Genesis 29:24

Plain English Version

The next morning, Jacob saw that Leah was in his room, instead of Rachel. So Jacob was angry, and he went and talked to Laban. Jacob said, “You told me that I have to work for you for 7 years, and then I can marry Rachel. So I worked those 7 years, just like you said, but then you tricked me. You gave me Leah to be my wife, instead of Rachel. Why did you do that bad thing to me?” Laban said, “Leah is my older daughter, and Rachel is my younger daughter. In our culture, the older daughter always gets married first. That’s the reason why I gave you Leah to be your wife, instead of Rachel.” Then Laban said, “Listen, your wedding party will finish in one week. So spend this week with Leah, and after that, I will give you Rachel to marry as well. But after you marry Rachel, you have to work for me for 7 more years.” Jacob agreed to do what Laban said. After one week, Jacob and Leah’s wedding party finished. Then Laban gave his daughter Rachel to Jacob, and Jacob married Rachel as well. And Jacob slept with Rachel, like a man sleeps with his wife. So then Jacob had 2 wives, but he loved Rachel more than Leah. Laban had some women that worked for him. And Laban gave one of those women to his daughter Leah, to work for her, and he gave another of those women to his daughter Rachel, to work for her. The woman that worked for Leah was called Zilpah, and the woman that worked for Rachel was called Bilhah. Then Jacob worked for Laban for 7 more years.

Cross References

Genesis 16:1

Abram and Sarai lived in that Canaan country, and after they were there for 10 years, they still had no kids. Sarai had a woman from Egypt working for her, called Hagar. She was Sarai’s slave. That means Sarai owned Hagar, and Hagar had to do everything that Sarai told her to do. Sarai was sad because she had no kids, but she got an idea about how to get a baby for herself. So she said to Abram, “God has stopped me from having my own kids. But listen. I want you to sleep with Hagar, like she is your wife. You see, she belongs to me, so if she has a baby, that baby will really belong to me.” So Abram did that, just like Sarai said.

Genesis 24:59

So Rebekah’s family said to Abraham’s worker, “All right, Rebekah can go with you and your men to Canaan country now. And she can take some women that work for our family. They can live in Canaan country with her and work for her there.” One of those women used to look after Rebekah when she was a little girl.

Genesis 29:23

But then, that night, Laban tricked Jacob. Laban took his daughter Leah to Jacob’s room, instead of his daughter Rachel. Then Jacob slept with Leah, like a man sleeps with his wife. But Jacob didn’t know that he slept with Leah. He thought that he slept with Rachel.

Genesis 35:26

Leah’s working woman Zilpah, she had 2 sons, – Gad – Asher All those men were Jacob’s sons. Jacob’s sons were born at the time when Jacob lived in Paddan Aram country. Jacob’s other name was Israel.

Genesis 46:18

Those were the kids and grand-kids that Jacob had with Zilpah. There were 16 of them. That woman Zilpah, she used to work for Leah’s father Laban. Then, at the time when Jacob and Leah got married, Laban gave Zilpah to Leah, to work for her.