Genesis 28 - 31 — Legacy Standard Bible

Jacob Is Sent to Laban

28So Isaac called Jacob and ^ablessed him and commanded him and said to him, “^bYou shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. ²“Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of ^aBethuel your mother’s father; and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother. ³“May ¹^,^aGod Almighty ^bbless you and ^cmake you fruitful and ^dmultiply you, that you may become an ^eassembly of peoples. ⁴“May He also give you the ^ablessing of Abraham, to you and to your seed with you, that you may ^bpossess the land of your ^csojournings, which God gave to Abraham.” ⁵Then ^aIsaac 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.

⁶And 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, “^aYou shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,” ⁷and that Jacob had listened to his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan-aram. ⁸So Esau saw that ^athe daughters of Canaan were displeasing ¹in the sight of his father Isaac; ⁹and Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife, ^abesides the wives that he had.

Jacob’s Dream

¹⁰Then Jacob departed from ^aBeersheba and went toward ^bHaran. ¹¹And he reached ¹a ^acertain place and spent the night there because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it ²under his head and lay down in that place. ¹²^aThen he had a dream, and behold, a ¹ladder stood on the earth with its top touching heaven; and behold, ^bthe angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ¹³And behold, ^aYahweh stood ¹above it and said, “I am Yahweh, ^bthe God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it ^cto you and to ^dyour seed. ¹⁴“And your seed will also be like ^athe dust of the earth, and you will ¹spread out ^bto the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and ^cin you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. ¹⁵“Behold, ^aI am with you and ^bwill keep you wherever you go. And ^cI will bring you back to this land; for ^dI will not forsake you until I have done what I have ¹promised you.” ¹⁶Then Jacob ^aawoke from his sleep and said, “^bSurely Yahweh is in this place, and I did not know it.” ¹⁷And he was afraid and said, “^aHow fearsome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

¹⁸So Jacob rose early in the morning and took ^athe stone that he had put ¹under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top. ¹⁹And he called the name of that place ¹^,^aBethel; however, ²previously the name of the city had been ^bLuz. ²⁰Then Jacob ^amade a vow, saying, “^bIf God will be with me and will keep me on this journey on which I am going, and will give me ¹^,^cfood to eat and garments to wear, ²¹and ^aI return to my father’s house in peace, ^bthen Yahweh will be my God. ²²“Now this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, ^awill be God’s house, and ^bof all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”

Jacob’s Love for Rachel

29Then Jacob ¹took up his journey and came to the land of ^athe sons of the east. ²And he looked, and behold, ^aa 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. ³And 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.

⁴And Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where are you from?” And they said, “We are from ^aHaran.” ⁵Then he said to them, “Do you know Laban the ^ason of Nahor?” And they said, “We know him.” ⁶And he said to them, “Is it well with him?” And they said, “It is well, and here is ^aRachel his daughter coming with the sheep.” ⁷And 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.” ⁸But 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.”

⁹While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. ¹⁰Now 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. ¹¹Then Jacob ^akissed Rachel and lifted his voice and wept. ¹²And Jacob told Rachel that he was a ¹^,^arelative of her father and that he was Rebekah’s son, and ^bshe ran and told her father.

¹³So it happened that when ^aLaban heard the report of Jacob his sister’s son, he ran to meet him, and he ^bembraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Then he recounted to Laban all these things. ¹⁴And Laban said to him, “Surely you are ^amy bone and my flesh.” And he stayed with him one month.

¹⁵Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my ¹relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall ^ayour wages be?” ¹⁶Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. ¹⁷And Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was ^abeautiful in form and beautiful in appearance. ¹⁸Now Jacob ^aloved Rachel, so he said, “^bI will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” ¹⁹And Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than to give her to another man; stay with me.” ²⁰So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they were in his sight but a few days ^abecause of his love for her.

Laban Deceives Jacob

²¹Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may ^ago in to her.” ²²And Laban gathered all the men of the place and made a feast. ²³Now it happened in the evening that he took his daughter Leah and brought her to him; and Jacob went in to her. ²⁴Laban also gave his servant-woman Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a servant-woman. ²⁵Now it happened in the morning that, behold, it was Leah! And he said to Laban, “^aWhat is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? Why then have you ^bdeceived me?” ²⁶But Laban said, “It is not ¹the 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 ^ayou shall serve with me for another seven years.” ²⁸And Jacob did so and fulfilled her week, and he gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife. ²⁹Laban also gave his servant-woman Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her servant-woman. ³⁰So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and indeed ^ahe loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with ¹Laban for ^banother seven years.

³¹And Yahweh saw that Leah was ¹unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. ³²So Leah conceived and bore a son and named him ¹Reuben, for she said, “Because Yahweh has ²^,^aseen my affliction; surely now my husband will love me.” ³³Then she conceived again and bore a son and said, “^aBecause Yahweh has ¹heard that I am ²unloved, He has therefore given me this son also.” So she named him Simeon. ³⁴And she conceived again and bore a son and said, “Now this time my husband will be ¹joined to me because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore he was named ^aLevi. ³⁵And she conceived again and bore a son and said, “This time I will ¹praise Yahweh.” Therefore she named him ²^,^aJudah. Then she stopped bearing.

The Sons of Jacob

30Then Rachel saw that ^ashe bore Jacob no children, so ¹she became jealous of her sister; and she said to Jacob, “^bGive me children, or else I die.” ²Then Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has ^awithheld from you the fruit of the womb?” ³And she said, “^aHere is my maidservant Bilhah, go in to her that she may ^bbear on my knees, that ¹^,^cthrough her I too may obtain children.” ⁴So ^ashe gave him her servant-woman Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. ⁵And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. ⁶Then Rachel said, “God has ¹^,^arendered justice to me and has indeed listened to my voice and has given me a son.” Therefore she named him ²Dan. ⁷And Rachel’s servant-woman Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. ⁸So Rachel said, “With ¹mighty wrestlings I have ²wrestled with my sister, and I have indeed prevailed.” And she named him Naphtali.

⁹Then Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, so she took her servant-woman Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. ¹⁰And Leah’s servant-woman Zilpah bore Jacob a son. ¹¹Then Leah said, “¹How fortunate!” So she named him ²Gad. ¹²And Leah’s servant-woman Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. ¹³Then Leah said, “¹Happy am I! For women ^awill call me happy.” So she named him ²Asher.

¹⁴And in the days of the wheat harvest, Reuben went and found ^amandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” ¹⁵But 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.” ¹⁶Then 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. ¹⁷And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. ¹⁸And Leah said, “God has given me my ¹wages because I gave my servant-woman to my husband.” So she named him Issachar. ¹⁹Then Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob. ²⁰And Leah said, “God has gifted me a good gift; this time my husband ¹will honor me because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun. ²¹Afterward she bore a daughter and named her Dinah.

²²Then ^aGod remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and ^bopened her womb. ²³So she conceived and bore a son and said, “God has ^ataken away my reproach.” ²⁴And she named him Joseph, saying, “^aMay Yahweh ¹give me another son.”

Jacob Names His Wages

²⁵Now it happened when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “^aSend me away, that I may go to my own place and to my own land. ²⁶“Give me my wives and my children ^afor whom I have served you, and let me go; for you yourself know my service which I have ¹rendered you.” ²⁷But Laban said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, stay with me; I have interpreted an omen ^athat Yahweh has blessed me on your account.” ²⁸And he continued to say, “^aName me your wages, and I will give it.” ²⁹But he said to him, “^aYou yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock have ¹fared with me. ³⁰“For you had little before ¹I came, but it has ^aspread out to a multitude, and Yahweh has blessed you ²at every step of mine. But now, when shall I provide for my own household also?” ³¹So 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: ³²let me pass through your entire flock today, removing from there every ^aspeckled and spotted sheep and every black ¹one 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 ¹wages. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, will be considered stolen.” ³⁴And Laban said, “Behold, ¹let it be according to your word.” ³⁵So 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 ¹care of his sons. ³⁶And he put a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob was pasturing the rest of Laban’s flocks.

³⁷Then Jacob ¹took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane trees, and he peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white which was ²in the rods. ³⁸And 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 ¹mated when they came to drink. ³⁹So the flocks ¹mated by the rods, and the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. ⁴⁰And Jacob separated the lambs, and he ¹made 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. ⁴¹Now it would be that, whenever the ¹stronger of the flock ²were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the sight of the flock in the trough, so that they might ³mate by the rods; ⁴²but when the flock was feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the ¹stronger Jacob’s. ⁴³So ^athe man ^bspread out exceedingly and had large flocks and female and male servants and camels and donkeys.

Jacob Leaves While Laban Is Gone

31Then ¹Jacob 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 ²wealth.” ²And Jacob saw the face of Laban, and behold, it was not friendly toward him as formerly. ³Then Yahweh said to Jacob, “^aReturn to the land of your fathers and to your kin, and ^bI will be with you.” ⁴So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to his flock in the field, ⁵and he said to them, “^aI see your father’s face, that it is not friendly toward me as formerly, but ^bthe God of my father has been with me. ⁶“^aYou also know that I have served your father with all my power. ⁷“Yet your father has ^acheated me and ^bchanged my wages ten times; however, ^cGod did not allow him to harm me. ⁸“If ^ahe 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 ^adelivered your father’s livestock and given them to me. ¹⁰“Now it happened at the time when the flock were ¹mating that I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats which were ²mating were striped, speckled, and mottled. ¹¹“Then ^athe 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 ¹mating are striped, speckled, and mottled; for ^aI have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. ¹³‘I am ^athe God of Bethel, where you ^banointed a pillar, where you made a vow to Me; now arise, ¹leave this land, and ^creturn to the land of your kin.’” ¹⁴Then 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 ^ahe has sold us and has also ¹entirely consumed ²our 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.”

¹⁷Then Jacob arose and put his children and his wives upon camels; ¹⁸and 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 ^ato go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac. ¹⁹Now Laban had gone to shear his flock. Then Rachel stole the ¹^,^ahousehold idols that were her father’s. ²⁰And Jacob ¹deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing. ²¹So he fled with all that he had; and he arose and crossed the ¹River and set his face toward the hill country of ^aGilead.

Laban Pursues Jacob

²²Then it was told to Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled; ²³so he took his ¹relatives with him and pursued him a distance of seven days’ journey, and he overtook him in the hill country of Gilead. ²⁴^aAnd God came to Laban the Aramean in a ^bdream of the night and said to him, “¹^,^cBeware lest you speak to Jacob either good or bad.”

²⁵So Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his ¹relatives camped in the hill country of Gilead. ²⁶Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done ¹by deceiving me and carrying away my daughters like captives of the sword? ²⁷“Why did you flee secretly and ¹deceive me and not tell me—so that I might have sent you away with gladness and with songs, with ^atambourine and with ^blyre— ²⁸and not allow me ^ato kiss my sons and my daughters? Now you have acted foolishly. ²⁹“It is in my hand to do evil against you, but ^athe God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘¹^,^bBeware 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 ^amy gods?” ³¹Then Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, because I said, ‘Lest you take your daughters from me by force.’ ³²“^aThe one with whom you find your gods shall not live; in the presence of our ¹relatives recognize what is yours ²among my belongings and take it for yourself.” But Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

³³So 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. ³⁴Now Rachel had taken the ¹household 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. ³⁵And she said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot ^arise before you, for the manner of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the ¹^,^bhousehold idols.

³⁶Then 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 ¹relatives and your ²relatives, 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 ¹heat consumed me and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. ⁴¹“These twenty years I have been in your house; ^aI served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you ^bchanged my wages ten times. ⁴²“If ^athe 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. ^bGod has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, so He ^crendered the decision last night.”

The Covenant at Mizpah

⁴³Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, and the children are my children, and ^athe 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 ^acut a covenant, ¹you and I, and ^blet it be a witness between ²you and me.” ⁴⁵Then Jacob took ^aa stone and raised it up as a pillar. ⁴⁶And Jacob said to his ¹relatives, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. ⁴⁷And Laban ^acalled it ¹Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it ²Galeed. ⁴⁸Then Laban said, “^aThis heap is a witness between ¹you and me this day.” Therefore it was named Galeed, ⁴⁹and ¹^,^aMizpah, for he said, “May Yahweh watch between ²you and me when we are ³absent 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, ^aGod is witness between ¹you and me.” ⁵¹And Laban said to Jacob, “Behold this heap and behold the pillar which I have set between ¹you 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“^aThe God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, ^bjudge between us.” So Jacob swore by ^cthe dread of his father Isaac. ⁵⁴Then Jacob ^aoffered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his ¹relatives to eat a ²meal; and they ate ³the meal and spent the night on the mountain. ⁵⁵¹And Laban arose early in the morning and ^akissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place.