What Does Genesis 29:30 Mean in the King James?
And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years.
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
Love does not dissolve the arrangement around it: Jacob’s preference for Rachel and his seven further years of service are held together.
THE MEANING
Here, love is stated as a comparison: Rachel is loved more than Leah. At the same time, Jacob’s service to Laban continues for seven more years, so affection and labor occupy the same scene. Leah remains present as the person against whom that preference is measured.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the belief that being loved within a household means being loved equally: it says Rachel is loved more than Leah.
THE ROOT
עָבַד
avad
GROWS FROM
עבד
avad
to work, labor, serve
English “served” can sound like a gesture of devotion, but עבד also names ordinary labor and the worker who performs it. The verse keeps Jacob’s seven additional years concrete: his love for Rachel and his work for Laban occupy the same arrangement.
ALSO GROWS
eved: servant, worker
עֶבֶד
This branch makes the person doing the service visible alongside the labor itself.
avodah: work, labor, service
עֲבֹדָה
This branch shows that Jacob’s service is also work carried out over those additional years.
THE PATTERN
Scripture places love alongside service, while showing that service can be labor bound to a bargain or care shared with others.
And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth.THE THREAD
And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.Genesis 29:20 uses the same Hebrew root עבד (avad, “work, serve”) for Jacob’s service and connects those years with his love for Rachel. That verse shows how the labor feels to him; Genesis 29:30 reveals that the service continues for seven more years.
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