How is it that the female characters worship gods other than the god of Jacob?
The Bible mentions the presence of “teraphim,” which are household idols/gods in the house of Laban. At the time of the story, a whole pantheon of gods and goddesses were worshipped. The notion of monotheism grew out of this context, in which the family god or El (a generic name for “god”) of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, co-existed with other gods. From a Jewish/Christian perspective, this is long before Sinai and the Ten Utterances, which command “You shall have no other gods before me.” Which is in itself a tantalizing nod to the existence of other dieties.
