Genesis 29:9

“And while he yet spake with them, etc.] While Jacob was thus discoursing with the shepherds: Rachel came with her father’s sheep; to water them at the well. She was within sight when Jacob first addressed the shepherds, but now she was come to the well, or near it, with the sheep before her: for she kept them: or “she was the shepherdess” f1467; the chief one; she might have servants under her to do some parts of the office of a shepherd, not so fit for her to do; it may be Laban’s sons, for some he had, (<013101>Genesis 31:1); were not as yet grown up, and Leah, the eldest daughter, having tender eyes, could not bear the open air, and light of the sun, nor so well look after the straying…”

“While he yet spake with them, Rachel came--Among the pastoral tribes the young unmarried daughters of the greatest sheiks tend the flocks, going out at sunrise and continuing to watch their fleecy charges till sunset. Watering them, which is done twice a day, is a work of time and labor, and Jacob rendered no small service in volunteering his aid to the young shepherdess. The interview was affecting, the reception welcome, and Jacob forgot all his toils in the society of his Mesopotamian relatives. Can we doubt that he returned thanks to God for His goodness by the way?”