.
THE ROOT
רָחֵל
rāḥēl
GROWS FROM
רחל
Ewe, a female sheep.
Rachel is the ordinary Hebrew word for an ewe, so her name carries a creature-image as well as a person’s identity. That same word appears later for actual ewes in Jacob’s account of the flock.
ALSO GROWS
rāḥēl: Ewe.
רָחֵל
This common noun is the animal word carried by Rachel’s name.
rəḥēlîm: Ewes.
רְחֵלִים
The plural form appears in a flock list, making Rachel’s name audible again as an ordinary word for sheep.
לֵאָה
lēʾāh
GROWS FROM
לאה
To grow weary, tire.
Leah’s name is often connected with this root, though its etymology is uncertain. The proposed connection lets weariness echo inside her name, beside Rachel’s concrete image of an ewe.
ALSO GROWS
lāʾāh: To grow weary, to tire.
לָאָה
This is the proposed root association behind Leah’s name.
nilʾēṯî: I am weary.
נִלְאֵיתִי
The root also describes weariness as a present state, giving the name an echo of lived exhaustion.
THE PATTERN
A biblical name can carry the nature or story of the person in its sound, revealing meaning before the person acts.
And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them.And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.THE THREAD
This twenty years have I been with thee; thy ewes and thy she goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten.The Hebrew word translated “ewes” is רָחֵל (rāḥēl), meaning ewe, the same word as Rachel’s name. Her name returns as an ordinary flock word, making its animal meaning audible in Jacob’s account.
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