¹⁸ Jacob was in love with Rachel^(A) and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.”^(B)

Social Responsibility

¹⁶ “If a man seduces a virgin^(A) who is not pledged to be married and sleeps with her, he must pay the bride-price,^(B) and she shall be his wife. ¹⁷ If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he must still pay the bride-price for virgins.

¹² Make the price for the bride^(A) and the gift I am to bring as great as you like, and I’ll pay whatever you ask me. Only give me the young woman as my wife.”

² So I bought her for fifteen shekels^[a] of silver and about a homer and a lethek^[b] of barley.

¹⁴ Then David sent messengers to Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, demanding, “Give me my wife Michal,^(A) whom I betrothed to myself for the price of a hundred Philistine foreskins.”

⁴¹ It was like this for the twenty years^(A) I was in your household. I worked for you fourteen years for your two daughters^(B) and six years for your flocks,^(C) and you changed my wages^(D) ten times.^(E)

³⁰ Jacob made love to Rachel also, and his love for Rachel was greater than his love for Leah.^(A) And he worked for Laban another seven years.^(B)

²⁰ So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel,^(A) but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.^(B)