Genesis 31

¹Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying , Jacob has taken all that was our father’s , and from what was our father’s he has gained all this wealth .

²And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before .

³Then the Lord said to Jacob , Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred , and I will be with you.

⁴So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was

⁵and said to them, I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before . But the God of my father has been with me.

⁶You know that I have served your father with all my strength ,

⁷yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times . But God did not permit him to harm me .

⁸If he said , The spotted shall be your wages , then all the flock bore spotted ; and if he said , The striped shall be your wages , then all the flock bore striped .

⁹Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me.

¹⁰In the breeding season of the flock I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the goats that mated with the flock were striped , spotted , and mottled .

¹¹Then the angel of God said to me in the dream , Jacob , and I said , Here I am !

¹²And he said , Lift up your eyes and see , all the goats that mate with the flock are striped , spotted , and mottled , for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.

¹³I am the God of Bethel , where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise , go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred .

¹⁴Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, Is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father’s house ?

¹⁵Are we not regarded by him as foreigners ? For he has sold us, and he has indeed devoured our money .

¹⁶All the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children . Now then, whatever God has said to you, do .

¹⁷So Jacob arose and set his sons and his wives on camels .

¹⁸He drove away all his livestock , all his property that he had gained , the livestock in his possession that he had acquired in Paddan-aram , to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac .

¹⁹Laban had gone to shear his sheep , and Rachel stole her father’s household gods .

²⁰And Jacob tricked Laban the Aramean , by not telling him that he intended to flee .

²¹He fled with all that he had and arose and crossed the Euphrates , and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead .

²²When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled ,

²³he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for seven days and followed close after him into the hill country of Gilead .

²⁴But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, Be careful not to say anything to Jacob , either good or bad .

²⁵And Laban overtook Jacob . Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country , and Laban with his kinsmen pitched tents in the hill country of Gilead .

²⁶And Laban said to Jacob , What have you done , that you have tricked me and driven away my daughters like captives of the sword ?

²⁷Why did you flee secretly and trick me , and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with mirth and songs , with tambourine and lyre ?

²⁸And why did you not permit me to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? Now you have done foolishly .

²⁹It is in my power to do you harm . But the God of your father spoke to me last night , saying , Be careful not to say anything to Jacob , either good or bad .

³⁰And now you have gone away because you longed greatly for your father’s house , but why did you steal my gods ?

³¹Jacob answered and said to Laban , Because I was afraid , for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force .

³²Anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live . In the presence of our kinsmen point out what I have that is yours, and take it. Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

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

³⁴Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel’s saddle and sat on them. Laban felt all about the tent , but did not find them .

³⁵And she said to her father , Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you , for the way of women is upon me. So he searched but did not find the household gods .

³⁶Then Jacob became angry and berated Laban . Jacob said to Laban , What is my offense ? What is my sin , that you have hotly pursued me ?

³⁷For you have felt through all my goods ; what have you found of all your household goods ? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen , that they may decide between us two .

³⁸These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried , and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks .

³⁹What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself. From my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night .

⁴⁰There I was: by day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night , and my sleep fled from my eyes .

⁴¹These 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 have changed my wages ten times .

⁴²If the God of my father , the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac , had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed . God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night .

⁴³Then Laban answered and said to Jacob , The daughters are my daughters , the children are my children , the flocks are my flocks , and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day for these my daughters or for their children whom they have borne ?

⁴⁴Come now , let us make a covenant , you and I. And let it be a witness between you and me .

⁴⁵So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar .

⁴⁶And Jacob said to his kinsmen , Gather stones . And they took stones and made a heap , and they ate there by the heap .

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

⁴⁸Laban said , This heap is a witness between you and me today . Therefore he named it Galeed ,

⁴⁹and Mizpah , for he said , The Lord watch between you and me , when we are out of one another’s sight .

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

⁵¹Then Laban said to Jacob , See this heap and the pillar , which I have set between you and me .

⁵²This heap is a witness , and the pillar is a witness , that I will not pass over this heap to you, and you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, to do harm .

⁵³The 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 ,

⁵⁴and Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country and called his kinsmen to eat bread . They ate bread and spent the night in the hill country .

⁵⁵Early in the morning Laban arose and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned home .