Genesis 29:13 - Exposition

And it came to pass, when Laban heard the tidings (literally, heard the hearing , or thing heard , i . e . the report of the arrival) of Jacob his sister's son, —he acted very much as he did ninety-seven years before, when Abraham's servant came to woo his sister ( Genesis 14:20 , 30)— that (literally, and) he ran to meet him, and embraced him ,—so afterwards Esau did Jacob ( Genesis 33:4 ), and Jacob the two sons of Joseph ( Genesis 48:10 )— and kissed him, and brought him to his house —thus evincing the same kindness and hospitality that had characterized him on the previous occasion. And he (Jacob) told Laban all these things— what his mother bad instructed him to say to attest his kinship (Calvin); the things related in the immediate context (Keil); more likely the entire story of his life, and in particular of his exile from home, with its cause and object (Rosenmüller, Kalisch, Lange).