Genesis 28–29

Jacob Searches for a Wife

28Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and commanded him, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman. ²Go to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father, in Northwest Mesopotamia. Laban, your mother’s brother, lives there. Marry one of his daughters. ³May God Almighty bless you and give you many children, and may you become a group of many peoples. ⁴May he give you and your descendants the blessing of Abraham so that you may own the land where you are now living as a stranger, the land God gave to Abraham.” ⁵So Isaac sent Jacob to Northwest Mesopotamia, to Laban the brother of Rebekah. Bethuel the Aramean was the father of Laban and Rebekah, and Rebekah was the mother of Jacob and Esau.

⁶Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Northwest Mesopotamia to find a wife there. He also learned that Isaac had commanded Jacob not to marry a Canaanite woman ⁷and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Northwest Mesopotamia. ⁸So Esau saw that his father Isaac did not want his sons to marry Canaanite women. ⁹Now Esau already had wives, but he went to Ishmael son of Abraham, and he married Mahalath, Ishmael’s daughter. Mahalath was the sister of Nebaioth.

Jacob’s Dream at Bethel

¹⁰Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. ¹¹When he came to a place, he spent the night there because the sun had set. He found a stone and laid his head on it to go to sleep. ¹²Jacob dreamed that there was a ladder resting on the earth and reaching up into heaven, and he saw angels of God going up and coming down the ladder. ¹³Then Jacob saw the Lord standing above the ladder, and he said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your grandfather, and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are now sleeping. ¹⁴Your descendants will be as many as the dust of the earth. They will spread west and east, north and south, and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. ¹⁵I am with you and will protect you everywhere you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

¹⁶Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, but I did not know it.” ¹⁷He was afraid and said, “This place frightens me! It is surely the house of God and the gate of heaven.”

¹⁸Jacob rose early in the morning and took the stone he had slept on and set it up on its end. Then he poured olive oil on the top of it. ¹⁹At first, the name of that city was Luz, but Jacob named it Bethel. ⁿ

²⁰Then Jacob made a promise. He said, “I want God to be with me and to protect me on this journey. I want him to give me food to eat and clothes to wear ²¹so I will be able to return in peace to my father’s house. If the Lord does these things, he will be my God. ²²This stone which I have set up on its end will be the house of God. And I will give God one-tenth of all he gives me.”

Jacob Arrives in Northwest Mesopotamia

29Then Jacob continued his journey and came to the land of the people of the East. ²He looked and saw a well in the field and three flocks of sheep lying nearby, because they drank water from this well. A large stone covered the mouth of the well. ³When all the flocks would gather there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well and water the sheep. Then they would put the stone back in its place.

⁴Jacob said to the shepherds there, “My brothers, where are you from?”

They answered, “We are from Haran.”

⁵Then Jacob asked, “Do you know Laban, grandson of Nahor?”

They answered, “We know him.”

⁶Then Jacob asked, “How is he?”

They answered, “He is well. Look, his daughter Rachel is coming now with his sheep.”

⁷Jacob said, “But look, it is still the middle of the day. It is not time for the sheep to be gathered for the night, so give them water and let them go back into the pasture.”

⁸But they said, “We cannot do that until all the flocks are gathered. Then we will roll away the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep.”

⁹While Jacob was talking with the shepherds, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, because it was her job to care for the sheep. ¹⁰When Jacob saw Laban’s daughter Rachel and Laban’s sheep, he went to the well and rolled the stone from its mouth and watered Laban’s sheep. Now Laban was the brother of Rebekah, Jacob’s mother. ¹¹Then Jacob kissed Rachel and cried. ¹²He told her that he was from her father’s family and that he was the son of Rebekah. So Rachel ran home and told her father.

¹³When Laban heard the news about his sister’s son Jacob, he ran to meet him. Laban hugged him and kissed him and brought him to his house, where Jacob told Laban everything that had happened.

¹⁴Then Laban said, “You are my own flesh and blood.”

Jacob Is Tricked

Jacob stayed there a month. ¹⁵Then Laban said to Jacob, “You are my relative, but it is not right for you to work for me without pay. What would you like me to pay you?”

¹⁶Now Laban had two daughters. The older was Leah, and the younger was Rachel. ¹⁷Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was very beautiful. ¹⁸Jacob loved Rachel, so he said to Laban, “Let me marry your younger daughter Rachel. If you will, I will work seven years for you.”

¹⁹Laban said, “It would be better for her to marry you than someone else, so stay here with me.” ²⁰So Jacob worked for Laban seven years so he could marry Rachel. But they seemed like just a few days to him because he loved Rachel very much.

²¹After seven years Jacob said to Laban, “Give me Rachel so that I may marry her. The time I promised to work for you is over.”

²²So Laban gave a feast for all the people there. ²³That evening he brought his daughter Leah to Jacob, and they had sexual relations. ²⁴(Laban gave his slave girl Zilpah to his daughter to be her servant.) ²⁵In the morning when Jacob saw that he had had sexual relations with Leah, he said to Laban, “What have you done to me? I worked hard for you so that I could marry Rachel! Why did you trick me?”

²⁶Laban said, “In our country we do not allow the younger daughter to marry before the older daughter. ²⁷But complete the full week of the marriage ceremony with Leah, and I will give you Rachel to marry also. But you must serve me another seven years.”

²⁸So Jacob did this, and when he had completed the week with Leah, Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as a wife. ²⁹(Laban gave his slave girl Bilhah to his daughter Rachel to be her servant.) ³⁰So Jacob had sexual relations with Rachel also, and Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah. Jacob worked for Laban for another seven years.

Jacob’s Family Grows

³¹When the Lord saw that Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah, he made it possible for Leah to have children, but not Rachel. ³²Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, ⁿ because she said, “The Lord has seen my troubles. Surely now my husband will love me.”

³³Leah became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She named him Simeon ⁿ and said, “The Lord has heard that I am not loved, so he has given me this son.”

³⁴Leah became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She named him Levi ⁿ and said, “Now, surely my husband will be close to me, because I have given him three sons.”

³⁵Then Leah gave birth to another son. She named him Judah, ⁿ because she said, “Now I will praise the Lord.” Then Leah stopped having children.