And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had for her.
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George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
For Rachel. It was then the custom to buy or to pay a dowry for a wife. (Chap. xxxiv. 12; Osee iii. 2.) Herodotus says, i. 196, that the Babylonians sold their beautiful women as high as possible, and gave part of the price to help off the more deformed. The Turks do the like. (Calmet)
A few So highly did he esteem Rachel, that he thought he had obtained her for just nothing, though delays naturally seem long to lovers. (Tirinus)
Calmet supposes that he was married to her the second month after he arrived at Haran; and on this account, easily explains his words, as love made all labour tolerable, and even easy, in the enjoyment of the beautiful Rachel. Usher also places the birth of Ruben in the first year of Jacob's service, A. 2246. But Salien and the context decide, that he waited full seven years, and then obtained Lia, by fraud, of Laban; and seven days after, Rachel. (Haydock)
He was then 84 years old! (Du Hamel)
