Person Old Testament
Laban
Laban, the brother of Rebekah and father of Jacob's wives, Leah and Rachel. Mentioned in 46 verses across 1 book, first at Genesis 24:29.
Why it matters. Brother of Rebekah; father of Leah and Rachel
- Primary passages
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-30 by the FaithGraph team
About Laban
Laban was the son of Bethuel and the brother of Rebekah, Isaac's wife (Gen.24.29). He lived in Paddan Aram, where he welcomed Abraham's servant who sought a wife for Isaac (Gen.24.29-51). Years later, Laban hosted his nephew Israel (or 'Jacob'), who fled from his brother Esau (Gen.27.43; 28.2,5). Laban arranged for Jacob to marry his daughters, Leah and Rachel, in exchange for fourteen years of labor (Gen.29). Laban also gave his maidservants, Zilpah and Bilhah, to Jacob as concubines (Gen.30.9,22). Jacob's wives bore him eleven sons and a daughter while living with Laban (Gen.29.31-30.24; 46.18,25). Laban and Jacob had a tense relationship due to Laban's deception and Jacob's prosperity (Gen.30-31). After Jacob fled with his family, Laban pursued them but ultimately made a covenant with Jacob before departing (Gen.31). Laban is last mentioned when Jacob sent messengers to Esau, stating that he had stayed with Laban (Gen.32.4).
Description from STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, lightly reformatted. This is background reference material, not Scripture and not a FaithGraph editorial claim.
Connections
No reviewed connections yet.
Family
Family links from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0). Where the dataset marks an identification as uncertain, the mark is kept. Matthew and Luke give different genealogies for Jesus; see the Lineage page, which never merges them.
Appears in Scripture
Named in 46 verses across 1 book. Occurrence data from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0); references only, no translation text.