It’s just not fair.

How come Jacob has ended up with everything he wanted and I get nothing?  Everything that he has was mine and, to be frank, it still should be.

My name is Laban.  I live in Paddan-aram, north-east of Canaan, and Jacob is my son-in-law.  I had two beautiful daughters, but they have been stolen from me.  I had enormous flocks of sheep and goats, but they too have been stolen.  Even my chief shepherd – an excellent worker, as I have always said – has gone.

It’s quite a long story, but I think it is worth telling the whole sorry tale so that you will see clearly how badly I have been treated.

About 20 years ago, my nephew Jacob had to run away from home because of some trouble with his brother Esau.  He came to me because he knew that I would look after him – and he had probably heard about my daughters, too.

Naturally, I welcomed him into my home and he stayed for a month as I helped him get acquainted with the area, lending a hand with my sheep and things like that.

It didn’t take long to see that he was head over heels in love with my younger daughter, Rachel.  I could have used that attachment to make him my slave forever, but that’s not my way.  I believe in fairness.  At least, I did.  Now, I’m not so sure.

Anyway, after that first month, I was upfront with him and said that he didn’t have to serve me for nothing just because he was my kinsman, and I pressed him to name his wages.  Of course, having watched him looking at Rachel, I had my suspicions what he would want, so I had been dropping hints all month about the going rate for bride prices around here.   I’m afraid I may have exaggerated the price a little, and I was almost embarrassed when he offered to work for seven years to be able to marry Rachel.  Seven years! – I would have been very happy with three, but he had made the offer, so I didn’t want to argue.  We agreed on the deal and he kept working for me.

Jacob was a very good worker and an excellent shepherd.  My flocks and herds were expanding at an enormous rate and I couldn’t have been happier – except that the seven years were flying by and Leah still wasn’t married.

I truly did all I could to find a suitable young man for her, or even an old one if necessary, one who was willing to pay the amount I needed.  Jacob had set a high expectation for bride prices, and none of Leah’s potential suitors were willing to pay so much for her.  She was a very attractive girl in her own way, but those eyes did tend to put people off, particularly when they heard that I was expecting the equivalent of seven or eight years’ wages to win her hand in marriage.

As everyone knows, the older sister had to be married before the younger one, so things began to get a little tense as the years passed.  Of course, I couldn’t talk to Jacob about it – it would have been too embarrassing for him.  So I just let things go.  After about six years, there was a little nibble from a rich old man – he was even older than me – who wanted a young wife, but unfortunately he lost his courage when I suggested a starting price of 10 years’ wages.  Maybe I was a little greedy there, but I still think she was worth every penny of it.  I would have been willing to negotiate.

Nevertheless, it made me hope, and that distracted me so that I didn’t talk to Jacob about the situation.  I wanted to explain fully what would happen if Leah was not married when the seven years were up, but I never got around to it.

 When the day arrived, I had no choice.  Wanting to make sure that Leah and Rachel didn’t get too badly upset or make a scene, I hadn’t told them what was happening.  In the morning, I sent Rachel away to see a distant relative.  For some reason, she seemed almost distraught.  Anyway, once she had gone, I told Leah the news, and she seemed upset too, but when I made it clear that there was no choice, she toned down the crying a little.  I’ve no doubt she saw the necessity of it eventually.  Some of us have to make difficult decisions at times, and those around us often don’t appreciate the heavy burden it places on us.  I don’t mind doing it, but I do think it deserves a little acknowledgement.

Anyway, the day was a wonderful success, with all the local people crowded around to celebrate.  Feasting and drinking all day, while Jacob constantly looked around for the bride and asked me from time to time when she was coming.  I told him that it was common practice in Paddan-aram for the bride not to make an appearance until just before the formal part – the actual wedding ceremony that would make them man and wife.  I have been to a wedding like that, too.

By the time it got dark that night, Jacob was getting rather impatient, and he was very eager to go over and greet Leah when I introduced her to the crowd.  I made a bit of a joke out of it as I told him that he would need to stand on the other side of the marquee until the ceremony was over.  We got on with the ceremony straight away.  Jacob didn’t even seem to notice that, behind the veil, it was Leah he was marrying, and I had made sure that there were no names mentioned in the promises they made to each other.  I suppose the lamps weren’t very bright, but you would think a man would notice who he was marrying!

Then, the next morning he came storming up to me as if the world had just come to an end.  Now I was perfectly ready to give a little explanation, just to clarify the situation, but Jacob acted as if he hadn’t known that I couldn’t possibly give away the younger daughter before the older one.  He got quite unreasonably angry as I explained to him that he was, of course, welcome to marry Rachel as well, but naturally, Leah had to be married first because she was older.

It took all of my skills as a negotiator to convince him that there was no real problem and that he wouldn’t even have to wait for the full seven years before I gave him Rachel: I was willing to trust him and hand over Rachel as soon as Leah’s bridal week was finished.

Despite my generosity in giving him Rachel early, I still sensed that he was not happy with me.

So, as you can see, I provided him with the two very best wives he could have found anywhere, and he stayed with me for fourteen years.  By that time he had 11 sons, and you would have thought he would be very content with his lot in life.  I would have been willing to let him stay indefinitely, but the very day that his 14 years were up, he came to talk to me about leaving.

Maybe I was too generous, but Jacob really is a good worker and El Shaddai his god seems to look after him too.  There was no doubt that my flocks and herds had grown much larger and better under his care, so when he suggested that he could continue his work and receive as his wages all the sheep that were streaked, spotted and generally unattractive, that seemed like a fair deal.  People want clean, creamy wool and goatskins that are a smooth, even black, so the ones he was asking for were less valuable anyway.  Strange that he should ask for them, really.  Nevertheless, when I did a quick head-count, I was surprised how many there were with those untidy markings.

As I walked through the flocks that afternoon, it occurred to me that then would be a good time to make some minor changes to the management of my flock and herds.  Since Jacob would be having a small holding of sheep and goats from that time on, some confusion of ownership might arise, so I decided to take one simple step to guarantee my sons’ inheritance: that afternoon, I arranged for my sons to take those undesirable, low-value animals three days’ journey away to avoid any possible confusion.

Once again, Jacob seemed to misunderstand or deliberately misconstrue my motives, and it was clear that he was angry when he examined the flocks the next day.  It is quite hard to work with people when they are so moody.

Time passed and Jacob kept working – and the flocks kept growing amazingly.  Lots of strong lambs and kids were being born, but the really unfair thing was the proportions of lambs with black on them and of goats with white patches.  We had made an agreement, and under that agreement, he was getting all of those healthy young animals.  I tweaked the conditions a few times to try to make sure that there was an equitable and sustainable division of the young, but whatever the settings were, those confounded ewes and nannies kept giving birth to animals with the wrong sorts of markings.  Not only that, but it was always the strongest and healthiest mothers whose young had whatever markings Jacob was to benefit from.

It was clear that the gods were not doing what they should for me – and what I had a right to expect, given my consistent and generous provision of sacrifices to them.

Each year, Jacob’s share of the flocks continued to grow.  It really hurt to watch my hard-earned wealth slipping away.

It started to prey on my mind: all the benefits that Jacob was taking from me!  He had taken both of my daughters, not just the one he had asked for.  He had so many sons he made my family look small.  And the gods were ganging up on me to give him my flocks.  For the last six years I have had to fight to minimise my losses and avoid a complete takeover of my flocks.

Then came the crowning insult, the overwhelming offence: he not only ran away, but he also stole my gods!  Yes, you read that right: he waited until I was away shearing the few sheep I had left and then packed up his family and hotfooted it for Canaan – taking my household gods with him.

The shearing took a while and Jacob had been gone three days before I returned and heard the news.  Quickly, I took up the chase – those gods were valuable and theft shouldn’t be left unpunished!  I pursued them hard and then, just the night before I caught up with them, the God of Jacob’s father, Isaac, spoke to me and told me not to say anything good or bad to Jacob.

Seven days of determined, anger-filled pursuit, and then I wasn’t going to be able to take any positive action at all.  I’m sure you can see why I am complaining: God keeps helping Jacob and picking on me.

The next day, I finally caught them and told Jacob just what I thought of him, while dutifully obeying God’s limitations as far as I could.  Then he had the gall to hide behind God’s protection and blame my treatment of him for his foolish flight!

I’m not sure where they had hid them, but I couldn’t find my household gods.  I don’t have any doubt that someone took them – probably with Jacob’s help.  He might even have used one of my own daughters to do the dirty deed.  It really isn’t fair.