Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, “Jacob has
taken all that was our father's, and from what was our father's he
has gained all this wealth.” And Jacob saw that Laban did not
regard him with favor as before. Then the LORD said to Jacob,
“Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will
be with you.”
So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his
flock was and said to them, “I see that your father does not regard
me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father has been
with me. You know that I have served your father with all my
strength, yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten
times. But God did not permit him to harm me. If he said, ‘The
spotted shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore spotted; and
if he said, ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock
bore striped. Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father
and given them to me. In the breeding season of the flock I lifted
up my eyes and saw in a dream that the goats that mated with the
flock were striped, spotted, and mottled. Then the angel of God
said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’ And he
said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that mate with the
flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for I have seen all that
Laban is doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a
pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and
return to the land of your kindred.’” Then Rachel and Leah answered
and said to him, “Is there any portion or inheritance left to us in
our father's house? Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For
he has sold us, and he has indeed devoured our money. All the
wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to
our children. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.”
So Jacob arose and set his sons and his wives on camels. He drove
away all his livestock, all his property that he had gained, the
livestock in his possession that he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to
go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac. Laban had gone to
shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father's household gods. And
Jacob tricked Laban the Aramean, by not telling him that he
intended to flee. He fled with all that he had and arose and
crossed the Euphrates, and set his face toward the hill country of
Gilead.
When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled, he
took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for seven days and
followed close after him into the hill country of Gilead. But God
came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, “Be
careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the
hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen pitched tents in the hill
country of Gilead. And Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done,
that you have tricked me and driven away my daughters like captives
of the sword? Why did you flee secretly and trick me, and did not
tell me, so that I might have sent you away with mirth and songs,
with tambourine and lyre? And why did you not permit me to kiss my
sons and my daughters farewell? Now you have done foolishly. It is
in my power to do you harm. But the God of your father spoke to me
last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob,
either good or bad.’ And now you have gone away because you longed
greatly for your father's house, but why did you steal my gods?”
Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I
thought that you would take your daughters from me by force. Anyone
with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our
kinsmen point out what I have that is yours, and take it.” Now
Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the
tent of the two female servants, but he did not find them. And he
went out of Leah's tent and entered Rachel's. Now Rachel had taken
the household gods and put them in the camel's saddle and sat on
them. Laban felt all about the tent, but did not find them. And she
said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise
before you, for the way of women is upon me.” So he searched but
did not find the household gods.
Then Jacob became angry and berated Laban. Jacob said to Laban,
“What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued
me? For you have felt through all my goods; what have you found of
all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your
kinsmen, that they may decide between us two. These twenty years I
have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not
miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks. What was
torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it
myself. From my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or
stolen by night. There I was: by day the heat consumed me, and the
cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. 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. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and
the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would
have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor
of my hands and rebuked you last night.”
Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my
daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks,
and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day for these
my daughters or for their children whom they have borne? Come now,
let us make a covenant, you and I. And let it be a witness between
you and me.” So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. And
Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” And they took stones
and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. Laban called it
Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. Laban said, “This heap
is a witness between you and me today.” Therefore he named it
Galeed, and Mizpah, for he said, “The LORD watch between you and
me, when we are out of one another's sight. If you oppress my
daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no
one is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.”
Then Laban said to Jacob, “See this heap and the pillar, which I
have set between you and me. This heap is a witness, and the pillar
is a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and you
will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, to do harm. The
God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge
between us.” So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac, and
Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country and called his
kinsmen to eat bread. They ate bread and spent the night in the
hill country.
Early in the morning Laban arose and kissed his grandchildren
and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and
returned home.
