Genesis 29:10

וַיְהִי כַּאֲשֶׁר רָאָה יַעֲקֹב אֶת־רָחֵל בַּת־לָבָן אֲחִי אִמּוֹ וְאֶת־צֹאן לָבָן אֲחִי אִמּוֹ וַיִּגַּשׁ יַעֲקֹב וַיָּגֶל אֶת־הָאֶבֶן מֵעַל פִּי הַבְּאֵר וַיַּשְׁקְ אֶת־צֹאן לָבָן אֲחִי אִמּֽוֹ׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַיְהִ֡י כַּאֲשֶׁר֩ רָאָ֨ה יַעֲקֹ֜ב אֶת־רָחֵ֗ל בַּת־לָבָן֙ אֲחִ֣י אִמּ֔וֹ וְאֶת־צֹ֥אן לָבָ֖ן אֲחִ֣י אִמּ֑וֹ וַיִּגַּ֣שׁ יַעֲקֹ֗ב וַיָּ֤גֶל אֶת־הָאֶ֙בֶן֙ מֵעַל֙ פִּ֣י הַבְּאֵ֔ר וַיַּ֕שְׁקְ אֶת־צֹ֥אן לָבָ֖ן אֲחִ֥י אִמּֽוֹ׃

Greek (Septuagint)

ἐγένετο δὲ ὡς ἴδεν Ἰακὼβ τὴν Ῥαχὴλ θυγατέρα Λαβὰν ἀδελφοῦ τῆς μητρὸς αὐτοῦ, καὶ προσελθὼν Ἰακὼβ ἀπεκύλισεν τὸν λίθον ἀπὸ τοῦ στόματος τοῦ φρέατος, καὶ ἐπότισεν τὰ πρόβατα λαβὰν τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ τῆς μητρὸς αὐτοῦ.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Quam cum vidisset Jacob, et sciret consobrinam suam, ovesque Laban avunculi sui, amovit lapidem quo puteus claudebatur.

Spanish

Cuando Jacob vio a Raquel, hija de Labán, el hermano de su madre, y vio también las ovejas de su tío Labán, se acercó, quitó la piedra de la boca del pozo y les dio de beber a las ovejas.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y sucedió que, como Jacob vió á Rachêl, hija de Labán hermano de su madre, y á las ovejas de Labán el hermano de su madre, llegóse Jacob, y removió la piedra de sobre la boca del pozo, y abrevó el ganado de Labán hermano de su madre.

English

As soon as Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his mother’s brother Laban, with Laban ’s sheep, he went up and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep.

✦ What the text says

Summary

Genesis 29:10 narrates that when Jacob saw Rachel, his uncle Laban's daughter, along with Laban's flock, he approached the well, rolled away the stone covering it, and watered the sheep. The verse repeats the identification of Laban as "brother of his mother" three times.

Key words

va.yiggash — from nagash (H5066G), qal narrative form: "he drew near" — marks Jacob's decisive action after seeing Rachel.
va.yagel — from galal ("to roll", H1556), qal narrative: "he rolled" — describes the physical removal of the stone.
va.yashk — hiphil (causative) narrative of the root behind H8248G, "he watered" — the causative stem indicates Jacob caused the sheep to drink, not that he drank himself.
'achi ("brother of", H0251G) — masculine singular construct, repeated three times in the verse, each time linked to 'immo ("his mother", H0517 + H9023 suffix).
bat ("daughter of", H1323G) — feminine singular construct, identifying Rachel's relationship to Laban.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative formula va.yehi ka'asher ("and it was, as/when") followed by ra'ah ("he saw", H7200G) in the qal perfect, establishing Jacob's act of seeing as the triggering event for the subsequent chain of actions. The object of seeing includes both Rachel (introduced by the direct object marker 'et, H0853) and, joined by the conjunction ve (H9002), "the sheep of Laban." This grammatical construction places Rachel and the flock as parallel objects of the same verb of perception.

The three narrative verbs that follow — va.yiggash ("he drew near"), va.yagel ("he rolled"), and va.yashk ("he watered") — are all connected by the narrative vav (H9001), forming a chain of sequential completed actions typical of Biblical Hebrew narrative syntax. The last verb, va.yashk, is in the hiphil stem, a causative form, showing that Jacob did not simply drink but caused the sheep to drink.

A notable repetition in the Hebrew is the phrase 'achi 'immo ("brother of his mother") applied to Laban three times within the verse (in reference to Rachel's parentage, the first mention of the sheep, and the final watering scene). This triple repetition emphasizes the kinship relationship at each stage of the action.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (VULCLEM) diverges notably from the Hebrew structure: it uses consobrinam suam ("his cousin") for Rachel rather than a literal "daughter of Laban, brother of his mother," and it reduces the triple Hebrew repetition of "brother of his mother" to a single mention, replacing the emphatic repetition with a more economical Latin phrasing. The LXX (LXXSWETE) preserves the repetition of "brother of his mother" (ἀδελφοῦ τῆς μητρὸς αὐτοῦ) in two of the three instances present in the Hebrew, omitting it once compared to the Masoretic Text's threefold repetition.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.