Adam Clarke's Commentary:
And Jacob served seven years for Rachel.] In
ancient times it appears to have been a custom among all nations that
men should give dowries for their wives; and in many countries this
custom still prevails. When Shechem asked Dinah for wife, he said, Ask
me never so much-dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall
say unto me. When Eliezer went to get Rebekah for Isaac, he took a
profusion of riches with him, in silver, gold, jewels, and raiment, with
other costly things, which, when the contract was made, he gave to
Rebekah, her mother, and her brothers. David, in order to be Saul's
son-in-law, must, instead of a dowry, kill Goliath; and when this was
done, he was not permitted to espouse Michal till he had killed one
hundred Philistines. The Prophet Hosea bought his wife for fifteen
pieces of silver, and a homer and a half of barley. The same custom
prevailed among the ancient Greeks, Indians, and Germans. The Romans
also had a sort of marriage entitled per coemptionem, "by purchase." The
Tartars and Turks still buy their wives; but among the latter they are
bought as a sort of slaves.
Herodotus mentions a very singular custom among the Babylonians, which
may serve to throw light on Laban's conduct towards Jacob. "In every
district they annually assemble all the marriageable virgins on a
certain day; and when the men are come together and stand round the
place, the crier rising up sells one after another, always bringing
forward the most beautiful first; and having sold her for a great sum of
gold, he puts up her who is esteemed second in beauty. On this occasion
the richest of the Babylonians used to contend for the fairest wife, and
to outbid one another. But the vulgar are content to take the ugly and
lame with money; for when all the beautiful virgins are sold, the crier
orders the most deformed to stand up; and after he has openly demanded
who will marry her with a small sum, she is at length given to the man
that is contented to marry her with the least. And in this manner the
money arising from the sale of the handsome served for a portion to
those whose look was disagreeable, or who had any bodily imperfection. A
father was not permitted to indulge his own fancy in the choice of a
husband for his daughter; neither might the purchaser carry off the
woman which he had bought without giving sufficient security that he
would live with her as his own wife. Those also who received a sum of
money with such as could bring no price in this market, were obliged
also to give sufficient security that they would live with them, and if
they did not they were obliged to refund the money." Thus Laban made use
of the beauty of Rachel to dispose of his daughter Leah, in the spirit
of the Babylonian custom, though not in the letter.
And they seemed unto him but a few days] If Jacob had been obliged to
wait seven years before he married Rachel, could it possibly be said
that they could appear to him as a few days? Though the letter of the
text seems to say the contrary, yet there are eminent men who strongly
contend that he received Rachel soon after the month was finished, (see
Ge 29:14,) and then served seven years for her, which might really
appear but a few days to him, because of his increasing love to her; but
others think this quite incompatible with all the circumstances marked
down in the text, and on the supposition that Jacob was not now
seventy-seven years of age, as most chronologers make him, but only
fifty-seven, (see ACC for Ge 31:55,) there will be time sufficient to
allow for all the transactions which are recorded in his history, during
his stay with Laban. As to the incredibility of a passionate lover, as
some have termed him, waiting patiently for seven years before he could
possess the object of his wishes, and those seven years appearing to him
as only a few days, it may be satisfactorily accounted for, they think,
two ways: 1. He had the continual company of his elect spouse, and this
certainly would take away all tedium in the case. 2. Love affairs were
not carried to such a pitch of insanity among the patriarchs as they
have been in modern times; they were much more sober and sedate, and
scarcely ever married before they were forty years of age, and then more
for conveniency, and the desire of having an offspring, than for any
other purpose. At the very lowest computation Jacob was now fifty-seven,
and consequently must have passed those days in which passion runs away
with reason. Still, however, the obvious construction of the text shows
that he got Rachel the week after he had married Leah.
