Jacob Flees to Laban

So Esau hated Jacob because of what he had done to him. He said to himself, "My father will soon be gone, and then I will kill Jacob." But someone got wind of what he was planning, and reported it to Rebekah. She sent for Jacob and told him that his life was being threatened by Esau.

"This is what to do," she said. "Flee to your Uncle Laban in Haran. Stay there with him awhile until your brother's fury is spent, and he forgets what you have done. Then I will send for you. For why should I be bereaved of both of you in one day?"

Then Rebekah said to Isaac, "I'm sick and tired of these local girls. I'd rather die than see Jacob marry one of them."

So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him and said to him, "Don't marry one of these Canaanite girls. Instead, go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of your grandfather Bethuel, and marry one of your cousins--your Uncle Laban's daughters. God Almighty bless you and give you many children; may you become a great nation of many tribes! May God pass on to you and to your descendants the mighty blessings promised to Abraham. May you own this land where we now are foreigners, for God has given it to Abraham."

So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to visit his Uncle Laban, his mother's brother--the son of Bethuel the Aramean.

Esau realized that his father despised the local girls, and that his father and mother had sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, with his father's blessing, to get a wife from there, and that they had strictly warned him against marrying a Canaanite girl, and that Jacob had agreed and had left for Paddan-aram. So Esau went to his Uncle Ishmael's family and married two additional wives from there, besides the wives he already had. One of these new wives was Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth, and daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son.

Jacob's Dream at Bethel »

TEXT SOURCE: (Genesis 27:41-46, 28:1-9) The Children's Living Bible, ©1970 Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187
TITLE SOURCE: The New Student Bible, ©1992 Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids Michigan 49530