Genesis 29:6

Is he well?— In the margin of our Bibles it is, Is there peace to him? which is agreeable to the Hebrew. Peace, with them, was a word comprehensive of all happiness; hence used in salutation, See Luke 10:5; Luke 24:36. John 20:19. Pax (peace) is sometimes used in the same sense by the Latins;* and very frequently ειρηνη, (peace) in the New Testament.† Rachel, in the Hebrew, signifies a sheep. It was common with the ancients, who held all rural employments in great honour, to take their names from the animals they tended: thus at Rome there were the families of the Porcii, Ovilii, Caprilii, Equitii, Tauri, &c. Rachel can scarce be supposed to have been alone in her attendance upon the flocks; some of her father's servants, no doubt, accompanied her.

*——"Tu munera supplex Trende, petens pacem." VIRG. Georg. IV. v. 534. "Thou suppliant offer gifts, and sue for peace." WARTON. † Grace and peace is the usual apostolical blessing.