Paddan, also known as Paddan-aram or Aram, was the homeland of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, located in Mesopotamia.
Also known as Padan · Paddan-aram · Padan-aram · Aram · Aramean
Paddan, also referred to as Paddan-aram or Aram, was a region in Mesopotamia that played a significant role in the lives of the biblical patriarchs. It was the homeland of Abraham's family, and the place where Isaac and Israel (or 'Jacob') found their wives (Gen. 25:20; 28:2, 5-7). The name "Paddan-aram" means "the plain of Aram" or "the field of Aram," referring to the area's geographical characteristics and its association with the Arameans.
Rebekah, Isaac's wife, was from Paddan-aram (Gen. 25:20). Later, Jacob fled to Paddan-aram to escape his brother Esau's anger and to find a wife from among his relatives (Gen. 28:2, 5-7). During his time there, Jacob married Leah and Rachel and fathered eleven of his twelve sons (Gen. 35:23-26). Jacob eventually left Paddan-aram to return to Canaan with his family and possessions (Gen. 31:18; 33:18).
The Arameans, who inhabited Paddan-aram, are mentioned as the ancestors of the Israelites in the context of God's deliverance and blessing (Deut. 26:5). The prophet Hosea also refers to Jacob's flight to Paddan-aram and his service for a wife (Hos. 12:12).
Approximate location: 36.864, 39.032 · view on a map · on the Bible atlas
16 verses in 4 books · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H6307
and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram and the sister of Laban the Aramean.
“Go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of your motherʼs father Bethuel, and take a wife from among the daughters of Laban, your motherʼs brother.
So Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.
Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to take a wife there, commanding him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,”
and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and gone to Paddan-aram.
and he drove all his livestock before him, along with all the possessions he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land in Canaan.
Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was running away.
But that night God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream and warned him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
After Jacob had come from Paddan-aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan, and he camped just outside the city.
After Jacob had returned from Paddan-aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him.
And the sons of Leahʼs maidservant Zilpah were Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan-aram.
These are the sons of Leah born to Jacob in Paddan-aram, in addition to his daughter Dinah. The total number of sons and daughters was thirty-three.
Now as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died along the way in the land of Canaan, some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem).
And Balaam lifted up an oracle, saying: “Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the mountains of the east. ‘Come,’ he said, ‘put a curse on Jacob for me; come and denounce Israel!’
and you are to declare before the LORD your God, “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt few in number and lived there and became a great nation, mighty and numerous.
Jacob fled to the land of Aram and Israel worked for a wife— for a wife he tended sheep.
Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.