Jacob Meets Come to His Relatives' Family Tribe and Marries Laban's Two Daughters (Genesis 29:1-30). Jacob's Sons are Born (Genesis 29:31 to Genesis 30:24)
This covenant narrative reflects the fulfilment of Yahweh's promise of fruitfulness to Jacob and is based on the covenant significance of the names given to the sons. It is not just a story. The names reflect their covenant relationship with God.
But it is noteworthy that, in remarkable contrast to Genesis 24, there is no mention of God until we come to the birth of the sons. It is as though the writer is telling us that, although God's purposes came to fruition through it, God was not directly involved in the chicanery that took place. When Abraham's servant sought a wife for Isaac, he went about it prayerfully and waited for God to show His will through the acts of another catering to the needs of his beasts. Here we have no prayer and Jacob pre-empts the situation. The contrast could not be more stark.
Then fourteen years pass very quickly with Jacob's pursuits not worth a mention, the only point of importance being his two marriages that lead up to the birth of his sons. It is not so much concerned with the life of Jacob as with the heirs of the promise. Yahweh first steps in at Genesis 29:31. So the text is firmly based on covenant records.
‘Then Jacob went on his way and came to the land of the children of the East.'
“The children of the East.” A general term for people who came from lands to the East of Canaan. In 1 Kings 4:30 the children of the East are, along with Egypt, looked on as a source of wisdom (compare Matthew 2:1). This suggests reference to the peoples of the Mediterranean area. Job could also be called one of ‘the children of the East' (Job 1:3).
But the term is also used of peoples connected with the Amalekites and Midianites (Judges 6:3; Judges 7:12; Judges 8:10), with Moabites and Ammonites (Ezekiel 25:9-10), where they are probably unidentified groups of nomads banded together in an alliance (verse 4), and with Kedar (Jeremiah 49:28). It is therefore a term used to designate conglomerate peoples, without being too specific, with reference to their direction from Canaan. In this passage the reference is to the general area in which Haran is situated seen as part of the wider area of ‘Easterners'. (Compare the use of ‘Westerners' and ‘Orientals' today). Consider how the magi also came ‘from the East' (Matthew 2:1).