Genesis 31:1-39 ▼

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.

19 And Laban has gone to shear his flock, and Rachel steals the teraphim which her father has;

20 and Jacob deceives the heart of Laban the Aramean, because he has not declared to him that he is fleeing;

21 and he flees, he and all that he has, and rises, and passes over the River, and sets his face [toward] the Mount of Gilead.

22 And it is told to Laban on the third day that Jacob has fled,

23 and he takes his brothers with him, and pursues after him a journey of seven days, and overtakes him in the Mount of Gilead.

24 And God comes to Laban the Aramean in a dream of the night and says to him, “Take heed to yourself lest you speak with Jacob from good to evil.”

25 And Laban overtakes Jacob; and Jacob has fixed his tent in the mountain; and Laban with his brothers have fixed [theirs] in the Mount of Gilead.

26 And Laban says to Jacob, “What have you done that you deceive my heart, and lead away my daughters as captives of the sword?

27 Why have you hidden yourself to flee, and deceive me, and have not declared to me, and I send you away with joy and with songs, with tambourine and with harp,

28 and have not permitted me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now you have acted foolishly in doing [so];

29 my hand is to God to do evil with you, but the God of your father last night has spoken to me, saying, Take heed to yourself from speaking with Jacob from good to evil.

30 And now, you have certainly gone, because you have been very desirous for the house of your father; why have you stolen my gods?”

31 And Jacob answers and says to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I said, Lest you violently take away your daughters from me;

32 with whomsoever you find your gods—he must not live; before our brothers discern for yourself what [is] with me, and take to yourself”: and Jacob has not known that Rachel has stolen them.

33 And Laban goes into the tent of Jacob, and into the tent of Leah, and into the tent of the two handmaidens, and has not found; and he goes out from the tent of Leah, and goes into the tent of Rachel.

34 And Rachel has taken the teraphim, and puts them in the furniture of the camel, and sits on them; and Laban feels all the tent, and has not found;

35 and she says to her father, “Let it not be displeasing in the eyes of my lord that I am not able to rise at your presence, for the way of women [is] on me”; and he searches, and has not found the teraphim.

36 And it is displeasing to Jacob, and he strives with Laban; and Jacob answers and says to Laban, “What [is] my transgression? What my sin, that you have burned after me?

37 For you have felt all my vessels: what have you found of all the vessels of your house? Set here before my brothers, and your brothers, and they decide between us both.

38 These twenty years I [am] with you: your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and the rams of your flock I have not eaten;

39 the torn I have not brought to you—I repay it—from my hand you seek it; I have been deceived by day, and I have been deceived by night;