unto God. Henceforth this rocky valley would be to him no more the Canaanitish Luz, but Beth-el, "the

house of God;" just as John the Baptist declared that God could of such stones raise up children to

Abraham. At the same time Jacob vowed a vow, that when God had fulfilled His promise, and brought him

back again "in peace," he would, on his part also, make the place a Beth-el, by dedicating it to God, and

offering unto the Lord a tenth of all that He should give him, which also he did. (Genesis 35:6, 7)

No further incident worth recording occurred till Jacob reached the end of his journey in "the land of the

people of the East." Here he found himself at a "well," where, contrary to the usual custom, three flocks were

already in waiting, long before the usual evening time for watering them. Professor Robin son has made this

personal observation, helpful to our understanding of the circumstances: "Over most of the cisterns is laid a

broad and thick flat stone, with a round hole cut in the middle, forming the mouth of the cistern. This hole

we found in many cases covered with a heavy stone, which it would require two or three men to roll away."

We know not whether these flocks were kept waiting till sufficient men had come to roll away the stone, or

whether it was the custom to delay till all the flocks had arrived. At any rate, when Jacob had ascertained

that the flocks were from Haran, and that the shepherds knew Laban, the brother of Rebekah, and when he

saw the fair Rachel, his own cousin, coming with her flock, he rolled away the stone himself, watered his

uncle's sheep, and in the warmth of his feelings at finding himself not only at the goal of his journey, but

apparently God-directed to her whose very appearance could win his affections, he embraced his cousin.

Even in this little trait the attentive observer of Jacob's natural character will not fail to recognize "the haste"

with which he always anticipated God's leadings. When Laban, Rachel's father, came to hear of all the

circumstances, he received Jacob as his relative. A month's trial more than confirmed in the mind of that

selfish, covetous man the favorable impression of Jacob's possible use to him as a shepherd, which his first

energetic interference at the "well" must have produced. With that apparent frankness and show of liberality

under which cunning, selfish people so often disguise their dishonest purposes, Laban urged upon Jacob to

name his own "wages." Jacob had learned to love Rachel, Laban's younger daughter. Without consulting

the mind of God in the matter, he now proposed to serve Laban seven years for her hand. This was just the

period during which, among the Hebrews, a Jewish slave had to serve; in short, he proposed becoming a

bondsman for Rachel. With the same well-feigned candor as before, Laban agreed: "It is better that I give

her to thee, than that I should give her to another man (to a stranger)." The bargain thus to sell his daughter

was not one founded on the customs of the time, and Laban's daughters themselves felt the degradation

which they could not resist, as appears from their after statement, when agreeing to flee from their father's

The period of Jacob's servitude seemed to him rapidly to pass, and at the end of the seven years he claimed

his bride. But now Jacob was to experience how his sin had found him out. As he had deceived his father,

so Laban now deceived him. Taking advantage of the Eastern custom that a bride was always brought to her

husband veiled, he substituted for Rachel her elder sister Leah. But, as formerly, God had, all unknown to

them, overruled the error and sin of Isaac and of Jacob, so He did now also in the case of Laban and Jacob.

For Leah was, so far as we can judge, the one whom God had intended for Jacob, though, for the sake of her

beauty, he had preferred Rachel. From Leah sprang Judah, in whose line the promise to Abraham was to be

fulfilled. Leah, as we shall see in the sequel, feared and served Jehovah; while Rachel was attached to the

superstitions of her father's house; and even the natural character of the elder sister fitted her better for her

new calling than that of the somewhat petulant, peevish, and self-willed, though beautiful younger daughter

of Laban. As for the author of this deception, Laban, h e shielded himself behind the pretense of a national

custom, not to give away a younger before a first born sister. But he readily proposed to give to Jacob

Rachel also, in return for other seven years of service. Jacob consented, and the second union was

celebrated immediately upon the close of Leah's marriage festivities, which in the East generally last for a

week. It were an entire mistake to infer from the silence of Scripture that this double marriage of Jacob

received Divine approbation. As always, Scripture states facts, but makes no comment. That sufficiently

appears from the lifelong sorrow, disgrace, and trials which, in the retributive providence of God, followed as

the consequence of this double union.