Genesis 29:25

Summary

Genesis 29:25 narrates Jacob's discovery, at morning light, that the woman he had married was Leah rather than Rachel, followed by his direct confrontation of Laban with three rhetorical questions accusing him of deception.

Key words

• hi.neh ("there!", H2009) — an interjection marking a sudden perception; it introduces the shocking discovery, giving the narrative a vivid, present-tense immediacy even though the surrounding verbs are past narrative forms.
• 'a.Si.ta ("have you done", H6213A) — qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular, expressing a completed action already accomplished by Laban; combined with mah-zoT ("what — this", H4100 + H2063) it forms the accusatory question "what is this you have done to me?"
• 'a.Vad.ti ("have I served", H5647G) — qal perfect, 1st person singular, referring to Jacob's completed labor; the interrogative particle ha (H9008) prefixed to lo' ("not", H3808) turns the clause into a rhetorical question expecting a positive answer ("did I not serve...?").
• ri.mi.Ta ("have you deceived", H7411B) — piel perfect, 2nd person masculine singular; the piel stem intensifies the action compared to a simple qal, marking the deception as deliberate and forceful rather than incidental.
• le.'Ah ("Leah", H3812) — proper name functioning as the predicate of the clause hi' le'Ah ("she [was] Leah"), identifying the subject of the preceding hinneh.

What the text says

The verse divides into two movements joined by the narrative va ("and", H9001) chains typical of Biblical Hebrew storytelling. The first movement — va-y.Hi va.Bo.ker ve.hi.neh-hi' Le'ah — uses y.Hi ("it was", H1961) to set the temporal frame ("in the morning"), then shifts register with hi.neh to present the discovery from within the scene, as if the reader sees it through Jacob's eyes at that instant. The pronoun hi' ("she", H1931) plus the name Le'ah forms a simple nominal clause with no verb "to be" needed in Hebrew — identification is stated by mere juxtaposition.

The second movement records Jacob's speech to Laban, built from two consecutive perfect-tense rhetorical questions. The first, introduced by mah-zoT ("what is this", H4100/H2063), uses the qal perfect 'a.Si.ta to charge Laban with an already-completed act. The second question begins with the interrogative ha attached to the negation lo', a construction that presents an assertion as a question expecting agreement — "have I not served you for Rachel?" — reinforced by the qal perfect 'a.Vad.ti. The final question, ve.lam.mah rim.mi.ta.ni ("and why have you deceived me", H7411B), employs the piel stem for rimah, marking the deception as an intensified, deliberate action rather than a simple qal occurrence.

Differences between versions

The LXX inserts the name Ἰακὼβ ("Jacob") explicitly as the subject of "he said," where the Hebrew leaves the subject implicit in the verb i.Yo.mer ("he said", H0559) and identifies the speaker only through context. The Vulgate similarly supplies "ad socerum suum" ("to his father-in-law") instead of repeating the proper name la.Van ("Laban", H3837A) found in the Hebrew and the LXX's περὶ Ῥαχὴλ ("λαβάν").