Bible Strands
Genesis 27:43
So now, my son, obey my voice and flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Rebekah addresses Jacob immediately after learning that Esau plans to kill him. She commands him to obey her and escape to her brother Laban in Haran.
The words — The imperative שְׁמַע (shema, "listen") and the verb בּרַח (barach, "flee") carry the direct command. The conjunction וְעַתָּה (ve-'attah, "and therefore") ties the urgency to the preceding threat.
The thread — The command repeats Rebekah's earlier instructions in Genesis 27:8 and Genesis 27:13, where she repeatedly urges Jacob to obey her voice. The destination Haran aligns with the family migration recorded in Genesis 11:31.
Why it lands — The text states a clear directive to physically remove oneself from immediate danger. It requires the reader to treat obedient action as a practical response to a confirmed threat.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran;
Cross-references
- Genesis 11:31 And Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai the wife of Abram, and they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan. But when they arrived in Haran, they settled there.
- Genesis 27:8 Now, my son, listen to my voice and do exactly as I tell you.
- Genesis 27:13 His mother replied, “Your curse be on me, my son. Just obey my voice and go get them for me.”
- Genesis 12:4 So Abram departed, as the LORD had directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.
- Genesis 24:29 Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban, and he rushed out to the man at the spring.
- Genesis 28:7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and gone to Paddan-aram.
- Proverbs 30:17 As for the eye that mocks a father and scorns obedience to a mother, may the ravens of the valley pluck it out and young vultures devour it.
- Jeremiah 35:14 The words of Jonadab son of Rechab have been carried out. He commanded his sons not to drink wine, and they have not drunk it to this very day because they have obeyed the command of their forefather. But I have spoken to you again and again, and you have not obeyed Me!
- Acts 5:29 But Peter and the other apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than men.
- Genesis 28:10 Meanwhile Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran.