Genesis 31

1 Jacob heard what Laban's sons were saying: "Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father. He has made all this wealth out of what was our father's." 2 Jacob saw Laban's face, and look, he was not with him as he had been before. 3 Then the LORD said to Jacob, "Go back to the land of your fathers, to the kin and country of your birth, and I will be with you." 4 So Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah and called them out to the field, to his flock. 5 He said to them, "I can see from your father's face that he is not toward me as he was before. But the God of my father has been with me. 6 You know that I have served your father with all my strength. 7 Yet your father has tricked me and changed my wages ten times. But God did not let him do me harm. 8 If he said, 'The speckled ones will be your wages,' then all the flock gave birth to speckled young. And if he said, 'The striped ones will be your wages,' then all the flock gave birth to striped young.

9 So God has snatched your father's livestock away and given it to me. 10 Once, at the time when the flock was in heat, I looked up and saw a dream. In it the male goats mating with the flock were striped, speckled and spotted. 11 The messenger of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacob!' I answered, 'Here I am.' 12 He said, 'Look up and see: all the male goats mating with the flock are striped, speckled and spotted. For I have seen everything Laban is doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a standing stone and made a vow to me. Now get up, leave this land, and go back to the land of your birth.'" 14 Rachel and Leah answered him, "Do we still have any share or inheritance in our father's house? 15 Does he not think of us as foreigners? For he sold us, and he has used up our silver as well. 16 For all the riches God has snatched from our father belong to us and to our sons. So now, do whatever God has told you."

17 Then Jacob got up and put his sons and his wives on the camels. 18 He drove off all his livestock and all the goods he had gained, the livestock he had gotten in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan. 19 Laban had gone to shear his flock, and Rachel stole her father's household gods. 20 And Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was running away. 21 So he ran away with everything he had. He set out, crossed the Euphrates River, and headed for the hill country of Gilead. 22 On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had run away. 23 He took his relatives with him and chased after him for seven days, and he caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. 24 But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, "Watch yourself, so that you do not speak with Jacob from good to bad."

25 Laban caught up with Jacob. Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban pitched camp with his relatives in the hill country of Gilead. 26 Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done? You deceived me and carried off my daughters like prisoners taken in war. 27 Why did you run away in secret and deceive me, and not tell me? I would have sent you off with gladness and songs, with drums and lyres. 28 You did not even let me kiss my sons and my daughters. Now you have acted foolishly. 29 I have the power to do you harm. But last night the God of your father said to me, 'Watch yourself, so that you do not speak with Jacob from good to bad.' 30 Now, you have gone away, because you longed so much for your father's house. But why did you steal my elohim?" 31 Jacob answered Laban, "Because I was afraid. For I said to myself, 'You may take your daughters away from me by force.' 32 Anyone you find your elohim with will not live. In front of our relatives, see for yourself what of yours is with me, and take it." Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

33 So Laban went into Jacob's tent, into Leah's tent, and into the tent of the two slave women, but he did not find them. Then he left Leah's tent and went into Rachel's tent. 34 Now Rachel had taken the household gods, put them in the camel's saddle, and sat on them. Laban felt his way through the whole tent but did not find them. 35 She said to her father, "Do not be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in front of you, for I am having my period." So he searched, but he did not find the household gods. 36 Then Jacob was angry and quarreled with Laban. Jacob said to Laban, "What is my revolt? What is my sin, that you have chased after me so hotly? 37 For you have felt through all my things. What have you found of all the things of your house? Put it here in front of my relatives and your relatives, and let them decide between the two of us. 38 For these 20 years I have been with you. Your ewes and your goats have not lost their young, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock. 39 I did not bring you any animal torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. You demanded it from my hand, whether it was stolen by day or stolen by night. 40 This is how I was: by day the heat consumed me, and the frost by night, and sleep fled from my eyes.

41 These 20 years I have been in your house. I served you 14 years for your two daughters and 6 years for your flock, and you changed my wages ten times. 42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, you would surely have sent me away empty by now. But God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, and last night he gave his judgment." 43 Laban answered Jacob, "The daughters are my daughters, the sons are my sons, and the flock is my flock. Everything you see is mine. But what can I do today to these daughters of mine, or to the sons they have borne? 44 So now, come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and it will be a witness between you and me." 45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a standing stone. 46 Jacob said to his relatives, "Gather stones!" So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there on the heap. 47 Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed. 48 Laban said, "This heap is a witness between you and me today." That is why he named it Galeed,

49 and also Mizpah, because he said, "May the LORD watch between you and me, for we will be out of each other's sight. 50 If you mistreat my daughters, and if you take other wives besides my daughters, though no one is with us, see, God is a witness between you and me." 51 Laban said to Jacob, "Look at this heap, and look at the standing stone that I have set up between you and me. 52 This heap is a witness, and the standing stone is a witness. They witness that I will not cross over this heap to you to do harm, and that you will not cross over this heap and this standing stone to me to do harm. 53 May the elohim of Abraham and the elohim of Nahor judge between us, the elohim of their father." Then Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac. 54 Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his relatives to eat a meal. They ate the meal and spent the night on the mountain.