Sense: to love
v. — to be enamored or in love with.
So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved (אהב) Rachel more than Leah. He served Laban for another seven years.
Gen 29:30 (NRSV)
References to a romantic kind of love (that is probably an anachronistic term) in the Bible are fewer than many people might expect. However, in the Bible Sense Lexicon entry for “to love,” we do see several references in Genesis that can help us to understand what love was like in the Bible. In Genesis 24:67, we read “Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent. He took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.” Here we find that love between spouses can be a source of great comfort. In Genesis 29, the chapter in which we find today’s example verse, we read that love is something so valuable that Jacob is willing to work quite a long time for it. Sadly, we also see the Hebrew word for “love” used in contexts where the lover is depraved as in the cases of Shechem (Gen 34:2-3) and Amnon (2 Sa 13:1ff). Outside of Genesis, Solomon’s “love” leads to idolatry and eventually the downfall of the kingdom (1 Kings 11:1ff). Love in the Bible can be either a wonderful gift or absolutely catastrophic.
What is the Bible Sense Lexicon?
Sense of the Day is based on content from Logos’ Bible Sense Lexicon, which organizes biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek words by meaning based on a variety of semantic relationships. Sense of the Day provides examples of senses in context, along with insight into their application for theology and interpretation.
The Bible Sense Lexicon is a Logos dataset available in Logos 5 Gold and higher base packages. If you’re enrolled in the Logos Academic Discount Program, you can also find the Bible Sense Lexicon in the Biblical Languages base package. Take your studies even further by exploring semantic domains, engaging the biblical text like never before.
Learn more about the Bible Sense Lexicon.