Lexicon :: Strong's H3837 - lāḇān

Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban, and Laban ran out to the man at the spring.

Laban and Bethuel answered, “This is from the LORD; we have no choice in the matter.[fn]

Isaac was forty years old when he took as his wife Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram and sister of Laban the Aramean.

“So now, my son, listen to me. Flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran,

“Go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father. Marry one of the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.

So Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

“Do you know Laban, Nahor’s grandson? ” Jacob asked them.

They answered, “We know him.”

As soon as Jacob saw his uncle Laban’s daughter Rachel with his sheep,[fn] he went up and rolled the stone from the opening and watered his uncle Laban’s sheep.

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.

Laban replied, “Better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay with me.”

Then Jacob said to Laban, “Since my time is complete, give me my wife, so I can sleep with[fn] her.”

And Laban gave his slave Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her slave.

And Laban gave his slave Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her slave.

After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so that I can return to my homeland.

But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor with you, stay. I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you.”

“Good,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.”

He put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob. Jacob, meanwhile, was shepherding the rest of Laban’s flock.

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.

As for the weaklings of the flocks, he did not put out the branches. So it turned out that the weak sheep belonged to Laban and the stronger ones to Jacob.

Now Jacob heard what Laban’s sons were saying: “Jacob has taken all that was our father’s and has built this wealth from what belonged to our father.”

“And he said, ‘Look up and see: all the males that are mating with the flocks are streaked, spotted, and speckled, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you.

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

On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled.

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.”

Jacob answered, “I was afraid, for I thought you would take your daughters from me by force.

So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, Leah’s tent, and the tents of the two concubines,[fn] but he found nothing. When he left Leah’s tent, he went into Rachel’s tent.

Then Jacob became incensed and brought charges against Laban. “What is my crime? ” he said to Laban. “What is my sin, that you have pursued me?

Then Laban answered Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters; the children, my children; and the flocks, my flocks! Everything you see is mine! But what can I do today for these daughters of mine or for the children they have borne?

Laban named the mound Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob named it Galeed.[fn]

Laban also said to Jacob, “Look at this mound and the marker I have set up between you and me.

Laban got up early in the morning, kissed his grandchildren and daughters, and blessed them. Then Laban left to return home.

He commanded them, “You are to say to my lord Esau, ‘This is what your servant Jacob says. I have been staying with Laban and have been delayed until now.

These were the sons of Zilpah ​— ​whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah ​— ​that she bore to Jacob: sixteen persons.

These were the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel. She bore to Jacob: seven persons.

These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph,[fn] between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di-zahab.