Laban

LABAN. - Brother of Rebecca (v.) and uncle of Jacob (v.). He lived with his family of Thareite descent in Haran (v.), in Mesopotamia, where Abraham too had stopped for some time (Gen. 11:31). He received kindly Abraham's servant Eliezer, who had come to seek a wife for Isaac among the members of the same Thareite family, and willingly gave his consent, together with Bathuel his father, to the marriage of Rebecca with Abraham's son (ibid. 24). Later he gave shelter to his nephew Jacob, who had taken refuge for 20 years (ibid. 29-31) with his uncle to escape the wrath of his brother Esau and at the same time to seek a wife among his own kin.

Having come to know Jacob's honesty and industriousness, L. promised to give him his daughter Rachel (v.) in marriage, on condition that he work for him for seven years: a service that could be considered the equivalent of the price of the dowry (mōhar) which, according to custom, the suitor was bound to pay to the father of the betrothed (cf. DB, II, col. 1495 ff.). But at the agreed term, on the evening of the wedding banquet, L. by a subterfuge substituted for Rachel his elder daughter Leah (v.), who because of a defect of the eyes was not equally pleasing to Jacob. After a week the latter also obtained the wife he preferred, Rachel, but he had to undertake to serve the cunning uncle for another seven years. When this time had passed, L., who owed to Jacob's industriousness the rapid increase of his fortune, wished to keep him still with him, stipulating an agreement that put his nephew and son-in-law in a position to create for himself by his work a property of his own. The pact was this: Jacob would remain to pasture L.'s flock; the sheep and goats that would subsequently be born would be divided between the two: to Jacob those with black fleece, to L. the others. But since Jacob, by his shrewd industry, had in a short time become the owner of numerous livestock, he aroused the jealousy of the covetous uncle, who no fewer than ten times in six years tried to change the terms of the contract; but in vain. Finally, to avoid conflicts between the two families, together with his wives Rachel and Leah, who likewise had reason to complain of their father's avarice, he fled secretly, carrying off the flocks that were his property. L., warned three days after his departure, pursued him and caught up with him in Galaad. Besides settling personal and economic questions, he intended to recover his tērāphim (superstitious objects of idolatrous worship), which had been stolen by Rachel without her husband's knowledge. But he did not succeed in finding them, because Rachel had cleverly hidden them.

Uncle and nephew, having exchanged mutual recriminations, ended by coming to an understanding, and concluded with a solemn rite a pact of friendship. On that occasion a monument was erected, that is, a heap of stones (to which L. gave the Aramaic name jēghar dāhdhūthā or "heap of testimony," and Jacob the name in use in the land of Canaan, Gal'ēdh or "heap of witness"): upon it a sacrifice was offered, followed by the sacrificial banquet in which the kinsmen took part. As a seal of the covenant L. invoked the "God of Abraham and the God of Nachor," while Jacob responded by swearing by "Him who was held in reverence by Isaac" his father (Gen. 31:43-54). While Jacob invokes only the God of Abraham and Isaac, that is, the one true God, L. also names the God of Nachor: this suggests that he, like his ancestor Nachor (cf. Ios. 24:2), was infected with polytheism: which seems confirmed also by the episode of the tērāphim. When the rite was completed, L. parted from Jacob, and returned to Haran.

Gaetano Stano