Jacob Flees from Laban
1. Now Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken away all that belonged to our father and has built all this wealth at our father’s expense.”
2. And Jacob noticed that Laban’s attitude toward him was not as it had been before.
3. Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”
4. So Jacob sent word and called Rachel and Leah to the field, where his flocks were.
5. And he said to them, “I see that your father’s attitude toward me is not as it was before, but the God of my father has been with me.
6. You know that I have worked for your father with all my strength,
7. yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. However, God has not allowed him to harm me.
8. If he said, ‘The speckled will be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore speckled offspring. And if he said, ‘The streaked will be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore streaked offspring.
9. So God has taken away your father’s livestock and has given them to me.
10. And when the flocks were breeding, I saw in a dream that the streaked, spotted, and speckled males were mating with the females.
11. In that dream the Angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ And I answered, ‘Here I am.’
12. And He said, ‘Look up and see: all the streaked, spotted, and speckled males are mating with the females, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you.
13. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to Me. Now arise, leave this land at once, and return to your homeland.’”
14. Then Rachel and Leah replied, “Do we still have any portion or inheritance in our father’s house?
15. Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? Not only has he sold us, but he has certainly squandered the proceeds.
16. Surely all the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. So do whatever God has told you.”
17. So Jacob got up, put his children and wives on camels,
18. and set out with all his livestock and all the possessions he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.
19. Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father’s household idols.
20. Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing.
21. So he fled with all that he had, crossed the Euphrates River, and headed for the hill country of Gilead.
Laban Pursues Jacob
22. On the third day Laban was informed that Jacob had fled.
23. So he took his kinsmen with him, pursued Jacob for seven days, and overtook him in the hill country of Gilead.
24. But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and warned him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
25. When Laban overtook Jacob, Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban and his kinsmen also pitched their tents in the hill country of Gilead.
26. “What have you done?” Laban demanded of Jacob. “You have deceived me and led my daughters away like captives of the sword!
27. Why did you secretly flee from me, deceive me, and not tell me? I would have sent you away with joy and singing, with tambourines and harps.
28. But you did not even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters. You have done a foolish thing.
29. I have power to do you harm, but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’
30. Now you have surely gone away because you longed for your father’s house. But why have you stolen my gods?”
31. Jacob answered, “I was afraid, for I thought you would take your daughters from me by force.
32. But if you find anyone who has your gods, he shall not live. Before our relatives, discern for yourself what is with me and take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
33. So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, Leah’s tent, and the tents of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s.
34. Now Rachel had taken Laban’s household idols, put them in the saddlebag of her camel, and was sitting on them. Laban searched everything in the tent but found nothing.
35. And Rachel said to her father, “Sir, please do not be angry that I cannot stand up before you; I am having my period.” So Laban searched, but he could not find the household idols.
36. Then Jacob became incensed and brought charges against Laban. “What is my crime?” he said. “What sin have I committed that you have pursued me?
37. Now that you have searched all my possessions, what have you found that belongs to your household? Put it here before my kinsmen and yours, and let them decide between the two of us.
38. In the twenty years I have been with you, your ewes and goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock.
39. I did not bring you any of the flock torn by wild beasts; I myself bore the loss. You demanded payment from me for what was stolen by day or by night.
40. There I was—the heat consumed me by day and the frost by night, and sleep fled from my eyes.
41. For twenty years in your household I served you—fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks—and you changed my wages ten times.
42. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely by now you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, and last night He rendered judgment.”
Jacob’s Covenant with Laban
43. Then Laban answered Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks! Everything you see is mine. Yet what can I do today about these daughters of mine, or about the children they have borne?
44. So now, come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it serve as a witness between you and me.”
45. So Jacob picked out a stone and set it up as a pillar.
46. Jacob also said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a mound, and they ate there by the mound.
47. Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed.
48. Then Laban declared, “This mound is a witness between you and me today.” Therefore it was called Galeed,
49. and it was also called Mizpah, because he said, “May the LORD watch between you and me when we are out of each other’s sight.
50. If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives, though you mistreat my daughters or take other wives, though no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me.”
51. “See this mound and this pillar,” Laban said, “which I have set up between you and me.
52. This mound is a witness and this pillar is a witness that I will not pass beyond this mound to you, and you will not pass beyond this mound and pillar 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. and offered a sacrifice there on the hillside and invited his relatives to eat a meal. So they ate the meal and spent the night on the hillside.
55. Early in the morning Laban got up, kissed his grandchildren and daughters, and blessed them. Then he left to return home.