Genesis 31:1-18 ▼

1 And he hears the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken all that our father has; indeed, from that which our father has, he has made all this glory”;

2 and Jacob sees the face of Laban, and behold, it is not with him as before.

3 And YHWH says to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers, and to your family, and I am with you.”

4 And Jacob sends and calls for Rachel and for Leah to the field to his flock;

5 and says to them, “I am beholding your father’s face—that it is not toward me as before, and the God of my father has been with me,

6 and you have known that with all my power I have served your father,

7 and your father has played on me, and has changed my hire ten times; and God has not permitted him to do evil with me.

8 If he says thus: The speckled are your hire, then all the flock bore speckled ones; and if he says thus: The striped are your hire, then all the flock bore striped;

9 and God takes away the substance of your father, and gives to me.

10 And it comes to pass at the time of the flock conceiving, that I lift up my eyes and see in a dream, and behold, the male goats, which are going up on the flock, [are] striped, speckled, and spotted;

11 and the Messenger of God says to me in the dream, Jacob, and I say, Here I [am].

12 And He says, Now lift up your eyes and see [that] all the male goats which are going up on the flock [are] striped, speckled, and spotted, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you;

13 I [am] the God of Bethel where you have anointed a standing pillar, where you have vowed a vow to me; now, arise, go out from this land, and return to the land of your birth.”

14 And Rachel answers—Leah also—and says to him, “Have we yet a portion and inheritance in the house of our father?

15 Have we not been reckoned strangers to him? For he has sold us, and he also utterly consumes our money;

16 for all the wealth which God has taken away from our father, it [is] ours, and our children’s; and now, all that God has said to you—do.”

17 And Jacob rises, and lifts up his sons and his wives on the camels,

18 and leads all his livestock, and all his substance which he has acquired, the livestock of his getting, which he has acquired in Padan-Aram, to go to his father Isaac, to the land of Canaan.