The stone rolled from the well's mouth
1 Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the children of the east. 2 He looked, and saw a well in the field, and saw three flocks of sheep lying there by it. For out of that well they watered the flocks. The stone on the well’s mouth was large. 3 There all the flocks were gathered. They rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone back on the well’s mouth in its place. 4 Jacob said to them, “My relatives, where are you from?” They said, “We are from Haran.” 5 He said to them, “Do you know Laban, the son of Nahor?” They said, “We know him.” 6 He said to them, “Is it well with him?” They said, “It is well. See, Rachel, his daughter, is coming with the sheep.” 7 He said, “Behold, it is still the middle of the day, not time to gather the livestock together. Water the sheep, and go and feed them.” 8 They said, “We can’t, until all the flocks are gathered together, and they roll the stone from the well’s mouth. Then we will water the sheep.” 9 While he was yet speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she kept them. 10 When Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother’s brother, Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. 11 Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept. 12 Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s relative, and that he was Rebekah’s son. She ran and told her father. 13 When Laban heard the news of Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet Jacob, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things. 14 Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh.” Jacob stayed with him for a month.
Jacob arrives at a well, moves a stone that takes a crowd to shift, and weeps aloud at meeting a stranger.
The scene is the third betrothal at a well in Genesis and the reader is meant to recognize the shape. Abraham's servant met Rebekah at one; Jacob meets Rachel at one; and Moses will meet Zipporah at one. Each time the well is where the future of the family turns.
The stone is introduced before anything happens: The stone on the well's mouth was large, and the practice is that all the flocks gather and they roll it away — a plural, repeated. It takes several shepherds working together.
Jacob's opening conversation is brisk and slightly bossy. He asks where they are from, whether they know Laban, and whether he is well — and then, being told that Rachel is coming, he tells professional shepherds how to do their job: it is still the middle of the day, not time to gather the livestock together. Water the sheep, and go and feed them. Their answer is patient and explains the custom.
Then Rachel arrives, and the man who has just been told that the stone requires the whole company went near, and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the flock. He does alone, on sight of her, what the local men were waiting for reinforcements to attempt.
The narrator marks the moment with a phrase repeated three times in one verse — Laban, his mother's brother, over and over — which is the writer's way of showing what is filling Jacob's head. He has arrived. These are his mother's people.
And then the sentence that is unlike anything else in the patriarchal narratives: Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept.
He is a grown man, a fugitive, hundreds of miles from home, who has just discovered that the family he was sent to actually exists. The greeting is customary; the weeping is not, and it is loud. Whatever else Jacob is in this book — and he is a schemer through most of it — he is a man who feels things without moderating them, and Genesis never apologizes for it.
Laban's reception is generous and, in the light of the next chapter, worth watching. He ran to meet Jacob, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. It is exactly how he greeted Abraham's servant, who was wearing gold at the time. Jacob arrives with nothing, so the warmth here may be real; the ensuing twenty years will show what else Laban is.
Surely you are my bone and my flesh. The phrase is the language of kinship claimed, and Jacob stays a month.
It is worth holding the contrast with the previous well scene. Abraham's servant came with ten camels, gold, and an oath, and everything was settled in a day. His master's son comes with nothing, does hard labor at the first sight of the woman, and will work fourteen years for her. The family that arranged a marriage by errand now has a son who has to earn one.
settled What this mark means