Genesis 28:1-9 - Jacob Flees To Haran

¹ So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him, "You must not marry a Canaanite woman! ² Leave immediately for Paddan Aram! Go to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and find yourself a wife there, among the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. ³ May the sovereign God bless you! May he make you fruitful and give you a multitude of descendants! Then you will become a large nation. ⁴ May he give you and your descendants the blessing he gave to Abraham so that you may possess the land God gave to Abraham, the land where you have been living as a temporary resident." ⁵ So Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean and brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

⁶ Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him off to Paddan Aram to find a wife there. As he blessed him, Isaac commanded him, "You must not marry a Canaanite woman." ⁷ Jacob obeyed his father and mother and left for Paddan Aram. ⁸ Then Esau realized that the Canaanite women were displeasing to his father Isaac. ⁹ So Esau went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Abraham's son Ishmael, along with the wives he already had.

¹ So Jacob moved on and came to the land of the eastern people. ² He saw in the field a well with three flocks of sheep lying beside it, because the flocks were watered from that well. Now a large stone covered the mouth of the well. ³ When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone off the mouth of the well and water the sheep. Then they would put the stone back in its place over the well's mouth.

⁴ Jacob asked them, "My brothers, where are you from?" They replied, "We're from Haran."

⁵ So he said to them, "Do you know Laban, the grandson of Nahor?" "We know him," they said.

⁶ "Is he well?" Jacob asked. They replied, "He is well. Now look, here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep." ⁷ Then Jacob said, "Since it is still the middle of the day, it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. You should water the sheep and then go and let them graze some more."

⁸ "We can't," they said, "until all the flocks are gathered and the stone is rolled off the mouth of the well. Then we water the sheep."

⁹ While he was still speaking with them, Rachel arrived with her father's sheep, for she was tending them. ¹⁰ When Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his uncle Laban, and the sheep of his uncle Laban, he went over and rolled the stone off the mouth of the well and watered the sheep of his uncle Laban. ¹¹ Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep loudly. ¹² When Jacob explained to Rachel that he was a relative of her father and the son of Rebekah, she ran and told her father.

¹³ When Laban heard this news about Jacob, his sister's son, he rushed out to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban how he was related to him.

¹⁴ Then Laban said to him, "You are indeed my own flesh and blood." So Jacob stayed with him for a month.