Genesis 28:5 Commentary and Bible Study

Jacob leaves the household immediately, only too aware of his brother’s hatred towards him. He goes where he had been sent, to the land where his mother had come from expecting however to be gone in Rebekah’s words for only a few days (Genesis 27:44), while in fact he stayed 21 years. They loved each other, but they probably never saw each other again, and Rebekah died not knowing how the promise was going to be fulfilled. We may say that this was God’s chastisement for her deception. Laban is mentioned as the head of the household at this time. He had taken the leading role in the arrangements over his sister Rebekah leaving to be the wife of Isaac even though his mother was still alive, and now many years later is head of the house. It is to Laban that Jacob goes because Isaac has sent him to take a wife from one of this man’s daughters (verse 2).The household is formerly identified with a string of connections because as Leupold says, this is the Hebrew way of highlighting the importance of an occasion. It was also important to record the origin of Jacob’s wife, that she was not taken from any of the Canaanite nations.