The First Book of Moses: Genesis

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- Chapter 31 -

One day, someone told Jacob that Laban’s sons were complaining and saying, “Jacob has become very rich by taking everything that belonged to our father.”

Jacob noticed that Laban was not acting friendly toward him as he had done before.

Then Yahweh said to Jacob, “Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will help you there.”

So Jacob sent a message to Rachel and Leah, telling them to come out to the pastures where his flocks of sheep and goats were.

When they arrived, he said to them, “I see that your father does not act friendly toward me as he did previously. But God, whom my father worshiped, has helped me.

You two know that I have worked very hard for your father.

He has cheated me many times by decreasing my wages. But God has not allowed him to do me physical harm.

When Laban said, ‘The speckled animals are the ones that I will give you to be your wages,’ then all the animals gave birth to young ones that were speckled. When he changed his mind and said, ‘The ones that have black and white stripes on them will be your wages,’ then all the animals gave birth to young ones that were striped.

In that way, God has taken away the livestock that belonged to your father and has given them to me.

One time, when the animals were mating, I had a dream. In my dream I looked up and was surprised to see that some of the male goats that were mating with the female goats had black and white stripes on them, some were speckled, and some were spotted.

In the dream, an angel came from God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ I replied, ‘I am here!’

He said to me, ’Look up and you will see that all the male goats that are mating have black and white stripes on them, or are speckled or spotted. This is happening because I have seen all that Laban has done to you.

I am the God who appeared to you at Bethel, where you set up a stone, poured olive oil on it and made a solemn promise to me. So now leave this land immediately and return to the land where you were born.’”

Rachel and Leah replied to him, “Our father will not give us anything more when he dies.

He treats us as though we were foreigners! The work that you did for him all these years was a payment that you gave him for us, but we will not inherit any of the wealth you produced for him. He has spent it all!

Certainly all of the wealth that God took away from our father belongs to us and to our children. So do whatever God has told you to do!”

Then Jacob put his children and his wives on camels.

He drove all his livestock just ahead of him as they went. He also took along all the other property and goods that he added to his own possessions while living in Paddan Aram. This is how they began their journey back to his father Isaac, who lived in the land of Canaan.

Now Laban had left to go shear his sheep. In his absence, Rachel stole the small wooden idols that were in her father’s tent.

Furthermore, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that they were planning to leave.

So Jacob and his family fled with all their possessions. They crossed the Euphrates River and then started traveling south toward the hill country of the region of Gilead.

Laban Pursues Jacob

On the third day after they left, someone told Laban that Jacob and his family were gone.

So he took some of his relatives with him and started to pursue Jacob. They walked for seven days and they caught up with him in the hill country of the region of Gilead.

Then God appeared to Laban in a dream at night. He said to him, “When you catch up to Jacob, be very careful what you say to him.”

The next day, by the time Laban caught up with Jacob, Jacob and his household had set up their tents in the hills of Gilead. So Laban and his relatives set up their tents there too.

Then Laban went to Jacob and said to him, “Why have you done this? You have deceived me by carrying away my daughters as though you had captured them in a war!

Why did you run away and deceive me? Why did you not tell me that you were going to leave, so that we could have rejoiced and sung while people played music on tambourines and harps before I said ‘goodbye’ to you?

You did not even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye before they left! What you have done was foolish!

My relatives and I have the power to harm you, but last night the God whom your father worships said to me in a dream, ‘Be very careful what you say to Jacob.’

Now I know you have left because you want to go back home. But why did you steal my idols?”

Jacob replied to Laban, “I did not tell you that we were planning to leave, because I was afraid that you would take your daughters away from me by force.

But if you find anyone here who has your idols, we will execute that person. While our relatives are watching, search for yourself to see if there is anything that belongs to you that is here with me. If you find anything, you can take it!” When Jacob said that, he did not know that Rachel had already stolen her father’s idols.

Then Laban went into Jacob’s tent, next into Leah’s tent, and then into the tent of the two female slaves and searched for the idols, but he did not find them. After he left their tents, he entered Rachel’s tent.

But Rachel had previously taken the idols and put them in the saddle of a camel, and she was sitting on the saddle. So when Laban searched all over for them inside Rachel’s tent, he did not find them.

Rachel said to her father, “Do not be angry with me, sir, but I cannot stand up in your presence to show respect for you, because I am having my menstrual period.” So even after searching more, Laban, he did not find his idols.

Then Jacob became angry. He said to Laban, “What crime did I commit? For what sin have you pursued me?

Now you have searched through all my possessions, and you have found nothing that belongs to you! If you have found anything, put it here in front of my relatives and your relatives, so that they can decide who is right, you or me!

I was with you for twenty years. In all that time, your sheep and goats have not miscarried. I have not killed and eaten any rams from your flocks.

When one of your animals was attacked and mauled by a wild animal, I did not bring it to you. I replaced the dead animal with a living one of my own animals. Whenever one of your animals was stolen, during the day or during the night, you demanded that I replace it with one of my own animals.

I suffered from the heat during the day and from the cold at night. I was often not even able to sleep!

I lived in your household for twenty years. I worked for you for fourteen years to marry your two daughters, and for six more years to buy some of your sheep and goats. During that time, you changed and reduced my wages ten times.

If God, the one whom my grandfather Abraham worshiped and before whom my father Isaac trembled in fear, had not been with me and helped me, you would have sent me away with nothing in my hands! But God saw how much I was suffering and how hard I was working, so last night he told you that what you have done to me was wrong.”

Jacob’s Covenant with Laban

Laban replied, “These two women are my daughters, and their children are my grandchildren, and the animals are my animals. Everything you see here is mine!

I cannot do anything in order to keep them, so we should make a peace agreement, you and I. It will serve as a witness between you and me.”

So Jacob took a large stone and set it on its end.

Then Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather some stones.” So they gathered some rocks and put them in a heap, and they ate some food there near the heap.

Laban gave the heap the Aramaic name Jegar Saha Dutha, but Jacob gave the heap the Hebrew name Galeed.

Laban said to Jacob, “This pile of rocks we have put here today will help us to remember our agreement.” That is why Jacob called it Galeed.

They also named the place Mizpah, which sounds like the Hebrew word that means “watchtower,” because Laban said, “We will ask Yahweh to watch you and me while we are separated from each other, so that we do not try to harm each other.

If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take other women to be your wives, even if no one tells me about it, do not forget that God sees what you and I are doing!”

Laban also said to Jacob, “You see this large stone and this pile of rocks that we have set up to be between us.

Both this pile of rocks and this large stone will remind us, that I will not go past these rocks to harm you and you will not go past these rocks to harm me.

May the God whom Abraham worshiped, and the god that Nahor worshiped, and the gods their ancestor Terah worshiped punish either one of us, if one of us harms the other.” Jacob solemnly promised by the God whom his father Isaac feared to do what they said in their peace agreement.

He offered a sacrifice to God there in the hill country, and he invited his relatives to eat with him. After they had eaten, they slept there that night.

The next morning Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters, and he asked God to bless them. Then Laban and his men left and returned home.

Jacob heard Laban’s sons’ words, saying, “Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s. He has obtained all this wealth from that which was our father’s.”

Jacob saw the expression on Laban’s face, and, behold, it was not toward him as before.

The LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”

Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock,

and said to them, “I see the expression on your father’s face, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me.

You know that I have served your father with all of my strength.

Your father has deceived me, and changed my wages ten times, but God didn’t allow him to hurt me.

If he said, ‘The speckled will be your wages,’ then all the flock bore speckled. If he said, ‘The streaked will be your wages,’ then all the flock bore streaked.

Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock, and given them to me.

During mating season, I lifted up my eyes, and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats which leaped on the flock were streaked, speckled, and grizzled.

The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’

He said, ‘Now lift up your eyes, and behold, all the male goats which leap on the flock are streaked, speckled, and grizzled, for I have seen all that Laban does to you.

I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you vowed a vow to me. Now arise, get out from this land, and return to the land of your birth.’”

Rachel and Leah answered him, “Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house?

Aren’t we considered as foreigners by him? For he has sold us, and has also used up our money.

For all the riches which God has taken away from our father are ours and our children’s. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.”

Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives on the camels,

and he took away all his livestock, and all his possessions which he had gathered, including the livestock which he had gained in Paddan Aram, to go to Isaac his father, to the land of Canaan.

Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep; and Rachel stole the teraphim

(a)

that were her father’s.

Jacob deceived Laban the Syrian, in that he didn’t tell him that he was running away.

So he fled with all that he had. He rose up, passed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead.

Laban Pursues Jacob

Laban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled.

He took his relatives with him, and pursued him seven days’ journey. He overtook him in the mountain of Gilead.

God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Be careful that you don’t speak to Jacob either good or bad.”

Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain, and Laban with his relatives encamped in the mountain of Gilead.

Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have deceived me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword?

Why did you flee secretly, and deceive me, and didn’t tell me, that I might have sent you away with mirth and with songs, with tambourine and with harp;

and didn’t allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now have you done foolishly.

It is in the power of my hand to hurt you, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful that you don’t speak to Jacob either good or bad.’

Now, you want to be gone, because you greatly longed for your father’s house, but why have you stolen my gods?”

Jacob answered Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I said, ‘Lest you should take your daughters from me by force.’

Anyone you find your gods with shall not live. Before our relatives, discern what is yours with me, and take it.” For Jacob didn’t know that Rachel had stolen them.

Laban went into Jacob’s tent, into Leah’s tent, and into the tent of the two female servants; but he didn’t find them. He went out of Leah’s tent, and entered into Rachel’s tent.

Now Rachel had taken the teraphim, put them in the camel’s saddle, and sat on them. Laban felt around all the tent, but didn’t find them.

She said to her father, “Don’t let my lord be angry that I can’t rise up before you; for I’m having my period.” He searched, but didn’t find the teraphim.

Jacob was angry, and argued with Laban. Jacob answered Laban, “What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me?

Now that you have felt around in all my stuff, what have you found of all your household stuff? Set it here before my relatives and your relatives, that they may judge between us two.

“These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not cast their young, and I haven’t eaten the rams of your flocks.

That which was torn of animals, I didn’t bring to you. I bore its loss. Of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.

This was my situation: in the day the drought 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 have changed my wages ten times.

Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night.”

Jacob’s Covenant with Laban

Laban answered Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine! What can I do today to these my daughters, or to their children whom they have borne?

Now come, let’s make a covenant, you and I. Let it be for a witness between me and you.”

Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar.

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

Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha,(b) but Jacob called it Galeed.(c)

Laban said, “This heap is witness between me and you today.” Therefore it was named Galeed

and Mizpah, for he said, “The LORD watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another.

If you afflict my daughters, or if you take wives in addition to my daughters, no man is with us; behold, God is witness between me and you.”

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

May this heap be a witness, and the pillar be a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and that you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, for harm.

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

Jacob offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread, and stayed all night in the mountain.

Early in the morning, Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Laban departed and returned to his place.

Footnotes

(a)31:19 teraphim were household idols that may have been associated with inheritance rights to the household property.

(b)31:47 “Jegar Sahadutha” means “Witness Heap” in Aramaic.