Genesis 31

1verseJacob heard Laban’s sons’ words, saying, “Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s. He has obtained all this wealth from that which was our father’s.”

2verseJacob saw the expression on Laban’s face, and, behold, it was not toward him as before.

3verseThe LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”

4verseJacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock,

5verseand said to them, “I see the expression on your father’s face, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me.

6verseYou know that I have served your father with all of my strength.

7verseYour father has deceived me, and changed my wages ten times, but God didn’t allow him to hurt me.

8verseIf he said, ‘The speckled will be your wages,’ then all the flock bore speckled. If he said, ‘The streaked will be your wages,’ then all the flock bore streaked.

9verseThus God has taken away your father’s livestock, and given them to me.

10verseDuring mating season, I lifted up my eyes, and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats which leaped on the flock were streaked, speckled, and grizzled.

11verseThe angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’

12verseHe said, ‘Now lift up your eyes, and behold, all the male goats which leap on the flock are streaked, speckled, and grizzled, for I have seen all that Laban does to you.

13verseI am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you vowed a vow to me. Now arise, get out from this land, and return to the land of your birth.’”

14verseRachel and Leah answered him, “Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house?

15verseAren’t we considered as foreigners by him? For he has sold us, and has also used up our money.

16verseFor all the riches which God has taken away from our father are ours and our children’s. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.”

17verseThen Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives on the camels,

18verseand he took away all his livestock, and all his possessions which he had gathered, including the livestock which he had gained in Paddan Aram, to go to Isaac his father, to the land of Canaan.

19verseNow Laban had gone to shear his sheep; and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father’s.

20verseJacob deceived Laban the Syrian, in that he didn’t tell him that he was running away.

21verseSo he fled with all that he had. He rose up, passed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead.

22verseLaban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled.

23verseHe took his relatives with him, and pursued him seven days’ journey. He overtook him in the mountain of Gilead.

24verseGod came to Laban the Syrian in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Be careful that you don’t speak to Jacob either good or bad.”

25verseLaban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain, and Laban with his relatives encamped in the mountain of Gilead.

26verseLaban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have deceived me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword?

27verseWhy did you flee secretly, and deceive me, and didn’t tell me, that I might have sent you away with mirth and with songs, with tambourine and with harp;

28verseand didn’t allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now you have done foolishly.

29verseIt is in the power of my hand to hurt you, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful that you don’t speak to Jacob either good or bad.’

30verseNow, you want to be gone, because you greatly longed for your father’s house, but why have you stolen my gods?”

31verseJacob answered Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I said, ‘Lest you should take your daughters from me by force.’

32verseAnyone you find your gods with shall not live. Before our relatives, discern what is yours with me, and take it.” For Jacob didn’t know that Rachel had stolen them.

33verseLaban went into Jacob’s tent, into Leah’s tent, and into the tent of the two female servants; but he didn’t find them. He went out of Leah’s tent, and entered into Rachel’s tent.

34verseNow Rachel had taken the teraphim, put them in the camel’s saddle, and sat on them. Laban felt around all the tent, but didn’t find them.

35verseShe said to her father, “Don’t let my lord be angry that I can’t rise up before you; for I’m having my period.” He searched, but didn’t find the teraphim.

36verseJacob was angry, and argued with Laban. Jacob answered Laban, “What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me?

37verseNow that you have felt around in all my stuff, what have you found of all your household stuff? Set it here before my relatives and your relatives, that they may judge between us two.

38verse“These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not cast their young, and I haven’t eaten the rams of your flocks.

39verseThat which was torn of animals, I didn’t bring to you. I bore its loss. Of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.

40verseThis was my situation: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my eyes.

41verseThese twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.

42verseUnless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night.”

43verseLaban answered Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine! What can I do today to these my daughters, or to their children whom they have borne?

44verseNow come, let’s make a covenant, you and I. Let it be for a witness between me and you.”

45verseJacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar.

46verseJacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” They took stones, and made a heap. They ate there by the heap.

47verseLaban called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.

48verseLaban said, “This heap is witness between me and you today.” Therefore it was named Galeed

49verseand Mizpah, for he said, “The LORD watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another.

50verseIf you afflict my daughters, or if you take wives in addition to my daughters, no man is with us; behold, God is witness between me and you.”

51verseLaban said to Jacob, “See this heap, and see the pillar, which I have set between me and you.

52verseMay this heap be a witness, and the pillar be a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and that you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, for harm.

53verseThe God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” Then Jacob swore by the fear of his father, Isaac.

54verseJacob offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread, and stayed all night in the mountain.

55verseEarly in the morning, Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Laban departed and returned to his place.