Genesis 31:1 ←
Jacob 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.”
Genesis 31:2 ←
Jacob saw the expression on Laban’s face, and, behold, it was not toward him as before.
Genesis 31:3 ←
Yahweh said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”
Genesis 31:4 ←
Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock,
Genesis 31:5 ←
and 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.
Genesis 31:6 ←
You know that I have served your father with all of my strength.
Genesis 31:7 ←
Your father has deceived me, and changed my wages ten times, but God didn’t allow him to hurt me.
Genesis 31:8 ←
If 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.
Genesis 31:9 ←
Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock, and given them to me.
Genesis 31:10 ←
During 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.
Genesis 31:11 ←
The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’
Genesis 31:12 ←
He 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.
Genesis 31:13 ←
I 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.’ ”
Genesis 31:14 ←
Rachel and Leah answered him, “Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house?
Genesis 31:15 ←
Aren’t we considered as foreigners by him? For he has sold us, and has also used up our money.
Genesis 31:16 ←
For 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.”
Genesis 31:17 ←
Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives on the camels,
Genesis 31:18 ←
and 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.
Genesis 31:19 ←
Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep; and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father’s.
Genesis 31:20 ←
Jacob deceived Laban the Syrian, in that he didn’t tell him that he was running away.
Genesis 31:21 ←
So he fled with all that he had. He rose up, passed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead.
Genesis 31:22 ←
Laban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled.
Genesis 31:23 ←
He took his relatives with him, and pursued him seven days’ journey. He overtook him in the mountain of Gilead.
Genesis 31:24 ←
God 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.”
Genesis 31:25 ←
Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain, and Laban with his relatives encamped in the mountain of Gilead.
Genesis 31:26 ←
Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have deceived me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword?
Genesis 31:27 ←
Why 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;
Genesis 31:28 ←
and didn’t allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now have you done foolishly.
Genesis 31:29 ←
It 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.’
Genesis 31:30 ←
Now, you want to be gone, because you greatly longed for your father’s house, but why have you stolen my gods?”
Genesis 31:31 ←
Jacob answered Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I said, ‘Lest you should take your daughters from me by force.’
Genesis 31:32 ←
Anyone 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.
Genesis 31:33 ←
Laban 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.
Genesis 31:34 ←
Now 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.
Genesis 31:35 ←
She 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.
Genesis 31:36 ←
Jacob was angry, and argued with Laban. Jacob answered Laban, “What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me?
Genesis 31:37 ←
Now 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.
Genesis 31:38 ←
“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.
Genesis 31:39 ←
That 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.
Genesis 31:40 ←
This was my situation: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my eyes.
Genesis 31:41 ←
These 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.
Genesis 31:42 ←
Unless 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.”
Genesis 31:43 ←
Laban 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?
Genesis 31:44 ←
Now come, let’s make a covenant, you and I. Let it be for a witness between me and you.”
Genesis 31:45 ←
Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar.
Genesis 31:46 ←
Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” They took stones, and made a heap. They ate there by the heap.
Genesis 31:47 ←
Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.
Genesis 31:48 ←
Laban said, “This heap is witness between me and you today.” Therefore it was named Galeed
Genesis 31:49 ←
and Mizpah, for he said, “Yahweh watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another.
Genesis 31:50 ←
If 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.”
Genesis 31:51 ←
Laban said to Jacob, “See this heap, and see the pillar, which I have set between me and you.
Genesis 31:52 ←
May 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.
Genesis 31:53 ←
The 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.
Genesis 31:54 ←
Jacob offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread, and stayed all night in the mountain.
Genesis 31:55 ←
Early in the morning, Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Laban departed and returned to his place.
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