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Laban


Lay´buhn; Heb., “white” or “pale”

1 An unknown location east of the Jordan connected with the Israelites’ wilderness wandering (Deut 1:1); some scholars identify it with Libnah (Num 33:20). 2 A member of Abraham’s ancestral family through Nahor, Abraham’s brother; he was the brother of Rebekah and father of Leah and Rachel (Gen 24:24; Gen 24:29; Gen 29:16). Rebekah sends her son Jacob to Laban to escape the anger of Esau and to find a wife from among the family clan group of Laban (Gen 27:43-28:5). He is tricked by Laban into fourteen years of labor in return for marriages to his two daughters. Jacob, however, outwits Laban by getting him to agree to give him oddly marked animals, which turn out to be the bulk of the flock (Gen 30:25-43).

  • Powell, Mark Allan, ed. HarperCollins Bible Dictionary. Abridged Edition. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009.