Bible Verses About Laban

Once, when the animals were mating, I had a dream: I looked up and there in front of me the male goats which mated with the females were streaked, speckled and mottled.

Then, in the dream, the angel of God said to me, 'Ya'akov!' and I replied, 'Here I am.'

He continued, 'Raise your eyes now, and look: all the male goats mating with the females are streaked, speckled and mottled; for I have seen everything Lavan has been doing to you.

I am the God of Beit-El, where you anointed a standing-stone with oil, where you vowed your vow to me. Now get up, get out of this land, and return to the land where you were born.'"

Rachel and Le'ah answered him, "We no longer have any inheritance from our father's possessions;

and he considers us foreigners, since he has sold us; moreover, he has consumed everything he received in exchange for us.

Nevertheless, the wealth which God has taken away from our father has become ours and our children's anyway; so whatever God has told you to do, do."

Then Ya'akov got up, put his sons and wives on the camels,

and carried off all his livestock, along with all the riches he had accumulated, the livestock in his possession which he had acquired in Paddan-Aram, to go to Yitz'chak his father in the land of Kena'an.

Now Lavan had gone to shear his sheep, so Rachel stole the household idols that belonged to her father,

and Ya'akov outwitted Lavan the Arami by not telling him of his intended flight.

So he fled with everything he had: he departed, crossed the [Euphrates] River and set out for the hill-country of Gil'ad.

Not until the third day was Lavan told that Ya'akov had fled.

Lavan took his kinsmen with him and spent the next seven days pursuing Ya'akov, overtaking him in the hill-country of Gil'ad.

But God came to Lavan the Arami in a dream that night and said to him, "Be careful that you don't say anything to Ya'akov, either good or bad."

When Lavan caught up with Ya'akov, Ya'akov had set up camp in the hill-country; so Lavan and his kinsmen set up camp in the hill-country of Gil'ad.

Lavan said to Ya'akov, "What do you mean by deceiving me and carrying off my daughters as if they were captives taken in war?

Why did you flee in secret and deceive me and not tell me? I would have sent you off with joy and singing to the music of tambourines and lyres.

You didn't even let me kiss my sons and daughters good-bye! What a stupid thing to do!

I have it in my power to do you harm; but the God of your father spoke to me last night and said, 'Be careful that you don't say anything to Ya'akov, either good or bad.'

Granted that you had to leave, because you longed so deeply for your father's house; but why did you steal my gods?"

Ya'akov answered Lavan, "Because I was afraid. I said, 'Suppose you take your daughters away from me by force?'

But if you find your gods with someone, that person will not remain alive. So with our kinsmen to witness, if you spot anything that I have which belongs to you, take it back." Ya'akov did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

Lavan went into Ya'akov's tent, then into Le'ah's tent and into the tent of the two slave-girls; but he did not find them. He left Le'ah's tent and entered Rachel's tent.

Now Rachel had taken the household gods, put them in the saddle of the camel and was sitting on them. Lavan felt all around the tent but did not find them.