Father-In-Law
Laban is the father-in-law the Bible shows most closely. Jacob works seven years for Rachel, and on the wedding night Laban brings Leah instead. Years later Jacob answers him with plain complaint: “Thus have I been twenty years in thy house.” He had kept the flocks through drought and frost, and Laban had “changed my wages ten times”. Jacob credits God alone for the fact that he was not sent away empty. It is a very human family quarrel, honest about trickery and about grievance. Read Genesis 29 and then Genesis 31.
8 verses
Genesis
And Jacob said unto Laban, Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in unto her.
And Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast.
And it came to pass in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him; and he went in unto her.
And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me.
That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day, or stolen by night.
Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes.
Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle: and thou hast changed my wages ten times.
Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight.