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Genesis 31
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Chapter 31
Jacob’s flight
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.
Laban pursues Jacob
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.’
A treaty between Jacob and Laban
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.
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