Genesis 31

31 ¹Jacob heard Laban's sons say, "Jacob took all our father had; from what was our father's he made this wealth." ²And Jacob saw the face of Laban, and it was not toward him as before.

³Then our Father told Jacob, "Return to your fathers' land and family; I will be with you."

⁴So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field, to his flock. ⁵He told them, "I see your father's face isn't toward me as before, but the God of my father remained with me. ⁶You know that I have served your father with all my strength. ⁷Your father cheated me, changing my wages ten times, but our Father wouldn't let him harm me. ⁸If he said, 'Speckled is your wage,' the whole flock bore speckled; if he said, 'Striped is your wage,' the whole flock bore striped. ⁹So our Father has taken away your father's livestock and given it to me. ¹⁰I looked up in a dream during the flock's mating season and saw the male goats mounting them were streaked, speckled, and spotted. ¹¹The messenger of the Father said to me in a dream, 'Jacob,' and I said, 'Here I am.' ¹²He said, 'Look up and see: all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, spotted, speckled—for I've seen all Laban is doing to you. ¹³I am the Father of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and vowed to me. Now get up, leave this land, and return to your kindred's land.'"

¹⁴Rachel and Leah answered, "Do we still have any share or inheritance in our father's house? ¹⁵Doesn't he count us as foreigners? He sold us and has completely consumed our money too. ¹⁶Everything our Father took from Laban is ours and our children's. Now do all our Father told you."

¹⁷So Jacob arose and set his sons and his wives on the camels. ¹⁸He took all his livestock and all his property he had acquired, the livestock acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan. ¹⁹Laban went to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father's household gods. ²⁰And Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing. ²¹He fled with all he had, rose, crossed the Euphrates, and set his face toward Gilead's hill country.

Laban Gives Chase

²²On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled. ²³He took his relatives, chased him seven days, and caught him in Gilead's hill country.

²⁴But our Father came to Laban the Aramean in a night dream and said, "Guard against speaking with Jacob, good or bad."

²⁵Laban caught Jacob, who had pitched his tent in the hills; Laban and his relatives pitched against him in Gilead's hills. ²⁶Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done? You tricked me and drove my daughters like war captives. ²⁷Why sneak off and deceive me, not telling me? I'd have sent you off with joy, songs, tambourine, lyre. ²⁸Why didn't you let me kiss my sons and daughters goodbye? Now you've acted foolishly.

²⁹I have power to harm you, but your father's God told me last night: 'Watch yourself—say nothing to Jacob, good or bad.'

³⁰Now you've truly gone because you longed greatly for your father's house—so why steal my gods?"

³¹Jacob answered Laban, "I was afraid, for I thought you'd seize your daughters from me. ³²Whoever you find with your gods dies. Point out what's yours before our relatives, take it." Jacob didn't know Rachel had stolen them.

³³Laban searched Jacob's tent, Leah's tent, and the two servants' tent, found nothing, left Leah's, and entered Rachel's tent. ³⁴Rachel had taken the household idols, put them in the camel's saddle, and sat on them. Laban searched the whole tent but found nothing. ³⁵She told her father, "Don't be angry, my lord—I can't rise for you; I'm on my period." He searched but never found the household gods.

³⁶Jacob got angry and quarreled with Laban. Jacob answered Laban, "What's my crime? What's my sin, that you've chased me down? ³⁷You've searched all my goods—what did you find from your household? Put it here before my relatives and yours; let them decide between us both.

³⁸Twenty years I've been with you: your ewes and female goats haven't miscarried, and I haven't eaten rams from your flock. ³⁹Torn animals I never brought to you; I bore the loss myself. You demanded it from my hand, stolen by day, stolen by night. ⁴⁰There I was: by day heat consumed me, and cold by night, and sleep fled from my eyes. ⁴¹Twenty years in your house—fourteen serving for your two daughters, six for your flock—and you changed my wages ten times. ⁴²Had the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the Fear of Isaac not been with me, you'd surely have sent me away empty-handed now. Our Father saw my suffering and my hands' labor, and warned you last night." ^a a v42 "The Fear of Isaac" is Jacob's distinctive name for our Father — the God his father Isaac revered with deep covenant awe. To name the Father this way is to name him through the eyes of a faithful son.

⁴³Laban answered Jacob, "The daughters are mine, the children are mine, the flocks are mine—everything you see is mine. But what can I do today for my daughters, or for the children they bore? ⁴⁴Come, let's make a covenant, you and I; let it be a witness between you and me."

⁴⁵So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. ⁴⁶Jacob told his kin, "Gather stones." They took stones, piled a heap, and ate there by the heap. ⁴⁷Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. ⁴⁸Laban said, "This heap is a witness between you and me today." Therefore he named it Galeed, ⁴⁹and Mizpah, for he said, "God watch between me and you when we're apart. ⁵⁰If you mistreat my daughters or take wives besides them, though no one else is here, God witnesses between you and me." ⁵¹Laban said to Jacob, "Look at this heap and this pillar I've set between you and me. ⁵²This mound witnesses, this pillar witnesses: I won't cross this mound to you, and you won't cross this mound and pillar to me, for harm. ⁵³God of Abraham and God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us." So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac. ⁵⁴Jacob sacrificed on the mountain, called his relatives to eat bread; they ate bread and spent the night on the mountain. ⁵⁵Laban rose early, kissed his grandchildren and daughters, blessed them, left, and returned home.