Genesis 31
1 Jacob heard what Laban’s sons were saying: “Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father, and from what belonged to our father he has made all this wealth.”
2 Jacob saw that Laban’s face toward him was no longer what it had been before.
3 Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you.”
4 Jacob sent word to Rachel and Leah to come to him in the field, where his flock was.
5 He said to them, “I see that your father’s face toward me is no longer what it was before. But the God of my father has been with me.
6 You know that I served your father with all my strength.
7 Yet your father cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God did not allow him to harm me.
8 If he said, ‘The speckled ones will be your wages,’ then the whole flock gave birth to speckled young. And if he said, ‘The striped ones will be your wages,’ then the whole flock gave birth to striped young.
9 In this way God took your father’s livestock and gave it to me.
10 At the time when the flock was in heat, I looked up and saw in a dream that the male goats mating with the females were striped, speckled, and spotted.
11 The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob!’ And I answered, ‘Here I am.’”
12 “He said, ‘Look up and see: all the male goats mating with the females are striped, speckled, and spotted, because I have seen everything Laban is doing to you.
13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now get up, leave this land, and return to the land of your family.’”
14 Rachel and Leah answered him, “Do we still have any share or inheritance in our father’s household?
15 Doesn’t he treat us like foreigners? He sold us, and he has completely used up the money paid for us.
16 All the wealth God took from our father belongs to us and our children. Now do whatever God has told you.”
17 Then Jacob got up and put his children and his wives on the camels.
18 He drove all his livestock and all the possessions he had acquired, the livestock he owned that he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.
19 Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole the household idols that belonged to her father.
20 Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing.
21 He fled with everything he had. He set out, crossed the river, and headed toward the hill country of Gilead.
22 On the third day, Laban was told that Jacob had fled.
23 He took his relatives with him, pursued Jacob for seven days, and caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.
24 But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream during the night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
25 Laban caught up with Jacob. Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban camped there with his relatives in the hill country of Gilead.
26 Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You deceived me and took my daughters away like captives taken by the sword.
27 Why did you flee in secret and deceive me without telling me? I would have sent you off with joy and songs, with tambourine and harp.
28 You didn’t even let me kiss my sons and daughters. Now you have acted foolishly.
29 I have the power to harm you all, but the God of your father spoke to me last night: ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’
30 Now you have left because you were longing so much to return to your father’s household. But why did you steal my gods?”
31 Jacob answered Laban, “I was afraid, because I thought, ‘You might take your daughters away from me by force.’
32 If you find your gods with anyone, that person will not live. In front of our relatives, inspect anything of yours that I have and take it.” Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
33 Laban went into Jacob’s tent, Leah’s tent, and the tents of the two female servants, but found nothing. He came out of Leah’s tent and went into Rachel’s tent.
34 Rachel had taken the household idols, put them in the camel’s saddle, and sat on them. Laban searched the whole tent but found nothing.
35 She said to her father, “Please don’t be angry, my lord, that I can’t stand up in your presence; I’m having my monthly period.” He searched, but did not find the household idols.
36 Then Jacob became angry and argued with Laban. Jacob said to him, “What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have pursued me so fiercely?
37 You have searched through all my belongings. What have you found from anything in your household? Put it here in front of my relatives and yours, and let them judge between us.
38 For these twenty years I have been with you, your ewes and she-goats never miscarried, and I never ate the rams from your flock.
39 I did not bring you an animal torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. You demanded compensation from me for anything stolen by day or by night.
40 By day the heat consumed me, and by night the cold; sleep fled from my eyes.
41 I spent twenty years in your household: I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you changed my wages ten times.
42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the work of my hands, and last night he rebuked you.”
43 Laban answered Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the sons are my sons, the flocks are my flocks, and everything you see is mine. But what can I do today about these daughters of mine or about the children they have borne?
44 “Come, let us make an agreement, you and I, and let it stand as a witness between us.”
45 Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar.
46 Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” They took stones and made a heap, and they ate there beside the heap.
47 Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed.
48 Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” That is why it was named Galeed.
49 It was also called Mizpah, because he said, “May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are far from each other.
50 If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives besides my daughters, even if no one is with us, remember: God is witness between you and me.”
51 Laban also said to Jacob, “Look at this heap, and look at the pillar I have set up between you and me.
52 This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not cross past this heap to your side, and that you will not cross past this heap and this pillar to my side to harm me.
53 May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” And Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac.
54 Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country and invited his relatives to eat. They ate and spent the night there in the hill country.
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