I think there's a bit of context that can be presented here.
Biblically, Shaggy R has the score on the exact verse, but in context the story goes like this: Jacob had left the home of his father Isaac, fearing the anger of his brother Esau from whom he had stolen a blessing of prosperity. Isaac had told him not to marry a Canaanite woman but instead go to the house of his mother's brother, Laban, and marry one of Laban's daughters. Sure enough, upon arriving he meets Rachael, daughter of Laban andfalls in love with her. Laban tells Jacob, that if he works 7 years for him, he shall be allowed to marry Rachael. But at the end of the 7 years, on the night of the wedding, Laban tricks him and marries him to the older daughter Leah. Upset, Jacob demands from Laban what he was promised, but Laban explains that tradition dictates the older daughter must be married first. Should Jacob want both he can marry Rachael in a week, but he is to do another 7 years of labor. He agrees, and Leah begins conceiving Jacob's children. Rachael, however appears to be barren, and so, she tells Jacob to have children with her servant so she can have a family. Here, we might imagine Jacob, tricked into the marriage with Leah, seeing Rachael angry and distraught, saying to this request: "I will do what you ask me to do, because of how I feel about you."
The next important thing to mention is a touch of John Darnielle context, and verges on interpretation of my own. The first is that this is the first love story in the bible that seems real. I mean, most of them are functions of God's promises or just happy little things where it hardly matters and the woman basically isn't there. John says, "All the relationships in the Bible prior to that are working relationships, but there’s people and love in this story." John mentions in the same interview* that there is a complication to both his feminism and his feelings about writing here. He mentions that this story is pretty blatantly patriarchal and seems to treat womanhood as being the same thing as giving birth, but also it uses a trope similar to the one where a g7uy does something rash for a girl showing his love, but we're supposed to applauding his self-destruction rather than think he's a psycho.
I think this has many of the elements of the regular Mountain Goats love songs here. Sadness underscored by love (or the other way around) the two of which are inseparable. Maybe things will get worse, but they're certainly bad and everyone's aware. He Contextualizes it with the tension of the first hard love story of genesis. The view seems like it may change from Rachael's to Jacob's, but it might be Rachael's throughout.
I think there's a bit of context that can be presented here.
Biblically, Shaggy R has the score on the exact verse, but in context the story goes like this: Jacob had left the home of his father Isaac, fearing the anger of his brother Esau from whom he had stolen a blessing of prosperity. Isaac had told him not to marry a Canaanite woman but instead go to the house of his mother's brother, Laban, and marry one of Laban's daughters. Sure enough, upon arriving he meets Rachael, daughter of Laban andfalls in love with her. Laban tells Jacob, that if he works 7 years for him, he shall be allowed to marry Rachael. But at the end of the 7 years, on the night of the wedding, Laban tricks him and marries him to the older daughter Leah. Upset, Jacob demands from Laban what he was promised, but Laban explains that tradition dictates the older daughter must be married first. Should Jacob want both he can marry Rachael in a week, but he is to do another 7 years of labor. He agrees, and Leah begins conceiving Jacob's children. Rachael, however appears to be barren, and so, she tells Jacob to have children with her servant so she can have a family. Here, we might imagine Jacob, tricked into the marriage with Leah, seeing Rachael angry and distraught, saying to this request: "I will do what you ask me to do, because of how I feel about you."
The next important thing to mention is a touch of John Darnielle context, and verges on interpretation of my own. The first is that this is the first love story in the bible that seems real. I mean, most of them are functions of God's promises or just happy little things where it hardly matters and the woman basically isn't there. John says, "All the relationships in the Bible prior to that are working relationships, but there’s people and love in this story." John mentions in the same interview* that there is a complication to both his feminism and his feelings about writing here. He mentions that this story is pretty blatantly patriarchal and seems to treat womanhood as being the same thing as giving birth, but also it uses a trope similar to the one where a g7uy does something rash for a girl showing his love, but we're supposed to applauding his self-destruction rather than think he's a psycho.
I think this has many of the elements of the regular Mountain Goats love songs here. Sadness underscored by love (or the other way around) the two of which are inseparable. Maybe things will get worse, but they're certainly bad and everyone's aware. He Contextualizes it with the tension of the first hard love story of genesis. The view seems like it may change from Rachael's to Jacob's, but it might be Rachael's throughout.