Thematic Bible: Laban's treatment of jacob


Thematic Bible



And Jacob said to Laban, "Give [me] my wife, that I may go in to her, for {my time} is completed." So Laban gathered all the men of the place and prepared a feast. And it happened [that] in the evening he took Leah his daughter and brought her to him, and he went in to her. read more.
And Laban gave Zilpah his female servant to her, to Leah his daughter [as] a female servant. And it happened [that] in the morning, behold, it [was] Leah! And he said to Laban, "What [is] this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Now why did you deceive me?" Then Laban said, "{It is not the custom} in our country to give the younger before the firstborn. Complete the week of this one, then I will also give you the other, {on the condition that you will work for me} another seven years." And Jacob did so. So he completed the week of this [one], then he gave Rachel his daughter to him as a wife. And Laban gave Bilhah his female servant to Rachel his daughter as a female servant. Then he also went in to Rachel, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he served with him yet another seven years.

Then Jacob became angry and quarreled with Laban. Jacob answered and said to Laban, "What [is] my offense? What [is] my sin that you pursued after me? For you have searched all my possessions and what did you find among all the possessions of my household? Set it before my kinsmen and your kinsmen that they may decide between the two of us! These twenty years I [was] with you; your ewes and your female goats did not miscarry, and the rams of your flocks I did not eat. read more.
I brought no mangled carcass to you--I bore its loss. From my hand you sought it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. [There] I was, during the day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. 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 have changed my wages ten times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac had not been with me, indeed now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my misery and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night."