Genesis 31

¹ Jacob learned that the sons of Laban were saying, ‘Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father; it is at our father’s expense that he has acquired all this wealth’.

² Jacob saw from Laban’s face that things were not as they had been.

³ Yahweh said to Jacob, ‘Go back to the land of your forefathers and to your kindred; and I will be with you’.

⁴ So Jacob had Rachel and Leah called to the fields where his flocks were,

⁵ and he said to them, ‘I can see from your father’s face that I am out of favour with him now; but the God of my father has been with me.

⁶ You yourselves know that I have worked for your father with all my strength.

⁷ Your father has tricked me, ten times changing my wages, yet God has not allowed him to harm me.

⁸ Whenever he said, “The spotted ones shall be your wages”, all the animals produced spotted young; whenever he said, “The striped ones shall be your wages”, all the animals produced striped young.

⁹ Thus God has taken your father’s livestock and given it to me.

¹⁰ It happened at the time when the animals were on heat, that in a dream I looked up and saw that the males covering the females of the flock were striped or spotted or piebald.

¹¹ In the dream the angel of God called to me, “Jacob!” And I answered: I am here.

¹² He said, “Look up and see: all the males covering the females of the flock are striped or spotted or piebald, for I have seen all that Laban has done to you.

¹³ I am the God of Bethel where you poured oil on a monument, and where you made a vow to me. Now get ready to leave this country and return to the land of your birth.”

¹⁴ In answer Rachel and Leah said to him, ‘Have we any share left in the inheritance of our father’s House?

¹⁵ Does he not treat us as foreigners, for he has sold us and gone on to use up all our money?

¹⁶ Surely all the riches God has taken from our father belong to us and to our children. So do all that God has told you.’

¹⁷ Jacob made ready and put his children and his wives on camels,

¹⁸ and he drove all his livestock before him-with all he had acquired, the livestock belonging to him which he had acquired in Paddan-aram-to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.

¹⁹ When Laban had gone to shear his flock, Rachel stole the household idols[*a] belonging to her father.

²⁰ Jacob outwitted Laban the Aramaean by giving him no inkling of his flight.

²¹ He fled with all he had and went away, crossing the River[*b] and making for Mount Gilead.

²² Three days later Laban was told that Jacob had fled.

²³ Taking his brothers with him he pursued him for seven days and overtook him at Mount Gilead.

²⁴ God came by night in a dream to Laban the Aramaean and said to him, ‘On no account say anything whatever to Jacob’.

²⁵ Laban caught up with Jacob, who had pitched his tent in the hills; and Laban pitched camp on Mount Gilead.

²⁶ Laban said to Jacob, ‘What have you done, tricking me and driving my daughters off like prisoners of war?

²⁷ Why did you flee in secret, stealing away without letting me know so that I could send you on your way rejoicing, with songs and the music of tambourines and lyres?

²⁸ You did not even let me kiss my sons and daughters. You have behaved like a fool.

²⁹ It is in my power to do you harm, but the God of your father said to me last night, “On no account say anything whatever to Jacob”.

³⁰ Now it may be you really went because you had such a longing for your father’s House, but why did you steal my gods?’

³¹ Jacob answered Laban, ‘I was afraid, thinking you were going to snatch your daughters from me.

³² But whoever is found in possession of your gods shall not remain alive. In the presence of our brothers, examine for yourself what I have, and take what is yours.’ Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

³³ Laban went into Jacob’s tent, and then into Leah’s tent and the tent of the two slave-girls, but he found nothing. He came out of Leah’s tent and went into Rachel’s.

³⁴ Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them in the camel’s litter, and was sitting on them. Laban went through everything in the tent but found nothing.

³⁵ Then Rachel said to her father, ‘Do not look angry, my lord, because I cannot rise in your presence, for I am as women are from time to time’. Laban searched but did not find the idols.

³⁶ Then Jacob lost his temper and took Laban to task. And Jacob said to Laban, ‘What is my offence, what is my crime, that you have set on me?

³⁷ You have gone through all my belongings; have you found anything belonging to your House? Produce it here in the presence of my brothers and yours, and let them decide between the two of us.

³⁸ In all the twenty years I have been with you, your ewes and your she-goats have never miscarried, and I have eaten none of the rams from your flock.

³⁹ As for those mauled by wild beasts, I have never brought them back to you, but have borne the loss myself; you claimed them from me, whether I was robbed by day or robbed by night.

⁴⁰ In the daytime the heat has consumed me, and at night the cold has gnawed at me, and sleep has fled from my eyes.

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

⁴² If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, the Kinsman of Isaac, had not been with me, you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my weariness and the work done by my hands, and last night he delivered judgement.’

⁴³ Laban gave Jacob this answer, ‘These daughters are my daughters and these sons are my sons; these sheep are my sheep, and all that you see belongs to me. But what can I do today about my daughters, and about the sons they have borne?

⁴⁴ Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I…, and let it serve as a witness between us.’

⁴⁵ Then Jacob took a stone and set it up as a monument.

⁴⁶ Jacob said to his kinsmen, ‘Collect some stones’, and gathering some stones they made a cairn. They had a meal there, on the cairn, and

⁴⁷ Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha while Jacob called it Galeed.

⁴⁸ Laban said, ‘May this cairn be a witness between us today’. That is why he named it Galeed,

⁴⁹ and also Mizpah, because he said, ‘Let Yahweh act as watchman between us when we are no longer in sight of each other.

⁵⁰ If you ill-treat my daughters or marry other women in addition to my daughters, even though no one be with us, remember: God is witness between us.’

⁵¹ Then Laban said to Jacob, ‘Here is this cairn I have thrown up between us, and here is the monument.

⁵² This cairn is a witness, and the monument bears witness: I must not pass this cairn to attack you, and you must not pass this cairn and this monument to attack me.

⁵³ May the God of Abraham and the god of Nahor judge between us.’ Then Jacob swore by the Kinsman of his father Isaac.

⁵⁴ He offered a sacrifice on the mountain and invited his brothers to the meal. They ate the meal, and passed the night on the mountain.