Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I have given you.”
Jacob fled to the land of Aram; there Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he guarded sheep.
So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years.
These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks. What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself. From my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. There I was: by day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. These twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.
Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force.
And Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have tricked me and driven away my daughters like captives of the sword?
You know that I have served your father with all my strength,
Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.” So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.
Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me. For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?”
Unless otherwise indicated, all content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Contact me: openbibleinfo (at) gmail.com.