Bible-Reading.comGenesis 28
1So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. “Do not take a wife from the Canaanite women,” he commanded.
2“Go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel, and take a wife from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.
3May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, so that you may become a company of peoples.
4And may He give the blessing of Abraham to you and your descendants, so that you may possess the land where you dwell as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.”
5So Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.
6Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to take a wife there, commanding him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,”
7and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and gone to Paddan-aram.
8And seeing that his father Isaac disapproved of the Canaanite women,
9Esau went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael, in addition to the wives he already had.
10Meanwhile Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran.
11On reaching a certain place, he spent the night there because the sun had set. And taking one of the stones from that place, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.
12And Jacob had a dream about a ladder that rested on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven, and God’s angels were going up and down the ladder.
13And there at the top the LORD was standing and saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you now lie.
14Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and east and north and south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.
15Look, I am with you, and I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
16When Jacob woke up, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was unaware of it.”
17And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven!”
18Early the next morning, Jacob took the stone that he had placed under his head, and he set it up as a pillar. He poured oil on top of it,
19and he called that place Bethel, though previously the city had been named Luz.
20Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and watch over me on this journey, and if He will provide me with food to eat and clothes to wear,
21so that I may return safely to my father’s house, then the LORD will be my God.
22And this stone I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give You a tenth.”
Genesis 29
1Jacob resumed his journey and came to the land of the people of the east.
2He looked and saw a well in the field, and near it lay three flocks of sheep, because the sheep were watered from this well. And a large stone covered the mouth of the well.
3When all the flocks had been gathered there, the shepherds would roll away the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the mouth of the well.
4“My brothers,” Jacob asked the shepherds, “where are you from?” “We are from Haran,” they answered.
5“Do you know Laban the grandson of Nahor?” Jacob asked. “We know him,” they replied.
6“Is he well?” Jacob inquired. “Yes,” they answered, “and here comes his daughter Rachel with his sheep.”
7“Look,” said Jacob, “it is still broad daylight; it is not yet time to gather the livestock. Water the sheep and take them back to pasture.”
8But they replied, “We cannot, until all the flocks have been gathered and the stone has been rolled away from the mouth of the well. Then we will water the sheep.”
9While he was still speaking with them, Rachel arrived with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess.
10As soon as Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his mother’s brother Laban, with Laban’s sheep, he went up and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep.
11Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud.
12He told Rachel that he was Rebekah’s son, a relative of her father, and she ran and told her father.
13When Laban heard the news about his sister’s son Jacob, he ran out to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, where Jacob told him all that had happened.
14Then Laban declared, “You are indeed my own flesh and blood.” After Jacob had stayed with him a month,
15Laban said to him, “Just because you are my relative, should you work for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”
16Now Laban had two daughters; the older was named Leah, and the younger was named Rachel.
17Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was shapely and beautiful.
18Since Jacob loved Rachel, he answered, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”
19Laban replied, “Better that I give her to you than to another. Stay here with me.”
20So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, yet it seemed but a few days because of his love for her.
21Finally Jacob said to Laban, “Grant me my wife, for my time is complete, and I want to sleep with her.”
22So Laban invited all the men of that place and prepared a feast.
23But when evening came, Laban took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob, and he slept with her.
24And Laban gave his servant girl Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her maidservant.
25When morning came, there was Leah! “What have you done to me?” Jacob said to Laban. “Wasn’t it for Rachel that I served you? Why have you deceived me?”
26Laban replied, “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older.
27Finish this week’s celebration, and we will give you the younger one in return for another seven years of work.”
28And Jacob did just that. He finished the week’s celebration, and Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife.
29Laban also gave his servant girl Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maidservant.
30Jacob slept with Rachel as well, and indeed, he loved Rachel more than Leah. So he worked for Laban another seven years.
31When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren.
32And Leah conceived and gave birth to a son, and she named him Reuben, for she said, “The LORD has seen my affliction. Surely my husband will love me now.”
33Again she conceived and gave birth to a son, and she said, “Because the LORD has heard that I am unloved, He has given me this son as well.” So she named him Simeon.
34Once again Leah conceived and gave birth to a son, and she said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” So he was named Levi.
35And once more she conceived and gave birth to a son and said, “This time I will praise the LORD.” So she named him Judah. Then Leah stopped having children.
Genesis 30
1When Rachel saw that she was not bearing any children for Jacob, she envied her sister. “Give me children, or I will die!” she said to Jacob.
2Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld children from you?”
3Then she said, “Here is my maidservant Bilhah. Sleep with her, that she may bear children for me, so that through her I too can build a family.”
4So Rachel gave Jacob her servant Bilhah as a wife, and he slept with her,
5and Bilhah conceived and bore him a son.
6Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; He has heard my plea and given me a son.” So she named him Dan.
7And Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.
8Then Rachel said, “In my great struggles, I have wrestled with my sister and won.” So she named him Naphtali.
9When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she gave her servant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife.
10And Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son.
11Then Leah said, “How fortunate!” So she named him Gad.
12When Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son,
13Leah said, “How happy I am! For the women call me happy.” So she named him Asher.
14Now during the wheat harvest, Reuben went out and found some mandrakes in the field. When he brought them to his mother, Rachel begged Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
15But Leah replied, “Is it not enough that you have taken away my husband? Now you want to take my son’s mandrakes as well?” “Very well,” said Rachel, “he may sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”
16When Jacob came in from the field that evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come with me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night.
17And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore a fifth son to Jacob.
18Then Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my maidservant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar.
19Again Leah conceived and bore a sixth son to Jacob.
20“God has given me a good gift,” she said. “This time my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” And she named him Zebulun.
21After that, Leah gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.
22Then God remembered Rachel. He listened to her and opened her womb,
23and she conceived and gave birth to a son. “God has taken away my shame,” she said.
24She named him Joseph, and said, “May the LORD add to me another son.”
25Now after Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so I can return to my homeland.
26Give me my wives and children for whom I have served you, that I may go on my way. You know how hard I have worked for you.”
27But Laban replied, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you.”
28And he added, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”
29Then Jacob answered, “You know how I have served you and how your livestock have thrived under my care.
30Indeed, you had very little before my arrival, but now your wealth has increased many times over. The LORD has blessed you wherever I set foot. But now, when may I also provide for my own household?”
31“What can I give you?” Laban asked. “You do not need to give me anything,” Jacob replied. “If you do this one thing for me, I will keep on shepherding and keeping your flocks.
32Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb, and every spotted or speckled goat. These will be my wages.
33So my honesty will testify for me when you come to check on my wages in the future. If I have any goats that are not speckled or spotted, or any lambs that are not dark-colored, they will be considered stolen.”
34“Agreed,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.”
35That very day Laban removed all the streaked or spotted male goats and every speckled or spotted female goat—every one that had any white on it—and every dark-colored lamb, and he placed them under the care of his sons.
36Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob was shepherding the rest of Laban’s flocks.
37Jacob, however, took fresh branches of poplar, almond, and plane trees, and peeled the bark, exposing the white inner wood of the branches.
38Then he set the peeled branches in the watering troughs in front of the flocks coming in to drink. So when the flocks were in heat and came to drink,
39they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted.
40Jacob set apart the young, but made the rest face the streaked dark-colored sheep in Laban’s flocks. Then he set his own stock apart and did not put them with Laban’s animals.
41Whenever the stronger females of the flock were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs, in full view of the animals, so that they would breed in front of the branches.
42But if the animals were weak, he did not set out the branches. So the weaker animals went to Laban and the stronger ones to Jacob.
43Thus Jacob became exceedingly prosperous. He owned large flocks, maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys.
Genesis 31
1Now Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken away all that belonged to our father and built all this wealth at our father’s expense.”
2And Jacob saw from the countenance of Laban that his attitude toward him had changed.
3Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”
4So Jacob sent word and called Rachel and Leah to the field where his flocks were,
5and he told them, “I can see from your father’s countenance that his attitude toward me has changed; but the God of my father has been with me.
6You know that I have served your father with all my strength.
7And although he has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, God has not allowed him to harm me.
8If he said, ‘The speckled will be your wages,’ then the whole flock bore speckled offspring. If he said, ‘The streaked will be your wages,’ then the whole flock bore streaked offspring.
9Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me.
10When the flocks were breeding, I saw in a dream that the streaked, spotted, and speckled males were mating with the females.
11In that dream the angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ And I replied, ‘Here I am.’
12‘Look up,’ he said, ‘and see that all the males that are mating with the flock are streaked, spotted, or speckled; for I have seen all that Laban has done to you.
13I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and made a solemn vow to Me. Now get up and leave this land at once, and return to your native land.’”
14And Rachel and Leah replied, “Do we have any portion or inheritance left in our father’s house?
15Are we not regarded by him as outsiders? Not only has he sold us, but he has certainly squandered what was paid for us.
16Surely all the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. So do whatever God has told you.”
17Then Jacob got up and put his children and his wives on camels,
18and he drove all his livestock before him, along with all the possessions he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land in Canaan.
19Now while Laban was out shearing his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.
20Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was running away.
21So he fled with all his possessions, crossed the Euphrates, and headed for the hill country of Gilead.
22On the third day Laban was informed that Jacob had fled.
23So he took his relatives with him, pursued Jacob for seven days, and overtook him in the hill country of Gilead.
24But that night God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream and warned him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
25Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead when Laban overtook him, and Laban and his relatives camped there as well.
26Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You have deceived me and carried off my daughters like captives of war!
27Why did you run away secretly and deceive me, without even telling me? I would have sent you away with joy and singing, with tambourines and harps.
28But you did not even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye. Now you have done a foolish thing.
29I have power to do you great harm, but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’
30Now you have gone off because you long for your father’s house. But why have you stolen my gods?”
31“I was afraid,” Jacob answered, “for I thought you would take your daughters from me by force.
32If you find your gods with anyone here, he shall not live! In the presence of our relatives, see for yourself if anything is yours, and take it back.” For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the idols.
33So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, then Leah’s tent, and then the tents of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent.
34Now Rachel had taken Laban’s household idols, put them in the saddlebag of her camel, and was sitting on them. And Laban searched everything in the tent but found nothing.
35Rachel said to her father, “Sir, do not be angry that I cannot stand up before you; for I am having my period.” So Laban searched, but could not find the household idols.
36Then Jacob became incensed and challenged Laban. “What is my crime?” he said. “For what sin of mine have you so hotly pursued me?
37You have searched all my goods! Have you found anything that belongs to you? Put it here before my brothers and yours, that they may judge between the two of us.
38I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the rams of your flock.
39I did not bring you anything torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for what was stolen by day or night.
40As it was, the heat consumed me by day and the frost by night, and sleep fled from my eyes.
41Thus for twenty years I have served in your household—fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks—and you have changed my wages ten times!
42If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely by now you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, and last night He rendered judgment.”
43But Laban answered Jacob, “These daughters are my daughters, these sons are my sons, and these flocks are my flocks! Everything you see is mine! Yet what can I do today about these daughters of mine or the children they have borne?
44Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it serve as a witness between you and me.”
45So Jacob picked out a stone and set it up as a pillar,
46and he said to his relatives, “Gather some stones.” So they took stones and made a mound, and there by the mound they ate.
47Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed.
48Then Laban declared, “This mound is a witness between you and me this day.” Therefore the place was called Galeed.
49It was also called Mizpah, because Laban said, “May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are absent from each other.
50If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives, although no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me.”
51Laban also said to Jacob, “Here is the mound, and here is the pillar I have set up between you and me.
52This mound is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not go past this mound to harm you, and you will not go past this mound and pillar to harm me.
53May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac.
54Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and invited his relatives to eat a meal. And after they had eaten, they spent the night on the mountain.
55Early the next morning, Laban got up and kissed his grandchildren and daughters and blessed them. Then he left to return home.