Jacob’s meeting Rachel at a well in Gen. 29 is a direct recapitulation of Isaac’s servant’s encounter with Rebekah just five chapters earlier. In both accounts the promised son is taking his cousin for a wife, and in both accounts the woman is very beautiful.
Unfortunately for Jacob, Laban deceives him, giving him the wrong daughter in marriage. Jacob wanted the younger, but the older, weaker daughter would have been skipped, and this was not something Laban could allow for. Laban, like Isaac, wants the firstborn to receive the blessing.
The two wives begin competing with each other, however, and as they employ their own cunning, as well as their handmaidens to produce children, we see that Jacob is a new and accelerated Abraham. He will also go on to be the “big daddy” of the tribes of Israel with the promised son who is persecuted by the other siblings.
Wedgewords 