And Laban had two daughters the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger, Rachel.
One short verse introduces the two sisters Jacob will marry, and it marks which one is older. That order matters. It becomes the trap Laban sets for Jacob, and, for many writers, a picture of God's ways.
Commentators start with what the two names mean:
Rachel, "sheep," seems to stand for the meekness and patience of true discipleship. That is the very opposite of Jacob's self-willed and unrestrained temper up to now. But he must get her through unwanted Leah. Her name, "wearied," suggests the "tribulation" that works "patience" out.
The verse marks Leah as the elder. A firstborn's rights are exactly what Jacob had ignored at home, and one writer sees God's hand in what followed:
His uncle's deception might well have reminded Jacob of his own past. He had deceived a relative himself — his own father. Such things have a way of recoiling, under the governing hand of God. It is a striking fact that those who take on the character of deceivers will very likely be deceived themselves (2 Tim. 3:13). Here too Jacob learned, painfully, the rights of a firstborn. He had ignored those rights in the case of his brother Esau.
Jacob then offers Laban seven years of work for Rachel. Commentators call that bargain wrong on both sides, and set it against the first marriage of all:
Rachel did not belong to Laban, and both Jacob and Laban were totally wrong in placing a mercenary value on a wife. When the Lord created a woman for Adam, He gave her to him as a gift by grace. Grace should always come first in the sacred relationship of marriage.
Jacob's love carried him through years of hard service. One writer finds here the one point in Jacob's life that pictures Christ:
And only after years of toil could Jacob claim her as his own. By day the heat consumed him, and the frost by night; and sleep left his eyes. But love lightened the burdens and sweetened all the bitterness of those long years. "So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her" (Gen. 29:20). This is the only phase of his life in which Jacob appears as a picture of our Lord. He is the One "who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and (His toil ended) is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."
Commentators differ on how far to press the picture. Some read the sisters as two groups of people:
I have no doubt that Leah represents the Gentiles, and Rachel the Jews.
On that reading, each sister has her own place:
Here we find the picture in Rachel: so long wooed yet withheld, so long barren, so great a cause of sorrow and anxiety, and yet so greatly and endlessly loved... Leah (who is regarded as picturing the Gentile) was the first one Jacob got, but she was not the first one he sought... Even so, she is the most fruitful. She is honoured in the births of Judah and Levi — the Ruler and the Teacher, King and Priest.
Others take the two sisters as a picture of something nearer home — the gap between what we wish we were and what we are:
Rachel (meaning "sheep") pictures the lovely state of soul that believers would like to reach: humble submission to God. She was the desire of Jacob's heart. But in struggling to get Rachel, he only got Leah, whose name means "wearied." Leah is a picture of what I really am, not what I want to be... I may try hard to make myself different, only to find myself "stuck" with what I really am, as Jacob was "stuck" with Leah! This is the struggle of Romans 7, where "I" is seen fighting against "I."
- Named — Leah means "wearied," Rachel means "sheep." We reach the meekness we want through the tiredness we did not want.
- Ordered — Leah is the elder, and that becomes the trap. Jacob had pushed past a firstborn's rights, and now he must learn them.
- Priced — Jacob works to earn a wife. God gave Adam his wife as a gift of grace.
- Loved — love made seven years feel like a few days. Here alone Jacob's toil pictures Christ, who endured for the joy set before Him.
- Fruitful — Leah, the wife Jacob never asked for, bore Judah and Levi — the King and the Priest.
And the eyes of Leah were tender; but Rachel was of beautiful form and beautiful countenance.
The story stops here to compare two sisters. That comparison shapes all that follows: who Jacob wants, who he gets, and who bears his sons. It is one line about eyes and beauty. Yet commentators read in it both a hard lesson for a schemer and a picture of God's wider dealings.
The two names carry meanings, and the story acts them out. One writer prints them, with the older reading "tender" where the ESV has "weak":
Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah (Weariness), and the name of the younger was Rachel (Ewe). And the eyes of Leah were tender... And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they were in his eyes a few days, for his love to her.
Jacob answered the difference between the sisters by buying the one he wanted:
Rachel did not belong to Laban. Both Jacob and Laban were completely wrong to put a price on a wife. When the Lord created a woman for Adam, He gave her to him as a gift, by grace. Grace should always rule in the sacred relationship of marriage.
Laban then handed him the plain daughter in the dark. That reversal was not bad luck:
His uncle's trick might well have reminded Jacob of his own. He himself had deceived a relative before — his own father. Such things have a way of recoiling, under the governing hand of God. It is a striking fact that those who form the character of deceivers will very likely be deceived themselves (2 Tim. 3:13). In this case too Jacob painfully learned the rights of a firstborn, which he had ignored in the case of his brother Esau.
Verse 17 ranks the sisters by looks. God ranks them the other way:
It is not Elohim here, but Jehovah, God in special relationship and moral dealing. He looked on the sorrowful and despised wife. He gave the comfort of a son not to Rachel but to Leah, the one "hated" by comparison. Rachel, happy in her husband's love, stayed barren!
The woman passed over for her looks became mother of the leading tribes:
She was 'tender eyed,' and not as beautiful as Rachel. But God blessed her: she bore Jacob six sons and one daughter. So she became the mother of the heads of the important tribes of Reuben, Levi, and Judah, as well as of Simeon, Issachar, and Zebulun.
Commentators differ on what the two sisters picture. One reads them like this:
Rachel represents Israel, Messiah's first object of love on earth. But this fails by no fault on His part. And He has Leah. She represents the call of the Gentiles — the nations — in the meantime, during Jacob's servant state and great sorrows, when "more are the children of the desolate than of the married wife, says Jehovah" (Isaiah 54:4, compare Gal. 4).
Another writer takes Leah as a picture of the church rather than of the nations generally, and draws the timing out further:
Rachel typifies Israel, Christ's earthly bride. Jacob first sought Rachel, but received Leah. In the same way Christ came first to Israel; and when Israel rejected Him, He first received the church. Leah, like the church, is the fruitful one. Later, loved Rachel passes off the scene, like Israel after the Millennium, and Leah remains as Jacob's companion in the land of promise.
Read closer to home, the two sisters picture an inner struggle:
Rachel (meaning "sheep") pictures the lovely state of soul in humble submission to God that believers would like to reach. But in struggling to get Rachel, Jacob only got Leah, meaning "wearied." Leah is a picture of what I really am, not what I desire to be. I may try hard to make myself different, only to find myself "stuck" with what I really am, as Jacob was "stuck" with Leah! This is the struggle of Romans 7, where "I" fights against "I."
The sister Jacob admired was no safer than the one he did not want:
Although Jacob loved Rachel so much, beautiful and well favoured, was she completely trustworthy? No. Later she stole her father's idols, hid them in her tent, and deceived him. This is like our own hearts. The lesson is this: the desire to reach a high spiritual state has in it the elements of idolatry and of deceit. A person who wants to reach a certain state will try to deceive himself into thinking he can make it... There can be no perfection while we remain in the flesh.
- Names. Leah means "weariness"; Rachel means "ewe." The verse sets weak eyes beside beauty of form and face, and the names then play out in the story.
- Bargain. Jacob put a price on a bride he should have received as a gift. Grace, not payment, belongs to marriage.
- Recoil. In the dark, Laban deceived the deceiver. Under God's governing hand Jacob learned the rights of a firstborn he had once ignored.
- Reversal. God looked on the despised wife and gave her a son, while the loved one stayed barren. The plainer sister became mother of Reuben, Levi and Judah.
- Mirror. Rachel is the state of soul we wish we had; Leah is what we are. Neither sister was trustworthy, and no one reaches perfection while we remain in the flesh.