Study Desk

Then Jacob made a vow: “If God will be with me and watch over me during this journey I’m making, if he provides me with food to eat and clothing to wear,

and if I return safely to my father’s family, then the Lord will be my God.

Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; yes, he has heard me and given me a son,” so she named him Dan.

Rachel said, “In my wrestlings with God, I have wrestled with my sister and won,” and she named him Naphtali.

God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.

Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my slave to my husband,” and she named him Issachar.

“God has given me a good gift,” Leah said. “This time my husband will honor me because I have borne six sons for him,” and she named him Zebulun.

Then God remembered Rachel. He listened to her and opened her womb.

She conceived and bore a son, and she said, “God has taken away my disgrace.”

He said to them, “I can see from your father’s face that his attitude toward me is not the same as before, but the God of my father has been with me.

and that he has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God has not let him harm me.

God has taken away your father’s herds and given them to me.

In that dream the angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’

I am the God of Bethel, where you poured oil on the stone marker and made a solemn vow to me. Get up, leave this land, and return to your native land.’”

In fact, all the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. So do whatever God has said to you.”

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.”

I could do you great harm, but last night the God of your father said to me: ‘Watch yourself! Don’t say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’

If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, certainly now you would have sent me off empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and my hard work, and he issued his verdict last night.”

If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives, though no one is with us, understand that God will be a witness between you and me.”

The God of Abraham, and the gods of Nahor—the gods of their father—will judge between us.” And Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac.