Study Desk

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.

So Jacob worked seven years for Rachel, and they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.

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.

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.

Reuben went out during the wheat harvest and found some mandrakes in the field. When he brought them to his mother Leah, Rachel asked, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

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.

Jacob separated the lambs and made the flocks face the streaked sheep 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.

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

Jacob had Rachel and Leah called to the field where his flocks were.

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.

So Jacob got up and put his children and wives on the camels.

He took all the livestock and possessions he had acquired in Paddan-aram, and he drove his herds to go to the land of Canaan, to his father Isaac.

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

He fled with all his possessions, crossed the Euphrates, and headed for the hill country of Gilead.

So he took his relatives with him, pursued Jacob for seven days, and overtook him in the hill country of Gilead.

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

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.”

Then Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a mound, then ate there by the mound.