(The name comes from the Hebrew word "lavan", which means "white" in English.)
Laban was the son of Bethuel, and brother of Rebekah.
(24:29) He was also the uncle of Jacob (Rebekah's son).
He was an Aramean. (25:20, 31:20,24)
Laban first lived in the city of Nahor in the land of
Mesopotamia. He lived with his sister Rebekah. One day, Abraham's servant came
to Mesopotamia. He had been sent by Abraham to find a non-Cananite wife for
Abraham's son, Isaac. He met Rebekah. Rebekah let him stay at Laban's house. The
servant went to Laban, and told him the purpose of his visit. Laban agreed to
let the servant take Rebekah to be Isaac's wife. Rebekah agreed to go. (chapter 24)
Later, Laban lived in the city of Haran in the area of
Padanaram in the land of Mesopotamia. He had two daughters. The older daughter
was Leah, and the younger daughter was Rachel. Jacob came to Haran to visit
Laban. Jacob fell in love with Rachel, and he wanted to marry her. In order to
earn Rachel as a wife, Jacob agreed to work for Laban for seven years. (29:1-19)
Jacob worked the seven years, and at the end, Laban
agreed to give him Rachel. But that evening, when it was dark, he secretly he
got Leah, and brought her to Jacob to be a wife. In the darkness of the
night, Jacob had sex with the woman whom he thought was Rachel. (29:20-23)
The next morning, Jacob found that he had been tricked.
He had married Leah, not Rachel. He confronted Laban. Laban said "In our
country, it is not right to marry off the younger sister before the older one.
You can still have Rachel if you work for me for another seven years."
Jacob agreed, and worked for Laban for another seven years. At the end of the
seven years, he married Rachel. (29:25-28)
Years later, after Leah and Rachel had borne Jacob
several children, Jacob told Laban "I'm going to take my family and go home
to Canaan." Laban didn't want to lose his daughters, but he reluctantly
agreed. Laban allowed Jacob to take all the speckled animals from his flock. He
tried to cheat Jacob by hiding them. But Jacob got the pure-colored animals to
breed, causing more spotted animals. Jacob was rich. (30:25-43)
Jacob took his wives, children, flocks, etc., and left
home for Canaan. As they left, Rachel stole Laban's household idols of his gods.
When Laban learned that Jacob had left, he took his men and chased Jacob. He
wanted to say good-bye to his family, and also to get his idols back.
He overtook Jacob in the mountainous area of Gilead.
Jacob didn't know that Rachel took the idols, and he allowed Laban to search his
people for them. Laban searched for the idols, but he couldn't find them.
(Rachel was sitting on them.)
Jacob and Laban made a pact not to hurt each other
again. They set up a heap of stones as a testimony to their peace treaty, and as
a boundary between their two countries. The place where the stones are set up
was called Mizpah. The heap itself was called Galeed by Jacob, and
Jegar-Sahadutha by Laban. Laban said good-bye to his daughters, and went home.
(chapter 31)
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