Genesis 24:29

24:29 (Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban.) ¹  Laban rushed out to meet the man at the spring.

Genesis 28:5-6

28:5 So Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean and brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

28:6 Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him off to Paddan Aram to find a wife there. ²  As he blessed him, ³  Isaac commanded him, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman.” ⁴ 

Genesis 31:18

31:18 He took ⁵  away all the livestock he had acquired in Paddan Aram and all his moveable property that he had accumulated. Then he set out toward the land of Canaan to return to his father Isaac. ⁶ 

Genesis 31:20

31:20 Jacob also deceived ⁷  Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was leaving. ⁸ 

Genesis 31:24

31:24 But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and warned him, ⁹  “Be careful ¹⁰  that you neither bless nor curse Jacob.” ¹¹ 

Genesis 35:9

35:9 God appeared to Jacob again after he returned from Paddan Aram and blessed him.

Deuteronomy 26:5

26:5 Then you must affirm before the Lord your God, “A wandering ¹²  Aramean ¹³  was my ancestor, ¹⁴  and he went down to Egypt and lived there as a foreigner with a household few in number, ¹⁵  but there he became a great, powerful, and numerous people.

Luke 4:27

4:27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, ¹⁶  yet ¹⁷  none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” ¹⁸ 

¹ tn The parenthetical disjunctive clause introduces the audience to Laban, who will eventually play an important role in the unfolding story.

² tn Heb “to take for himself from there a wife.”

³ tn The infinitive construct with the preposition and the suffix form a temporal clause.

⁴ tn Heb “you must not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.”

⁵ tn Heb “drove,” but this is subject to misunderstanding in contemporary English.

⁶ tn Heb “and he led away all his cattle and all his moveable property which he acquired, the cattle he obtained, which he acquired in Paddan Aram to go to Isaac his father to the land of Canaan.”

⁷ tn Heb “stole the heart of,” an expression which apparently means “to deceive.” The repetition of the verb “to steal” shows that Jacob and Rachel are kindred spirits. Any thought that Laban would have resigned himself to their departure was now out of the question.

⁸ tn Heb “fleeing,” which reflects Jacob’s viewpoint.

⁹ tn Heb “said to him.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “watch yourself,” which is a warning to be on guard against doing something that is inappropriate.

¹¹ tn Heb “lest you speak with Jacob from good to evil.” The precise meaning of the expression, which occurs only here and in v. 29, is uncertain. Since Laban proceeded to speak to Jacob at length, it cannot mean to maintain silence. Nor does it seem to be a prohibition against criticism (see vv. 26-30). Most likely it refers to a formal pronouncement, whether it be a blessing or a curse. Laban was to avoid saying anything to Jacob that would be intended to enhance him or to harm him.

¹² tn Though the Hebrew term אָבַד (’avad) generally means “to perish” or the like (HALOT 2-3 s.v.; BDB 1-2 s.v.; cf. KJV “a Syrian ready to perish”), a meaning “to go astray” or “to be lost” is also attested. The ambivalence in the Hebrew text is reflected in the versions where LXX Vaticanus reads ἀπέβαλεν (apebalen, “lose”) for a possibly metathesized reading found in Alexandrinus, Ambrosianus, ἀπέλαβεν (apelaben, “receive”); others attest κατέλειπεν (kateleipen, “leave, abandon”). “Wandering” seems to suit best the contrast with the sedentary life Israel would enjoy in Canaan (v. 9) and is the meaning followed by many English versions.

¹³ sn A wandering Aramean. This is a reference to Jacob whose mother Rebekah was an Aramean (Gen 24:10; 25:20, 26) and who himself lived in Aram for at least twenty years (Gen 31:41-42).

¹⁴ tn Heb “father.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “sojourned there few in number.” The words “with a household” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarity.

¹⁶ sn On Elisha see 2 Kgs 5:1-14.

¹⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “yet” to indicate the contrast.

¹⁸ sn The reference to Naaman the Syrian (see 2 Kgs 5:1-24) is another example where an outsider and Gentile was blessed. The stress in the example is the missed opportunity of the people to experience God’s work, but it will still go on without them.