And he heard the words of Laban’s sons: “Jacob has taken all that was our father’s — and from what was our father’s he has made all this wealth.”
And Jacob saw the face of Laban — and look, it was not toward him as before.
And the LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your birthplace, and I will be with you.”
And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field, to his flock,
and he said to them: “I see your father’s face, that it is not toward me as before — but the God of my father has been with me.
And you yourselves know that with all my strength I have served your father.
And your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times over — but God has not allowed him to do me evil.
If he said, ‘The speckled shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore speckled; and if he said, ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore striped.
So God has taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me.
And it happened at the breeding time of the flock, that I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream — and look, the male goats mounting the flock were striped, speckled, and mottled.
And the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob!’ And I said, ‘Here I am.’
And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes, please, and see: all the male goats mounting the flock are striped, speckled, and mottled — for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.
I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you vowed a vow to me. Now rise, go out of this land, and return to the land of your birth.’”
And Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, “Do we still have any portion or inheritance in our father’s house?
Are we not counted by him as foreigners? For he has sold us — and he has gone on devouring our silver.
Truly, all the wealth that God has taken away from our father — it belongs to us and to our children. And now, everything God has said to you, do.”
And Jacob rose and lifted his sons and his wives onto the camels,
and he drove all his livestock, and all the possessions he had gathered — the livestock of his getting, which he had gathered in Paddan-aram — to come to Isaac his father, to the land of Canaan.
Now Laban had gone to shear his flock, and Rachel stole the household gods that were her father’s.
And Jacob stole the heart of Laban the Aramean, by not telling him that he was fleeing.
And he fled, he and all that was his; and he rose and crossed the River, and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.
Laban Pursues Jacob
And it was told to Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled.
And he took his brothers with him and pursued after him a journey of seven days, and caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.
And God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream of the night and said to him, “Watch yourself, that you speak to Jacob neither good nor evil.”
And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his brothers pitched in the hill country of Gilead.
And Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You have stolen my heart and driven off my daughters like captives of the sword.
Why did you hide your flight and steal away from me, and not tell me — so that I could have sent you off with joy and with songs, with tambourine and with lyre?
And you did not let me kiss my sons and my daughters. Now you have acted foolishly.
It is in the power of my hand to do you all evil — but the God of your father spoke to me last night: ‘Watch yourself, that you speak to Jacob neither good nor evil.’
And now — you have gone because you longed so deeply for your father’s house. But why did you steal my gods?”
And Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid; for I said, ‘Or you would tear your daughters away from me.’
With whomever you find your gods — that one shall not live. In front of our brothers, identify what is yours with me, and take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
And Laban went into Jacob’s tent, and into Leah’s tent, and into the tent of the two servant women — and he did not find them. And he went out of Leah’s tent and came into Rachel’s tent.
Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel’s saddle, and sat on them. And Laban felt through the whole tent and did not find them.
And she said to her father, “Let it not burn in the eyes of my lord that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me.” And he searched, and did not find the household gods.
And it burned in Jacob, and he quarreled with Laban. And Jacob answered and said to Laban, “What is my crime? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me?
Now that you have felt through all my things, what have you found of all your household’s things? Set it here, in front of my brothers and your brothers, and let them decide between the two of us.
These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and the rams of your flock I have not eaten.
What was torn by beasts I did not bring to you — I bore the loss myself; from my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.
This was my lot: by day the heat consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes.
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 over.
If the God of my father — the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac — had not been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and he decided last night.”
Jacob’s Covenant with Laban
And Laban answered and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, and the sons are my sons, and the flock is my flock — all that you see, it is mine. But for my daughters — what can I do today for these, or for their sons whom they have borne?
And now come, let us cut a covenant, I and you, and let it be a witness between me and you.”
And Jacob took a stone and raised it up as a pillar.
And Jacob said to his brothers, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there on the heap.
And Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.
And Laban said, “This heap is a witness between me and you today.” Therefore its name was called Galeed —
and also Mizpah, because he said, “May the LORD keep watch between me and you when we are hidden from one another.
If you afflict my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters — no man is with us; see, God is witness between me and you.”
And Laban said to Jacob, “Look at this heap, and look at the pillar that I have set between me and you.
This heap is witness, and the pillar is witness, that I will not pass beyond this heap to you, and that you will not pass beyond this heap and this pillar to me, for evil.
May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor — the God of their father — judge between us.” And Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac.
And Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country, and called his brothers to eat bread. And they ate bread, and spent the night in the hill country.
And Laban rose early in the morning, and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them; and Laban went and returned to his place.
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