Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Genesis 29:27 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 27. 27Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Laban tells Jacob to complete Leah's wedding week, after which Rachel will also be given in exchange for another seven years of service. The proposal exploits Jacob's commitment while clarifying that the second marriage precedes the additional service.
Read It With
- Genesis 29:15–30
Read verses 25–30. Jacob's accusation prompts Laban's custom defense and new terms; Jacob completes the week, receives Rachel, and then serves seven more years. Reading verse 27 alone can mistake 'week' for another seven-year delay or treat the new bargain as freely equal.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Laban offers a remedy that also extracts another seven years, extending his economic control.
Read Genesis 29:25–27 together
Why these verses belong together: Morning discovery produces Jacob's accusation, Laban's firstborn-custom defense, and the proposal for a wedding week plus seven more years.
Verse 25. 25 And it came to pass, that in the morning, behold, it was Leah: and he said to Laban, What is this thou hast done unto me? did not I serve with thee for Rachel? wherefore then hast thou beguiled me?
Verse 26. 26 And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn.
Verse 27. 27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
Follow the Context
- Laban asks Jacob to name his wages, and the narrator introduces Leah and Rachel with birth-order and appearance distinctions (29:15–17).
- Jacob loves Rachel and offers seven years of service for Laban's younger daughter; Laban responds indirectly and tells him to remain (29:18–19).
- Jacob completes the seven years, which feel like a few days because of his love, and asks Laban to fulfill the marriage arrangement (29:20–21).
- Laban gathers the local men for a feast, brings Leah to Jacob in the evening, and gives Zilpah to Leah as a female servant (29:22–24).
- Morning reveals Leah. Jacob confronts Laban with the broken Rachel agreement and explicitly calls the act deception (29:25).
- Laban appeals to a local practice favoring the firstborn and offers Rachel after Leah's wedding week in exchange for seven additional years of service (29:26–27).
- Jacob completes the week, receives Rachel, and Laban gives Bilhah to Rachel as a female servant (29:28–29).
- Jacob consummates the second marriage, loves Rachel more than Leah, and serves Laban seven more years (29:30).
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“fulfil her week”
In plain language: Complete Leah's wedding week.
The immediate celebration must end before Rachel is given.
Why it matters: It distinguishes a one-week interval from the following seven years of work.
How certain? very strong“seven other years”
In plain language: Jacob must perform seven additional years of service.
The deception doubles the labor tied to the marriages.
Why it matters: The new term reveals Laban's continuing economic leverage.
How certain? very strongWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
Fulfil her week does not mean Jacob waited another seven years before marrying Rachel.
The second agreement does not prove that Jacob, Leah, or Rachel had equal bargaining power or freely preferred the arrangement.
Laban's offer does not undo the first deception or make the additional service automatically fair.
The verse does not authorize taking two sisters as rival wives or treating marriage as labor compensation.
What Remains True
A remedy offered by the person who created the crisis can still deepen dependency and exploitation; terms should be evaluated under the actual power imbalance.
How It Can Shape Life
- When correcting a broken agreement, restore the harmed party without using the crisis to extract additional labor, money, loyalty, silence, or relational control.
Teach It Back
Explain Genesis 29:27's contribution to Genesis 29:15–30. Include why the nearby verses are required, what the verse clearly says, and one conclusion it does not justify.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Genesis 29:15–30 — Laban Reverses Jacob's ExpectationsSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? very strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Displayed wording, unit boundary, agreement, service, daughters, feast, substitution, accusation, custom defense, wedding week, second marriage, later family movement, and canonical comparisons.
Exact location: Genesis 29:15–30 in the pinned eng-kjv2006 source; compared with Genesis 27; 29:31–30:24; 31:7, 36–42; Leviticus 18:18; Deuteronomy 24:14–15; and Matthew 1
Open source ↗hebrew text morphology and lemma data
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible — Genesis
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project
Open Scriptures, Version 2.2 released 2021; repository inspected 2026
Supports: Lexical range, literary repetition, agreement wording, deception, chronology, slavery language, and relational comparison.
Exact location: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible, wlc/Gen.xml, Genesis 29:15–30; wording and morphology for wages, older and younger, rakkot eyes, beautiful form and appearance, love, service, deception, firstborn, fulfil the week, handmaid, and comparative love
Open source ↗Translation and textual notes
NET Bible — Genesis with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, Digital edition accessed 2026
Supports: Translation alternatives, lexical uncertainty, agreement and chronology clarity, and restrained handling of historical reconstruction.
Exact location: NET Bible, Genesis 29:15–30 and translator notes, especially notes on Leah's eyes, Jacob's service arrangement, the morning discovery, younger and firstborn, wedding week, and comparative love
Open NET Genesis 29 ↗peer reviewed open access literary study
An Inverted Type-Scene? Setting Parameters around a Jacob Cycle Sister-Wife Story
Joshua Joel Spoelstra
Old Testament Essays 34.3, pages 681–695, 2021
Supports: Open peer-reviewed literary evidence for wife/sister, deception, labor, question-formula, and wider Jacob-cycle reversal, with the proposed type-scene kept secondary.
Exact location: Joshua Joel Spoelstra, Old Testament Essays 34.3 (2021), pages 681–695, especially the Genesis 29–31 inversion observations
Open source ↗modern scholarly open biblical marriage study
Bride-Price: The Story of Jacob's Marriage to Rachel and Leah
Kristine Henriksen Garroway
TheTorah.com SBL e-journal, 2020
Supports: Modern scholarly comparison of labor as bridal payment, agreement wording, marriage consummation, wedding week, Rachel's immediate marriage followed by debt service, and limits of the reconstruction.
Exact location: Kristine Henriksen Garroway, TheTorah.com, Bride-Price: The Story of Jacob's Marriage to Rachel and Leah, sections Marriage and Bride-Price, Marriage to Leah, and A Second Marriage in Reverse Order, inspected 2026-08-27
Open source ↗