28:6-9 Esau heard that Isaac sent Jacob away to get a wife from his own clan. Now he realized how displeased his parents were with his Hittite wives. In an effort to get back into their good graces he married a grand-daughter of Ishmael, Isaac's half-brother.

v. 10-22 Jacob set out for Haran and stopped at sunset. He put a stone under his head and while he slept he had a dream. There was a stairway or ladder between heaven and earth. Angels were going up and down and the Lord stood above it. The Lord identified Himself as the God of Abraham and Isaac. He promised to give Jacob's descendants the land of Canaan on which he was now sleeping. All peoples would be blessed through his descendants and the Lord would be with him watching over him. He would surely bring Jacob back to this land. When Jacob woke from the dream he was afraid and realized he was on holy ground. He thought this place was "the gate of heaven." Early the next morning he took the stone he'd been sleeping on and set it up as a pillar. He anointed it with oil, named the place Bethel (house of God), and made a vow that if God did what He promised in the dream then the Lord would be his God. He vowed to give the Lord a tenth of everything. Tithing did not originate in the Law of Moses. Both Abraham and Jacob gave a tenth.

29:1-30 Jacob traveled east and came to well. He spoke to some shepherds who were nearby and asked if they knew his uncle Laban. They did know him and said that Laban's daughter Rachel was coming to the well with her father's sheep. Jacob watered Laban's sheep and then wept as he told Rachel that he was her relative. She ran to the house to tell her father and he invited Jacob to stay with him. After a month Laban offered to pay wages to Jacob for the work he was doing for him. Jacob agreed to work for him seven years in return for his daughter Rachel. Laban agreed. So Jacob worked seven years but it seemed like only a few days because of his love for Rachel. When the day of the wedding came Laban held a great feast. However, in the evening Laban deceitfully gave his older daughter Leah to Jacob as his wife. The next morning Jacob realized he had been deceived and he confronted Laban. Laban asked him to finish the week with Leah and then he could marry Rachel in exchange for another seven years of work. Leah's maidservant was named Zilpah and Rachel's was named Bilhah. Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah.

v. 31-35 The Lord saw that Leah was not loved so He allowed her to have children, but Rachel was barren. Leah gave birth to Reuben (see my misery), Simeon (one who hears), Levi (attached), and Judah (praise). These names indicated Leah's sorrow that Jacob did not love her.

30:1-8 Rachel was still barren so she demanded that Jacob give her children. He became angry with her. Rachel decided to give her maidservant Bilhah to Jacob as a wife so she could start a family through her. This was a surrogate mother type of an arrangement. The children would be considered Rachel's children. Bilhah's sons were named Dan (he has vindicated) and Naphtali (my struggle) because through them Rachel felt vindicated in her struggle against her sister Leah.

v. 9-16 When Leah saw that she was no longer having children she gave her maidservant, Zilpah, to Jacob as a wife. Zilpah's sons were named Gad (good fortune) and Asher (happy). The competition between Leah and Rachel continued. Leah's son Reuben found some mandrakes and gave them to her. Mandrakes were plants that were used to increase fertility or may have had some aphrodisiac or hallucinogenic effects. Rachel, who was still barren, wanted the mandrakes so she bargained with Leah-- give me the mandrakes and you may sleep with Jacob tonight. Leah went out to meet Jacob in the field that evening and informed him that he must sleep with her tonight because she had hired him with her son's mandrakes. So Jacob slept with her.

v. 17- 24 God listened to Leah and she conceived. She named her son Issachar (reward) and then later had another son named Zebulun (honor) and a daughter named Dinah. Then God remembered Rachel and opened her womb. She had a son named Joseph (may he add) and hoped that God would add to her another son. So far Jacob has 11 sons. Click to see chart.

v. 25-36 By this time Jacob was ready to return to his homeland and raise his family there. But Laban did not want him to leave. They made an agreement that Jacob's new wages would be all the sheep and goats that had any markings on them. This was an easy way to distinguish between Jacob's animals and Laban's. But Laban didn't want Jacob to become wealthy and leave him so he took all the speckled, streaked or spotted animals and had his own sons take them to a pasture that was a 3-day journey away.

v. 37-43 Jacob took fresh-cut branches and peeled their bark to expose the white inner wood. He placed the branches in the watering troughs and when the flocks mated in front of the branches they produced streaked, spotted or speckled young. Jacob separated his flocks from Laban's and made sure that the weak animals went to Laban and the strong to himself. God blessed Jacob and he soon owned very large flocks and was able to buy servants, camels and donkeys.