Bible Strands
Genesis 29:20
So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, yet it seemed but a few days because of his love for her.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jacob stands before Laban at the beginning of a labor contract to secure marriage to Rachel. The narrative places him at the outset of a seven-year service term before the wedding consummation.
The words — The phrase וַ/יִּהְי֤וּ בְ/עֵינָי/ו֙ כְּ/יָמִ֣ים (va/i.yih.Yu ve./'ei.Na/v ke./ya.Mim) literally renders "and they were in his eyes like days." It records Jacob’s subjective compression of time during his labor.
The thread — The text itself notes the seven-year term and the stated cause without further explanation. This observation of labor for a wife echoes the servitude recorded in Hosea 12:12 and aligns with the endurance principle in 1 Corinthians 13:7.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that stated devotion can alter perceived duration without changing objective reality. It requires the reader to observe how affection directly shapes labor without prescribing a moral rule.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.
Cross-references
- 1 Corinthians 13:7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
- Hosea 12:12 Jacob fled to the land of Aram and Israel worked for a wife—for a wife he tended sheep.
- Ephesians 5:2 and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.
- Song of Solomon 8:6 Set me as a seal over your heart, as a seal upon your arm. For love is as strong as death, its jealousy as unrelenting as Sheol. Its sparks are fiery flames, the fiercest blaze of all.
- Genesis 24:67 And Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah and took Rebekah as his wife. And Isaac loved her and was comforted after his mother’s death.
- Genesis 30:26 Give me my wives and children for whom I have served you, that I may go on my way. You know how hard I have worked for you.”
- 2 Corinthians 5:14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, therefore all died.