Jacob's Family

After working seven years for Laban, in exchange for the privilege of marrying Rachel, Jacob is given her older sister Leah instead. Tricked and taken advantage of, Jacob agrees to work another seven years for Rachel. During these years of service, strife arises between the two sisters and their maids. Their lives become a competition of who can get the love of their husband and who can bear the most children for him.

In our previous episode we learned that Jacob had fallen deeply in love with Rachel, the younger daughter of his uncle Laban. And in his smitten state he’d struck a deal with Laban to work seven years in exchange for Rachel’s hand in marriage. Today we pick up as his seven years of hard labor are coming to an end. Nothing has dulled his affections for Rachel in the intervening seven years – in fact his daily sightings of her have only served to stoke the flame. Rachel too burned with desire for Jacob as she awaited the end of his time of service to her father. What seems to be heading toward a happy ending though will take a sharp turn into deceit and dishonesty, rivalry and resentment.