The Ladder to Heaven
Yaakov leaves Be'er Sheva and travels toward Charan, and as the sun sets he stops for the night and lies down with a stone beneath his head. He dreams of a ladder set on the earth with its top reaching the heavens, and angels of God ascending and descending upon it. God stands above and renews the covenant, promising Yaakov the land, descendants like the dust of the earth, and His constant protection wherever he goes. Yaakov awakens in awe, declaring that God is surely in this place though he had not known it, and he sets up the stone, names the place Beit El (Bethel), and vows to give a tenth of all he receives.
Rachel at the Well
Yaakov continues on his way and comes to a well in the fields where shepherds are gathering their flocks. As he asks after his family, Rachel arrives with her father's sheep, and Yaakov rolls the heavy stone from the well's mouth to water them. Overcome with emotion, he kisses Rachel, weeps, and tells her that he is her father's kinsman. She runs to tell her father Lavan, who hurries out to embrace Yaakov and welcomes him warmly into his home.
Two Sisters, Two Brides
Yaakov agrees to work seven years for the hand of Rachel, whom he loves, and the years pass like a few days because of his love for her. But on the wedding night Lavan deceives him, giving him his older daughter Leah instead, and only in the morning does Yaakov discover the switch. Lavan explains that the younger may not marry before the elder and offers Rachel as well in return for another seven years of labor. Yaakov marries Rachel too, loving her more than Leah, and continues to serve his uncle.
The Twelve Children
Seeing that Leah is unloved, God opens her womb, and she bears sons in succession: Reuven (Reuben), Shimon (Simeon), Levi, and Yehudah (Judah). Rachel, still childless, gives her maidservant Bilhah to Yaakov, who bears Dan and Naftali (Naphtali), and Leah responds by giving her maidservant Zilpah, who bears Gad and Asher. Leah then has two more sons, Yissachar (Issachar) and Zevulun (Zebulun), along with a daughter named Dinah. At last God remembers Rachel and opens her womb, and she gives birth to Yosef (Joseph), so that the family destined to become the tribes of Israel is nearly complete.
Flocks and Fortune
With his family grown, Yaakov asks Lavan to let him return home, but Lavan, who has prospered because of him, urges him to stay and name his wages. Yaakov proposes to take the speckled and spotted animals as his pay, and Lavan quickly agrees, then tries to tilt the arrangement in his own favor. Through careful breeding and with God's blessing, Yaakov's flocks multiply and the strongest of the animals become his. In a short time Yaakov grows exceedingly wealthy in flocks, servants, and camels.
The Flight Home
Sensing that Lavan and his sons now resent his success, and hearing God command him to return to the land of his fathers, Yaakov gathers his wives, children, and flocks and departs while Lavan is away shearing sheep. Rachel secretly takes her father's household idols, and when Lavan discovers that they are gone he pursues Yaakov and overtakes him, though God warns him in a dream to do no harm. Lavan searches for his idols in vain, and after Yaakov protests his long years of honest service, the two men make a covenant, heaping up stones as a boundary neither will cross for harm. Lavan blesses his family and departs, and as Yaakov goes on his way angels of God meet him, and he names that place Machanaim.