Genesis 31:19-35 ▼

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.