Historical context:Laman proceeds to make the request of Laban. Hugh Nibley gives an excellent account of the probable position and nature of Laban:
"For ages the cities of Palestine and Syria had been more or less under the rule of military governors, of native blood but, n theory at least, answerable to Egypt... They were by and large a sordid lot of careerists whose authority depended on constant deception and intrigue, though they regarded their offices as hereditary and sometimes styled themselves kings... The Lachish letters show that such men were still the lords of creation in Lehi's day - the commanders of the towns around Jerusalem were still acting in closest cooperation with Egypt in military matters, depending on the prestige of Egypt to bolster their corrupt power, and still behaving as groveling and unscrupulous timeservers" (Nibley, _Lehi in the Desert. Deseret Book 1952, pp. 108-109).
"A few deft and telling touches resurrect the pompous Laban with photographic perfection. We learn in passing that he commanded a garrison of fifty, that he met in full ceremonial armor with "the elders of the Jews" for secret consultations by night, that he had control of a treasury, that he was of the old aristocracy, being a distant relative to Lehi himself, that he probably held his job because of his ancestors, since he hardly received it by merit, that his house was the storing place of very old records, that he was a large man, short-tempered, crafty and dangerous, and to the bargain cruel, greedy, unscrupulous, weak, and given to drink. All of which makes him a Rabu to the life, the very model of an Oriental Pasha" (Nibley, Lehi in the Desert, p. 111).