LAADAH (7y5).—A Judahite, the ‘father’ of Mareshah, 1 Ch 44 (B Μαδάθ, A Λαδά).
LABAN (j3>, AaSdv).—1. Son of Bethuel (Gn 28°), grandson of Nahor, Abraham’s brother (22% 93 24%, —in 29° ‘son’=grandson), and brother of Rebekah (2459; 25°°), uncle of Jacob on his mother’s side (27*; 28), and (after his marriage with Leah) his father-in-law as well. When Abraham and Lot migrated from Haran (on the Belikh, a tributary of the Euphrates, in Mesopotamia) into Canaan (Gn 124 τ Nahar remained behind in Haran ; here his family grew up around him (22%; the names, except in the cases of Bethuel and Rebekah, are, however, those of tribes); and Haran (cf. 294), though the identification is not made expressly, is, there can be no doubt, the ‘ city of Nahor’ (24""), to which Abraham’s servant took his way, when sent by his master to find a wife for Isaac from the land of his nativity. Laban’s home (Gn 24°) was in ‘Aram (AV Syria) of the two rivers’ (the Euphrates, in its upper course, and the Habor); eo τος like his father Bethuel (25 28°), he is called specifically the ‘ Araman’ (AV Syrian), 25” 31° » (ef. of Jacob, Dt 26°). It is in connexion with the negotiations for Rebekah’s hand that we first read of Laban. He is evidently the moving spirit in his father’s house. He comes forward to receive Abraham's servant, listens to what he has to say, and takes the lead in the subsequent negotiations (2429-83. 60. 68d. δ᾽) Tt is no doubt true that in the East (cf. Gn 34": 4, Ca 88) a girl’s brothers have a prominent voice in the disposal of their sister’s hand; but, independently of _this, Laban seems clearly to throw his father Bethuel into the background. It has been observed that Laban
| already displays the grasping disposition which was
14 LABAN
manifested more fully afterwards in his dealings with | Jacob: he is attracted by the ring and bracelets | which Abraham's servant had given his sister (24). What we read about Laban subsequently relates exclusively to his dealings with Jacob (29'-31"). These have been descri so fully in the art. Jacos (vol. ii. pp. 528-9, 533) that an outline will be sufficient here. Laban must now be pictured as quite an old man. Jacob, sent by his mother to her brother, arrives at Haran, and quickly finds his uncle’s house (29'"*). He remains with him a month (29") ; at the end of which time Laban, no doubt discovering that his services as a shepherd are likely to prove valuable to him, asks him on what terms he will remain with him. He replies that he will serve him 7 years for his younger daughter Rachel. At the end of the7 years Laban, by a ruse, passes off upon him his elder daughter Leah; and only permits him to have Rachel as well, on condition that he serves him for 7 years more (29'*), At the end of the second 7 years Jacob is anxious to return home; but Laban, reluctant to part with a profitable servant, invites him, with a show of disinterestedness, to name the terms on which he will continue in his service (30%), Jacob thereupon proposes an arrangement by which, ostensibly, he will gain little or nothing, and with which, therefore, Laban immediately closes, but which, it soon appears, his son-in-law knows how to turn to his own advantage (30°8). Laban, envious of Jacob's increasing prosperity, now shows ill-will towards him ; his sons (mentioned also in 30°) complain that Jacob has taken away all their father’s possessions: accordingly Jacob, after con- sulting with his wives (who ‘both agree that their father has shown them no real affection, 31)* 15),* takes flight, accompanied by his family and their belongings (31'). His father-in-law, considerin that he has some kind of claim on the services an belongings of his son-in law, and vexed besides at the loss of the teraphim (which Rachel had stolen), starts in pursuit. On the way, apparently on the night before he came up with Danibs ‘as if an evil conscience preyed secretly upon him’ (Ewald, Hist. i. 356), he is warned in a dream not to proceed against Jacob too violently (315). Overtaking the fugitives on the borders of Gilead, Laban remonstrates with Jacob on his ungrateful treat- ment of him, and especially for having carried away his daughters secretly, which was both an affront to them (31%), and an injury to his own feelings (31%). Jacob, in reply, = bas a that he was afraid, if he told Laban, that he would retain his daughters by force ; and then, after the incident with the teraphim (in which Laban is outwitted by his own daughter), he goes on to remind him of the long years which he has spent ungrudgingly in his service, and of the repeated attempts that Laban had made (3175) to deprive him of his lawful earnings (31°'"), Laban, conscious of the truth in Jacob’s reproaches, makes no attempt to re ly : he contents himself with protesting that everything which Jacob has is really his; and then seeks to close the dispute by representing himself as con- cerned for his daughters’ welfare. Accordingly he ge a covenant, the terms of which are—(1) that acob will in no war ill-treat his daughters; (2) that neither he nor Jacob will pass the boundary, marked by a heap of stones then thrown up, with hostile intent towards the other (see, further, on the object of this ‘covenant,’ above, ii. p 529). The covenant having been solemnlyratified y both parties, Laban returns home, and is not mentioned again (31-55), The character of Laban is not an amiable one.