Jacob’s Dream

Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran.

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “The Lord is certainly in this place, and I did not know it!”

So Jacob got up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had placed as a support for his head, and set it up as a memorial stone, and poured oil on its top.

Jacob also made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and give me food to eat and garments to wear,

Jacob Meets Rachel

Then Jacob set out on his journey, and went to the land of the people of the east.

Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where are you from?” And they said, “We are from Haran.”

When Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of his mother’s brother Laban, and the sheep of his mother’s brother Laban, Jacob went up and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well, and watered the flock of his mother’s brother Laban.

Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and raised his voice and wept.

Jacob told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and that he was Rebekah’s son, and she ran and told her father.

So when Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet him, and embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house. Then he told Laban all these things.

Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?”

Now Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”

So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him like only a few days because of his love for her.

Laban’s Treachery

Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my time is completed, that I may have relations with her.”

Now in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to him; and Jacob had relations with her.

Jacob did so and completed her week, and he gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife.

So Jacob had relations with Rachel also, and indeed he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with Laban for another seven years.

The Sons of Jacob

Now when Rachel saw that she had not borne Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister; and she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I am going to die.”

Then Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”

So she gave him her slave Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob had relations with her.

Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.

And Rachel’s slave Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.

When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her slave Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

And Leah’s slave Zilpah bore Jacob a son.

And Leah’s slave Zilpah bore Jacob a second son.