Genesis 31

Jacob heard what Laban's sons were saying. “Jacob's taken everything our father had. He's made all this wealth out of what belonged to our father.”

And Jacob saw that Laban's attitude to him wasn't what it used to be.

And the Lord said to Jacob, “Go back to the country of your fathers and your relatives, and I'll be with you.”

So Jacob sent word to Rachel and Leah to come out to the fields where his flocks were.

And he said to them, “I can see that your father's attitude to me isn't what it used to be. But the God of my father has been with me.

You know I've worked for your father with everything I've got,

and your father's cheated me, changing my wages ten times over. But God hasn't let him do me any harm.

If he said, ‘The speckled ones will be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore speckled young. And if he said, ‘The streaked ones will be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore streaked young.

So God has taken your father's livestock and given them to me.

Once, when the flocks were mating, I had a dream. I looked up and saw that the males mating with the flock were streaked or speckled or spotted.

And the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob.’ ‘Here I am,’ I said.

And he said, ‘Look up and see: all the males mating with the flock are streaked or speckled or spotted, because I've seen everything Laban's been doing to you.

I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now leave this country at once and go back to the land where you were born.’”

And Rachel and Leah answered him, “Have we still got any share in our father's estate?

Doesn't he treat us like foreigners? He's sold us, and what's more he's used up what was paid for us.

Surely all the wealth God took from our father belongs to us and our children. So do whatever God has told you.”

So Jacob got up and put his children and his wives on camels,

and he drove all his livestock on ahead of him, along with everything he'd built up in Paddan Aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.

Laban had gone off to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father's household gods.

And Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him he was leaving.

So he ran, with everything he had. He crossed the river and headed for the hill country of Gilead.

On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had run.

So he took his relatives with him and went after Jacob for seven days, and caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.

But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, good or bad.”

Laban caught up with Jacob. Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead, and Laban and his relatives camped there too.

And Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You've deceived me and carried off my daughters like prisoners of war.

Why did you run off in secret and deceive me? Why didn't you tell me, so I could send you off with joy and singing, with tambourines and harps?

You didn't even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye. You've done a foolish thing.

I've got the power to do you harm, but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, good or bad.’

Now you've gone off because you're homesick for your father's house. But why did you steal my gods?”

And Jacob answered Laban, “I was afraid. I thought you'd take your daughters away from me by force.

But whoever you find your gods with won't live. Search in front of our relatives, see if there's anything of yours here, and take it.” Now Jacob didn't know that Rachel had stolen them.

So Laban went into Jacob's tent, and Leah's tent, and the tents of the two servants, and found nothing. Then he came out of Leah's tent and went into Rachel's.

Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel saddle and sat on them. And Laban searched right through the tent and found nothing.

And she said to her father, “Don't be angry, sir, that I can't stand up in front of you. I'm having my period.” So he searched, and didn't find the household gods.

Then Jacob got angry and took it up with Laban. “What's my crime?” he said. “What have I done wrong, that you've come after me like this?

You've searched through everything I own. What have you found that belongs to your household? Put it here in front of your relatives and mine, and let them judge between the two of us.

I've been with you twenty years. Your ewes and your goats haven't miscarried, and I haven't eaten the rams from your flocks.

I never brought you an animal torn by wild beasts — I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for anything stolen by day or night.

It was like this: the heat consumed me by day and the cold by night, and sleep wouldn't come.

Twenty years I've been in your household. I worked fourteen years for your two daughters and six for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times over.

If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, hadn't been with me, you'd have sent me away with nothing. But God has seen my hardship and the work of my hands, and last night He gave His judgement.”

And Laban answered Jacob, “These are my daughters, these are my children, these are my flocks. Everything you can see is mine. But what can I do today about these daughters of mine, or the children they've had?

Come on then — let's make an agreement, you and me, and let it stand as a witness between us.”

So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar.

And he said to his relatives, “Get some stones.” So they took stones and piled them up, and they ate there by the pile.

Laban called it Jegar-Sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed.

And Laban said, “This pile is a witness between you and me today.” That's why it was called Galeed,

and Mizpah as well, because he said, “May the Lord keep watch between you and me when we're out of each other's sight.

If you mistreat my daughters, or take other wives besides them — even though nobody's with us — remember that God is a witness between you and me.”

And Laban said to Jacob, “Here's this pile, and here's the pillar I've set up between you and me.

This pile is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I won't go past this pile to your side to do you harm, and you won't go past this pile and this pillar to my side to do me harm.

May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” And Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac.

And Jacob offered a sacrifice there in the hill country and asked his relatives to eat. They ate, and spent the night there.

Early next morning Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then he left and went back home.