Genesis 31:32-55 ▼

32 The one with whom you find your gods shall not live; in the presence of our relatives point out what is yours among my belongings and take it for yourself.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, and into Leah’s tent, and into the tent of the two slave women, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent.

34 Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them in the camel’s saddlebag, and she sat on them. So Laban searched through all the tent, but did not find them.

35 And she said to her father, “May my lord not be angry that I cannot stand in your presence, because the way of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the household idols.

36 Then Jacob became angry and argued with Laban; and Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me?

37 Though you have searched through all my property, what have you found of all your household property? Set it here in front of my relatives and your relatives, so that they may decide between the two of us.

38 For these twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the rams of your flocks.

39 I did not even bring to you that which was torn by wild animals; I took the loss myself. You demanded it of my hand whether 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 my sleep fled from my eyes.

41 For these twenty years I have been in your house; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six 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 for me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, so He rendered judgment last night.”

43 Then Laban replied to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my grandchildren, the flocks are my flocks, and everything that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to these daughters of mine or to their children to whom they have given birth?

44 So now come, let’s make a covenant, you and I, and it shall be a witness between you and me.”

45 Then Jacob took a stone and set it up as a memorial stone.

46 Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap.

47 Now Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.

48 Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me this day.” Therefore it was named Galeed,

49 and Mizpah, for he said, “May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are absent one from the other.

50 If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.”

51 Laban also said to Jacob, “Behold this heap and behold the memorial stone which I have set between you and me.

52 This heap is a witness, and the memorial stone is a witness, that I will not pass by this heap to you for harm, and you will not pass by this heap and this memorial stone to me, for harm.

53 The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac.

54 Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and called his relatives to the meal; and they ate the meal and spent the night on the mountain.

55 Then early in the morning Laban got up, and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place.