Fulfill her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
27. Fulfil the week ] Laban’s proposal is that when the week’s marriage festivities for Leah are over, Jacob shall take Rachel as his second wife, on condition that he gives his services for another period of seven years. Nothing would justify the interruption of the seven days’ marriage ceremonial.
Marriage with two sisters was evidently free from objection in the primitive days of the Israelites; and, perhaps for that reason, it is introduced into the prophetical symbolism of Jer 3:6 ff. and Ezekiel 23. But, in the Levitical law, marriage with two sisters simultaneously is forbidden; Lev 18:18.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 27. Fulfil her week] The marriage feast, it appears, lasted seven days; it would not therefore have been proper to break off the solemnities to which all the men of the place had been invited, Ge 29:22, and probably Laban wished to keep his fraud from the public eye; therefore he informs Jacob that if he will fulfil the marriage week for Leah, he will give him Rachel at the end of it, on condition of his serving seven other years. To this the necessity of the case caused Jacob to agree; and thus Laban had fourteen years’ service instead of seven: for it is not likely that Jacob would have served even seven days for Leah, as his affection was wholly set on Rachel, the wife of his own choice. By this stratagem Laban gained a settlement for both his daughters. What a man soweth, that shall he reap. Jacob had before practised deceit, and is now deceived; and Laban, the instrument of it, was afterwards deceived himself.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Fulfil her week, the seven days usually devoted to the feast and solemnity of marriage, as Jdg 14:12,15,17. And this he desired, that a weeks cohabitation with Leah might either knit his affections to her, or at least confirm the contract and marriage with her.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Fulfil her week,…. Not Rachel’s week, or a week of years of servitude for her, but Leah’s week, or the week of seven days of feasting for her marriage; for a marriage feast used to be kept seven days, according to the Jewish writers t, and as it seems from
Jud 14:17; and the Targum of Jerusalem fully expresses this sense,
“fulfil the week of the days of the feast of Leah;”
and to the same sense the Targum of Jonathan, Aben Ezra and Jarchi:
and we will give this also; meaning Rachel that stood by; and the sense is, that he and his wife, if he had any, or his friends about him, would give to Jacob Rachel also to be his wife, upon the following condition:
for the service which thou shall serve with me yet seven other years; which shows the avaricious temper of the man.
t T. Hieros. Moed Katon, fol. 80. 4. Pirke Eliezer, c. 16, 36.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“ Fulfil her week; ” i.e., let Leah’s marriage-week pass over. The wedding feast generally lasted a week (cf. Jdg 14:12; Job 11:19). After this week had passed, he received Rachel also: two wives in eight days. To each of these Laban gave one maid-servant to wait upon her; less, therefore, than Bethuel gave to his daughter (Gen 24:61). – This bigamy of Jacob must not be judged directly by the Mosaic law, which prohibits marriage with two sisters at the same time (Lev 18:18), or set down as incest ( Calvin, etc.), since there was no positive law on the point in existence then. At the same time, it is not to be justified on the ground, that the blessing of God made it the means of the fulfilment of His promise, viz., the multiplication of the seed of Abraham into a great nation. Just as it had arisen from Laban’s deception and Jacob’s love, which regarded outward beauty alone, and therefore from sinful infirmities, so did it become in its results a true school of affliction to Jacob, in which God showed to him, by many a humiliation, that such conduct as his was quite unfitted to accomplish the divine counsels, and thus condemned the ungodliness of such a marriage, and prepared the way for the subsequent prohibition in the law.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
27. Fulfil her week. Laban now is become callous in wickedness, for he extorts other seven years from his nephew to allow him to marry his other daughter. If he had had ten more daughters, he would have been ready thus to dispose of them all: yea, of his own accord, he obtrudes his daughter as an object of merchandise, thinking nothing of the disgrace of this illicit sale, if only he may make it a source of gain. In this truly he grievously sins, that he not only involves his nephew in polygamy, but pollutes both him and his own daughters by incestuous nuptials. If by any means a wife is not loved by her husband, it is better to repudiate her than that she should be retained as a captive, and consumed with grief by the introduction of a second wife. Therefore the Lord, by Malachi, pronounces divorce to be more tolerable than polygamy. (Mal 2:14.) Laban, blinded by avarice, so sets his daughters together, that they spend their whole lives in mutual hostility. He also perverts all the laws of nature by casting two sisters into one marriage-bed, (67) so that the one is the competitor of the other. Since Moses sets these crimes before the Israelites in the very commencement of their history, it is not for them to be inflated by the sense of their nobility, so that they should boast of their descent from holy fathers. For, however excellent Jacob might be, he had no other offspring than that which sprung from an impure source; since, contrary to nature, two sisters are mixed together in one bed; (68) in the mode of beasts; and two concubines are afterwards added to the mass. We have seen indeed, above, that this license was too common among oriental nations; but it was not allowable for men, at their own pleasure, to subvert, by a depraved custom, the law of marriage divinely sanctioned from the beginning. Therefore, Laban is, in every way, inexcusable. And although necessity may, in some degree, excuse the fault of Jacob, it cannot altogether absolve him from blame. For he might have dismissed Leah, because she had not been his lawful wife: because the mutual consent of the man and the woman, respecting which mistake is impossible, constitutes marriage. But Jacob reluctantly retains her as his wife, from whom he was released and free, and thus doubles his fault by polygamy, and trebles it by an incestuous marriage. Thus we see that the inordinate love of Rachel, which had been once excited in his mind, was inflamed to such a degree, that he possessed neither moderation nor judgment. With respect to the words made use of, interpreters ascribe to them different meanings. Some refer the demonstrative pronoun to the week; (69) others to Leah, as if it had been said, that he should not have Rachel until he had lived with her sister one week. But I rather explain it of Rachel, that he should purchase a marriage with her by another seven years’ service; not that Laban deferred the nuptials to the end of that time, but that Jacob was compelled to engage himself in a new servitude.
(67) It is here added, “ ut altera sit alterius pellex.”
(68) Quasi belluino more.
(69) מלא שבע זאת, ( Malai shebuah zot.) The demonstrative pronoun זאת, if applied to week, would require the translation to be, “Fulfil this week;” that is, the week of Leah; meaning the festive week in which the marriage was commemorated, and, as soon as that week was over, he would also give Jacob his remaining daughter to wife. This opinion is supported by eminent critics. — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(27) Fulfil her week.The marriage festival seems to have lasted a week, as was the custom in later times (Jdg. 14:12), and. to have forsaken Leah during this period would have been to offer her an insult which her brothers must have avenged. Appeased, therefore, by the promise of Rachel as soon as the seven days are over, Jacob, rather than quarrel with the whole family, submits to the wrong. The Hebrew is remarkable, Fulfil the week of this, and we will give to thee also the this for the service. But in Hebrew this . . . this means the one and the other (Gen. 31:38; Gen. 31:41), and it is a mistake to suppose that the language will allow the first this to be understood of any one but Leah, and the second this of any one but Rachel.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
27. Her week The seven days of the marriage feast . Laban proposes, as a recompense, after the week has ended, to give him Rachel also, but on condition that he serve for her yet seven other years. Two wives in eight days, but fourteen years of service for them both . “This bigamy of Jacob must not be judged directly by the Mosaic law, which prohibits marriage with two sisters at the same time, (Lev 18:18,) or be set down as incest, (Calvin,) since there was no positive law on the point in existence then . At the same time it is not to be justified on the ground that the blessing of God made it the means of the fulfilment of his promise, namely, the multiplication of the seed of Abraham into a great nation . Just as it had arisen from Laban’s deception and Jacob’s love, which regarded outward beauty alone, and, therefore, from sinful infirmities, so did it become in its results a true school of affliction to Jacob, in which God showed to him by many a humiliation, that such conduct as his was quite unfitted to accomplish the divine counsels, and thus condemned the ungodliness of such a marriage, and prepared the way for the subsequent prohibition in the law . ” Keil .
Gen 29:27. Fulfil her week i.e.. perfect this marriage with Leah, by keeping the solemnity of seven days feasting, which seems to have been the time allowed for marriage feasts; and this done, thou shalt solemnize thy marriage with Rachel also, on condition of serving me seven years more. It appears beyond all dispute that he was married to Rachel immediately after the expiration of the seven days, which the subsequent history, the birth of the children, &c. abundantly prove. Selden’s paraphrase is: “Marriages are to be celebrated, according to custom, by a seven days feast: complete this marriage which thou hast begun with Leah; and then, upon condition of another seven years service, thou shalt marry Rachel also, and keep her wedding-feast seven days.”
See Jdg 14:12 .
Gen 29:27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
Ver. 27. We will give thee this also. ] See here the guise of wicked and deceitful men: when one fetch has been born in their minds, they devise another; and make no end of overreaching; there never wanting (as the proverb hath it) a new knack in a knave’s cap. They will search the devil’s skull, but they will find out one slippery trick or another, to cheat and go beyond those they deal with. But let them look to it; “God is the avenger of all such,” 1Th 4:6 whose, not heads only, but “bellies prepare deceit”. Job 15:35
we, i.e. I, by Figure of speech Heterosis (of Number).
week: Gen 2:2, Gen 2:3, Gen 8:10-12, Lev 18:18, Jdg 14:10, Jdg 14:12, Mal 2:15, 1Ti 6:10
we will: Gen 29:20
Reciprocal: Gen 7:4 – For Gen 31:15 – sold us Rth 4:10 – have I
Gen 29:27. Fulfil her week The seven days usually devoted to the feast and solemnity of marriage, Jdg 14:12-17; for it does not appear that it relates to the seven years Jacob afterward served. This Laban seems to have desired, that by a weeks cohabitation with Leah, his affections might be knit to her, and the marriage with her confirmed. We will give thee this also Hereby he drew Jacob into the sin, and snare, and disquiet of multiplying wives. Jacob did not design it, but to have kept as true to Rachel as his father had done to Rebekah; he that had lived without a wife to the eighty-fourth year of his age, could then have been very well content with one: but Laban, to dispose of his two daughters without portions, and to get seven years service more out of Jacob, thus imposeth upon him, and draws him into such a strait, that he had some colourable reason for marrying them both.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments