References (47)
Rebekah had a brother named Laban, and Laban ran out to the man at the well.
Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, "We cannot speak evil or good of what comes from the Lord (Yahweh).
And it came to pass
(Hebr. vajehi) that Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah, daughter of the Aramean Bethuel from
Paddan-Aram and sister of the Aramean
Laban, as his wife.[This was the area around Haran in Upper Mesopotamia. Isaac lives to be 180 years old
(), which means that he still has 140 years left of his earthly life when he marries. In Jewish culture, men are around 18-20 and women are often 14-15 at the time of marriage, but life expectancy is 70-80 years.]
Therefore, my son, listen to my voice and get up, flee to Laban, my brother in Haran (Hebr. Charan),
Arise, go to Paddan-aram [in the north; upper Mesopotamia, present-day southeastern Turkey] to the house of Bethuel your mother's father, and take a wife from there, from the daughters of Laban your mother's brother. [Laban and Rebekah were siblings, and their father's name was Bethuel, see .]
And Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-Aram, to Laban the Aramean, the son of Bethuel and brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.
Then he asked them, "Do you know Laban (Hebr. Lavan, meaning "white"), the son of Nahor?" They replied, "We know him."
And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel, his uncle Laban's daughter, and his sheep, that Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well, and watered Laban's flock.
And it came to pass, when Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister's son, that he ran to meet him, embraced him, kissed him, and brought him to his house. And he recounted everything to Laban.
And Laban said to him, "Surely you are my bone and my flesh." And he stayed with him for a month.
And Laban said to Jacob, "Since you are my relative (brother – Hebr. ach), you shall not serve (work for, minister to – Hebr. avad) me for nothing. Tell me what wages I should give you."
[The word for to serve (Hebr. avad) means to cultivate and work (; ) but also to worship (). In Greek philosophy and thinking, which has greatly influenced the Western world, work is considered evil and the spiritual good. In the Bible, worship and work belong together.]
And Laban had two daughters, the older named Leah and the younger named Rachel.
Laban replied, "It is better that I give her to you than to give her to another man. Stay with me."
Then [seven years later] Jacob said to Laban, "Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in to her."
So Laban gathered all the men of the place and arranged (made) a feast.
And Laban gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a maid.
And it came to pass in the morning, that it was Leah; and he said to Laban, "What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve you for Rachel? Why have you deceived me?"
Laban replied, "It is not our custom to give the younger before the firstborn [older].
And Laban gave his servant Bilhah (meaning: troubled) as a servant to his daughter Rachel.
And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, "Send me away, that I may go to my place and to my country.
And Laban said to him, "If, I beg you, I have found favor (undeserved love – Hebr. chen) in your eyes, I have observed the signs, and the Lord (Yahweh) has blessed me for your sake."
And Laban said, "Let it be according to your word."
And he put three days' journey between himself and Jacob. And Jacob tended [took care of and looked after] the rest of Laban's flocks.
And Jacob separated the male lambs, and turned the faces of the flock toward the striped and all the dark ones in Laban's flock, and he placed his own flocks apart and did not place them in Laban's flock.
but when the flock was weak, he did not put them there. In this way, the weak ones became Laban's and the strong ones Jacob's.
Jacob heard Laban's sons say, "Jacob has taken everything our father owned. He has acquired all this wealth from what belongs to our father."
Jacob also noticed that Laban did not look at him in the same way as before (his attitude had changed).
Then he said, 'Look up and see how all the males that mate with the small livestock are streaked, speckled, and spotted. I have seen everything that Laban is doing to you.
But Laban had gone to shear his sheep. Then Rachel stole her father's household gods (Hebr. teraphim).
And Jacob slipped away from the Aramean Laban without telling him that he was going to flee.
On the third day, Laban was told that Jacob had fled.
But God came to the Aramean Laban in a dream at night and said to him, "Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, good or bad."
When Laban caught up with Jacob, he had set up camp on the mountain. Laban and his men also set up camp on the mountains of Gilead.
Then Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done? You have deceived me and carried off my daughters like captives taken by the sword.
Jacob replied to Laban, "I was afraid of you, because I thought you would take your daughters away from me by force (snatch them from me – Hebr. gazal).
Laban then went into Jacob's tent, and then into Leah's tent and the tents of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. When he came out of Leah's tent, he went into Rachel's tent.
But Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel's saddle and sat on them. Laban searched the whole tent without finding them.
Jacob became angry and quarreled with Laban, saying to him, "What is my offense, what is my sin, that you pursue me so fiercely?
Laban replied to Jacob, "The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks. Everything you see is mine. What could I do to my daughters or to the children they have borne?
Laban called it Jegar-Sahaduta, but Jacob called it Galed.
And Laban said, "This heap is a witness between me and you today." So it was named Galeed.
Laban further said to Jacob, "See this pile of stones and see this pillar that I have set up between me and you.
In the morning, Laban rose early, and after kissing his grandchildren and daughters and blessing them, he set out and returned home.
And he commanded them, saying, "Thus shall you say to my lord Esau: 'Thus says your servant Jacob: I have sojourned with Laban and stayed there until now.
These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah, and she bore them to Jacob—a total of 16 persons (souls, lives).
These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel, and whom she bore to Jacob—a total of 7 persons (souls, lives).
These are the words (Hebr. devarim) that Moses spoke to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan, in the wilderness of the Arava, opposite Zophim [probably the Gulf of Aqaba (Red Sea), also called the Reed Sea; Hebr. jam sof] between Paran and Tofel, and Laban and Chatsarot and Di-Zahav.
