Laban in the Bible

Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban, and Laban ran out to the man at the spring.

Laban said, “Come, you who are blessed by the Lord. Why are you standing out here? I have prepared the house and a place for the camels.”

So the man came into the house, and Laban unloaded his camels and gave them straw and feed, and [he gave] water to [Eliezer to] wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him.

A meal was set before him, but he said, “I will not eat until I have said what I have to say.”

So Laban said, “Please speak.”

Laban and Bethuel answered, “This is from the Lord; we have no choice in the matter.

Isaac was 40 years old when he took as his wife Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram and sister of Laban the Aramean.

So now, my son, listen to me. Flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran,

Go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father. Marry one of the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.

So Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

“Do you know Laban grandson of Nahor?” Jacob asked them.

They answered, “We know him.”

As soon as Jacob saw his uncle Laban’s daughter Rachel with his sheep, he went up and rolled the stone from the opening and watered his uncle Laban’s sheep.

When Laban heard the news about his sister’s son Jacob, he ran to meet him, hugged him, and kissed him. Then he took him to his house, and Jacob told him all that had happened.

Laban said to him, “Yes, you are my own flesh and blood.”

After Jacob had stayed with him a month,

Laban said to him, “Just because you’re my relative, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”

Now Laban had two daughters: the older was named Leah, and the younger was named Rachel.

Jacob loved Rachel, so he answered Laban, “I’ll work for you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”

Laban replied, “Better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay with me.”

Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my time is completed. I want to sleep with her.”

So Laban invited all the men of the place to a feast.

That evening, Laban took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob, and he slept with her.

And Laban gave his slave Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her slave.

When morning came, there was Leah! So he said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Wasn’t it for Rachel that I worked for you? Why have you deceived me?”

Laban answered, “It is not the custom in this place to give the younger daughter in marriage before the firstborn.

And Jacob did just that. He finished the week of celebration, and Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife.

And Laban gave his slave Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her slave.

Jacob slept with Rachel also, and indeed, he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.

After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so that I can return to my homeland.

But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, stay. I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.”

Then Laban said, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”

But Jacob replied to Laban, "You know how I've served you and how your cattle thrived under my care.

Laban asked, “What should I give you?”

And Jacob said, “You don’t need to give me anything. If you do this one thing for me, I will continue to shepherd and keep your flock.

“Good,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.”

That day Laban removed the streaked and spotted male goats and all the speckled and spotted female goats—every one that had any white on it—and every dark-colored one among the lambs, and he placed his sons in charge of them.

He put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob. Jacob, meanwhile, was shepherding the rest of Laban’s flock.

Meanwhile, Jacob kept tending the rest of Laban's flock. Jacob took branches from white poplar trees, freshly cut almond trees, and some other trees, stripped off their bark to make white streaks, and uncovered the white part inside the branches.

Jacob separated the lambs and made the flocks face the streaked and the completely dark sheep in Laban’s flocks. Then he set his own stock apart and didn’t put them with Laban’s sheep.

As for the weaklings of the flocks, he did not put out the branches. So it turned out that the weak sheep belonged to Laban and the stronger ones to Jacob.

Now Jacob heard what Laban’s sons were saying: “Jacob has taken all that was our father’s and has built this wealth from what belonged to our father.”

And Jacob saw from Laban’s face that his attitude toward him was not the same.

"When Laban said, "The speckled ones will be your wages,' then all the flock gave birth to speckled ones. Then when he said, "The streaked ones will be your wages,' all the flock gave birth to streaked offspring.

And He said, ‘Look up and see: all the males that are mating with the flocks are streaked, spotted, and speckled, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you.

When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.

And Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean, not telling him that he was fleeing.

On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled.

so he took his relatives with him and pursued Jacob. Laban was on the road for seven days when he finally caught up with Jacob in the hill country of Gilead.

But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night. “Watch yourself!” God warned him. “Don’t say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”

When Laban overtook Jacob, Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban and his brothers also pitched their tents in the hill country of Gilead.

Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You have deceived me and taken my daughters away like prisoners of war!

And Jacob will answer and say to Laban, Because I was afraid; for I said, Lest thou wilt tear away my daughters from me;

So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, then Leah’s tent, and then the tents of the two female slaves, but he found nothing. Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s.

Now Rachel had taken Laban’s household idols, put them in the saddlebag of the camel, and sat on them. Laban searched the whole tent but found nothing.

She said to her father, “Sir, don’t be angry that I cannot stand up in your presence; I am having my period.” So Laban searched, but could not find the household idols.

Then Jacob became incensed and brought charges against Laban. “What is my crime?” he said to Laban. “What is my sin, that you have pursued me?

Then Laban answered Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters; the sons, my sons; and the flocks, my flocks! Everything you see is mine! But what can I do today for these daughters of mine or for the children they have borne?

Laban named the mound Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob named it Galeed.

Then Laban said, “This mound is a witness between you and me today.” Therefore the place was called Galeed

and Mizpah (watchtower), for Laban said, “May the Lord watch between you and me when we are absent from one another.

Laban also said to Jacob, “Look at this mound and the marker I have set up between you and me.

Laban got up early in the morning, kissed his grandchildren and daughters, and blessed them. Then Laban left to return home.

He commanded them, “You are to say to my lord Esau, ‘This is what your servant Jacob says. I have been staying with Laban and have been delayed until now.

These were the sons of Zilpah—whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah—that she bore to Jacob: 16 persons.

These were the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel. She bore to Jacob: seven persons.