Study Desk

Then Jacob went on his way and came to the land of the people of the East [near Haran].

And he asked them, "Is it well with him?" And they said, "He is doing well; look, here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep!"

When Jacob saw [his cousin] Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and Laban's sheep, he came up and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered the flock of Laban, his uncle.

Then Jacob kissed Rachel [in greeting], and he raised his voice and wept.

When Laban heard of the arrival of Jacob, his sister's son, he ran to meet him, and embraced and kissed him and brought him to his house. Then he told Laban all these things.

So Jacob served [Laban] for seven years for [the right to marry] Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.

But in the evening he took Leah his daughter and brought her to Jacob, and Jacob went in to [consummate the marriage with] her.

Laban also gave Zilpah his maid to his daughter Leah as a maid.

So Jacob complied and fulfilled Leah's week [of celebration]; then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as his [second] wife.

Laban also gave Bilhah his maid to his daughter Rachel as a maid.

So Jacob consummated his marriage and lived with Rachel [as his wife], and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with Laban for another seven years.

Now at the time of wheat harvest Reuben [the eldest child] went and found some 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."

Then Leah said, "God has endowed me with a good [marriage] gift [for my husband]; now he will live with me [regarding me with honor as his wife], because I have given birth to six sons." So she named him Zebulun.

So on that same day Laban [secretly] removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one with white on it, and all the dark ones among the sheep, and put them in the care of his sons.

Jacob separated the lambs, and [as he had done with the peeled branches] he made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the dark or black in the [new] flock of Laban; and he put his own herds apart by themselves and did not put them [where they could breed] with Laban's flock.

So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to his flock in the field,

Then Jacob stood [and took action] and put his children and his wives on camels;

and he drove away all his livestock and [took along] all his property which he had acquired, the livestock he had obtained and accumulated in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.

When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel [went inside the house and] stole her father's household gods.

So he fled with everything that he had, and got up and crossed the river [Euphrates], and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead [east of the Jordan River].