Genesis 29:23

23 But when evening came, he gave his daughter Leah to Jacob. And Jacob made love to her.

Genesis 29:23 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 29:23

And it came to pass in the evening
After the feast was over, and the guests were departed; when it was night, a fit season to execute his designs, and practise deceit:

that he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him,
to Jacob, in his apartment, his bedchamber, or to him in bed: for it is still the custom in some eastern countries for the bridegroom to go to bed first, and then the bride comes, or is brought to him in the dark, and veiled, so that he sees her not: so the Armenians have now such a custom at their marriages that the husband goes to bed first; nor does the bride put off her veil till in bed F15: and in Barbary the bride is brought to the bridegroom's house, and with some of her female relations conveyed into a private room F16; then the bride's mother, or some very near relation, introduces the bridegroom to his new spouse, who is in the dark, and obliged in modesty not to speak or answer upon any account: and if this was the case here, as it is highly probable it was, the imposition on Jacob is easily accounted for:

and he went in unto her;
or lay with her as his wife; a modest expression of the use of the bed.


FOOTNOTES:

F15 Tournefort's Voyage to the Levant, vol. 3. p. 255.
F16 Ockley's Account of Southwest Barbary, c. 6. p. 78.

Genesis 29:23 In-Context

21 Then Jacob said to Laban, "Give me my wife. I've completed my time. I want to make love to her."
22 So Laban brought all of the people of the place together and had a big dinner prepared.
23 But when evening came, he gave his daughter Leah to Jacob. And Jacob made love to her.
24 Laban gave his female servant Zilpah to his daughter as her servant.
25 When Jacob woke up the next morning, there was Leah next to him! So he said to Laban, "What have you done to me? I worked for you to get Rachel, didn't I? Why did you trick me?"
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