When Jacob explained ¹  to Rachel that he was a relative of her father ²  and the son of Rebekah, she ran and told her father.

Jacob did as Laban said. ¹  When Jacob ²  completed Leah’s bridal week, ³  Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. ⁴ 

Jacob became furious ¹  with Rachel and exclaimed, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?” ² 

When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she gave ¹  her servant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife.

After Rachel had given birth ¹  to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send ²  me on my way so that I can go ³  home to my own country. ⁴ 

But Jacob took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees. He made white streaks by peeling them, making the white inner wood in the branches visible.

When the stronger females were in heat, ¹  Jacob would set up the branches in the troughs in front of the flock, so they would mate near the branches.

Jacob also deceived ¹  Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was leaving. ² 

But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and warned him, ¹  “Be careful ²  that you neither bless nor curse Jacob.” ³ 

“What have you done?” Laban demanded of Jacob. “You’ve deceived me ¹  and carried away my daughters as if they were captives of war! ² 

“I left secretly because I was afraid!” ¹  Jacob replied to Laban. “I thought ²  you might take your daughters away from me by force. ³ 

So Laban entered Jacob’s tent, and Leah’s tent, and the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find the idols. ¹  Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s. ² 

Then he ¹  said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” So they brought stones and put them in a pile. ²  They ate there by the pile of stones.

May the God of Abraham and the god of Nahor, ¹  the gods of their father, judge between us.” Jacob took an oath by the God whom his father Isaac feared. ² 

When Jacob saw them, he exclaimed, ¹  “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim. ² 

He commanded them, “This is what you must say to my lord Esau: ‘This is what your servant ¹  Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban until now.

The messengers returned to Jacob and said, “We went to your brother Esau. He is coming to meet you and has four hundred men with him.”

Jacob was very afraid and upset. So he divided the people who were with him into two camps, as well as the flocks, herds, and camels.

Then Jacob prayed, ¹  “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, you said ²  to me, ‘Return to your land and to your relatives and I will make you prosper.’ ³ 

then you must say, ¹  ‘They belong ²  to your servant Jacob. ³  They have been sent as a gift to my lord Esau. ⁴  In fact Jacob himself is behind us.’” ⁵