Genesis 28 - 31 - Legacy Standard Bible

Genesis 28 - 31

Jacob Is Sent to Laban

So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and commanded him and said to him, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. 2 Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother. 3 May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become an assembly of peoples. 4 May He also give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your seed with you, that you may possess the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Abraham.” 5 Then Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau. 6 And Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take for himself a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,” 7 and that Jacob had listened to his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan-aram. 8 So Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan were displeasing in the sight of his father Isaac; 9 and Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife, besides the wives that he had.

Jacob’s Dream

10 Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 And he reached a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head and lay down in that place. 12 Then he had a dream, and behold, a ladder stood on the earth with its top touching heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 And behold, Yahweh stood above it and said, “I am Yahweh, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your seed. 14 And your seed will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go. And I will bring you back to this land; for I will not forsake you until I have done what I have promised you.” 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How fearsome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” 18 So Jacob rose early in the morning and took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top. 19 And he called the name of that place Bethel; however, previously the name of the city had been Luz. 20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey on which I am going, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, 21 and I return to my father’s house in peace, then Yahweh will be my God. 22 Now this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”

Jacob’s Love for Rachel

Then Jacob took up his journey and came to the land of the sons of the east. 2 And he looked, and behold, a well in the field, and behold, three flocks of sheep were lying there beside it, for from that well they gave water to the flocks to drink. Now the stone on the mouth of the well was large. 3 And all the flocks would be gathered there, and they would roll the stone from the mouth of the well and give water to the sheep to drink and return the stone back to its place on the mouth of the well. 4 And Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where are you from?” And they said, “We are from Haran.” 5 Then he said to them, “Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?” And they said, “We know him.” 6 And he said to them, “Is it well with him?” And they said, “It is well, and here is Rachel his daughter coming with the sheep.” 7 And he said, “Behold, it is still high day; it is not time for the livestock to be gathered. Give water to the sheep to drink, and go, pasture them.” 8 But they said, “We cannot, until all the flocks are gathered, and they roll the stone from the mouth of the well; then we give water to the sheep to drink.” 9 While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. 10 Now it happened, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well and gave water to the flock of Laban his mother’s brother to drink. 11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted his voice and wept. 12 And Jacob told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and that he was Rebekah’s son, and she ran and told her father. 13 So it happened that when Laban heard the report of Jacob his sister’s son, he ran to meet him, and he embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Then he recounted to Laban all these things. 14 And Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh.” And he stayed with him one month. 15 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?” 16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 And Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and beautiful in appearance. 18 Now Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” 19 And Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than to give her to another man; stay with me.” 20 So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they were in his sight but a few days because of his love for her.

Laban Deceives Jacob

21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in to her.” 22 And Laban gathered all the men of the place and made a feast. 23 Now it happened in the evening that he took his daughter Leah and brought her to him; and Jacob went in to her. 24 Laban also gave his servant-woman Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a servant-woman. 25 Now it happened in the morning that, behold, it was Leah! And he said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? Why then have you deceived me?” 26 But Laban said, “It is not the practice in our place to give the younger before the firstborn. 27 Fulfill the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you shall serve with me for another seven years.” 28 And Jacob did so and fulfilled her week, and he gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife. 29 Laban also gave his servant-woman Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her servant-woman. 30 So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and indeed he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with Laban for another seven years. 31 And Yahweh saw that Leah was unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. 32 So Leah conceived and bore a son and named him Reuben, for she said, “Because Yahweh has seen my affliction; surely now my husband will love me.” 33 Then she conceived again and bore a son and said, “Because Yahweh has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also.” So she named him Simeon. 34 And she conceived again and bore a son and said, “Now this time my husband will be joined to me because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore he was named Levi. 35 And she conceived again and bore a son and said, “This time I will praise Yahweh.” Therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing.

The Sons of Jacob

Then Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, so she became jealous of her sister; and she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die.” 2 Then Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” 3 And she said, “Here is my maidservant Bilhah, go in to her that she may bear on my knees, that through her I too may obtain children.” 4 So she gave him her servant-woman Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. 5 And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6 Then Rachel said, “God has rendered justice to me and has indeed listened to my voice and has given me a son.” Therefore she named him Dan. 7 And Rachel’s servant-woman Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 So Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and I have indeed prevailed.” And she named him Naphtali. 9 Then Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, so she took her servant-woman Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 And Leah’s servant-woman Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 Then Leah said, “How fortunate!” So she named him Gad. 12 And Leah’s servant-woman Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 Then Leah said, “Happy am I! For women will call me happy.” So she named him Asher. 14 And in the days of the wheat harvest, Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” 15 But she said to her, “Is it a small matter for you to take my husband? And would you take my son’s mandrakes also?” So Rachel said, “Therefore he will lie with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.” 16 Then Jacob came in from the field in the evening. And Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have surely hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that night. 17 And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 And Leah said, “God has given me my wages because I gave my servant-woman to my husband.” So she named him Issachar. 19 Then Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob. 20 And Leah said, “God has gifted me a good gift; this time my husband will honor me because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun. 21 Afterward she bore a daughter and named her Dinah. 22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. 23 So she conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” 24 And she named him Joseph, saying, “May Yahweh give me another son.”

Jacob Names His Wages

25 Now it happened when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my own land. 26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you yourself know my service which I have rendered you.” 27 But Laban said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, stay with me; I have interpreted an omen that Yahweh has blessed me on your account.” 28 And he continued to say, “Name me your wages, and I will give it.” 29 But he said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock have fared with me. 30 For you had little before I came, but it has spread out to a multitude, and Yahweh has blessed you at every step of mine. But now, when shall I provide for my own household also?” 31 So he said, “What shall I give you?” And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this one thing for me, I will again pasture and keep your flock: 32 let me pass through your entire flock today, removing from there every speckled and spotted sheep and every black one among the lambs and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and such shall be my wages. 33 So my righteousness will answer for me later, when you come concerning my wages. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, will be considered stolen.” 34 And Laban said, “Behold, let it be according to your word.” 35 So he removed on that day the striped and spotted male goats and all the speckled and spotted female goats, every one with white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the care of his sons. 36 And he put a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob was pasturing the rest of Laban’s flocks. 37 Then Jacob took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane trees, and he peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white which was in the rods. 38 And he set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the trough, that is, in the watering channels, where the flocks came to drink; and they mated when they came to drink. 39 So the flocks mated by the rods, and the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. 40 And Jacob separated the lambs, and he made the flocks face toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban; and he set his own herds apart and did not set them with Laban’s flock. 41 Now it would be that, whenever the stronger of the flock were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the sight of the flock in the trough, so that they might mate by the rods; 42 but when the flock was feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s. 43 So the man spread out exceedingly and had large flocks and female and male servants and camels and donkeys.

Jacob Leaves While Laban Is Gone

Then Jacob heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken away all that belonged to our father, and from what belonged to our father he has made all this wealth.” 2 And Jacob saw the face of Laban, and behold, it was not friendly toward him as formerly. 3 Then Yahweh said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kin, and I will be with you.” 4 So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to his flock in the field, 5 and he said to them, “I see your father’s face, that it is not friendly toward me as formerly, but the God of my father has been with me. 6 You also know that I have served your father with all my power. 7 Yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times; however, God did not allow him to harm me. 8 If he spoke thus, ‘The speckled shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore speckled; and if he spoke thus, ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore striped. 9 Thus God has delivered your father’s livestock and given them to me. 10 Now it happened at the time when the flock were mating that I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats which were mating were striped, speckled, and mottled. 11 Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’ 12 He said, ‘Lift up now your eyes and see that all the male goats which are mating are striped, speckled, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you made a vow to Me; now arise, leave this land, and return to the land of your kin.’” 14 Then Rachel and Leah said to him, “Do we still have any portion or inheritance in our father’s house? 15 Are we not counted by him as foreigners? For he has sold us and has also entirely consumed our purchase price. 16 Surely all the riches which God has delivered over to us from our father belong to us and our children; now then, do whatever God has said to you.” 17 Then Jacob arose and put his children and his wives upon camels; 18 and he drove away all his livestock and all his possessions which he had accumulated, his acquired livestock which he had accumulated in Paddan-aram, in order to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac. 19 Now Laban had gone to shear his flock. Then Rachel stole the household idols that were her father’s. 20 And Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing. 21 So he fled with all that he had; and he arose and crossed the River and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.

Laban Pursues Jacob

22 Then it was told to Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled; 23 so he took his relatives with him and pursued him a distance of seven days’ journey, and he overtook him in the hill country of Gilead. 24 And God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream of the night and said to him, “Beware lest you speak to Jacob either good or bad.” 25 So Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his relatives camped in the hill country of Gilead. 26 Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done by deceiving me and carrying away my daughters like captives of the sword? 27 Why did you flee secretly and deceive me and not tell me—so that I might have sent you away with gladness and with songs, with tambourine and with lyre— 28 and not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now you have acted foolishly. 29 It is in my hand to do evil against you, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Beware of speaking either good or evil to Jacob.’ 30 So now you have indeed gone away because you longed greatly for your father’s house; but why did you steal my gods?” 31 Then Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, because I said, ‘Lest you take your daughters from me by force.’ 32 The one with whom you find your gods shall not live; in the presence of our relatives recognize what is yours among my belongings and take it for yourself.” But Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them. 33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two maidservants, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent. 34 Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them in the camel’s saddle, and she sat on them. And Laban felt through all the tent but did not find them. 35 And she said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the household idols. 36 Then Jacob became angry and contended with Laban; and Jacob answered and said to Laban, “What is my transgression? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me? 37 Though you have felt through all my goods, what have you found of all your household goods? Place it here before my relatives and your relatives, that they may decide between us two. 38 These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the rams of your flocks. 39 That which was torn of beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it myself. You required it of my hand whether stolen by day or stolen by night. 40 Thus I was: by day the heat consumed me and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. 41 These twenty years I have been in your house; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you changed my wages ten times. 42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the dread of Isaac, had not been for me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, so He rendered the decision last night.”

The Covenant at Mizpah

43 Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, and the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to these daughters of mine or to their children whom they have borne? 44 So now come, let us cut a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and me.” 45 Then Jacob took a stone and raised it up as a pillar. 46 And Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. 47 And Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. 48 Then Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me this day.” Therefore it was named Galeed, 49 and Mizpah, for he said, “May Yahweh watch between you and me when we are absent one from the other. 50 If you afflict my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.” 51 And Laban said to Jacob, “Behold this heap and behold the pillar which I have set between you and me. 52 This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass by this heap to you for harm, and you will not pass by this heap and this pillar to me for harm. 53 The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Jacob swore by the dread of his father Isaac. 54 Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his relatives to eat a meal; and they ate the meal and spent the night on the mountain. 55 And Laban arose early in the morning and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place.