Jacob returns to his land
1 Jacob learned that the sons of Laban were saying, “Jacob has taken everything our father owned, and it is at our father’s expense that he has accumulated this fortune.”
2 Jacob un der stood from Laban’s expression that his attitude towards him was no longer the same.
3 Then Yahweh said to Jacob, “Go back to your homeland, the country of your kinsmen. I will be with you.”
4 Jacob had Rachel and Leah called to the field where his flocks were.
5 There he said to them, “I see that your father no longer looks kindly on me, but the God of my father has been with me.
6 You yourselves know that I have served your father with all my strength.
7 But your father has not been straight with me, changing my wages ten times. But God has not allowed him to do me harm.
8 Whenever he said: ‘The spotted ones will be your wages,’ then all the ewes had spotted lambs. And whenever he said: ‘The streaked ones will be your wages,’ then all the ewes produced streaked lambs.
9 It is God who has taken your father’s livestock in that way and has given it to me.
10 For, in the breeding season, when I was looking up, I saw in a dream that the rams mating with the ewes were streaked, spotted or speckled.
11 And the angel in the dream said to me: ‘Jacob.’ ‘Here I am,’ I replied.
12 He then said: ‘Look up and see that all the rams mating with the ewes are streaked, spotted or speckled. I have seen all that Laban has done to you.
13 I am the God who appeared to you at Bethel where you anointed a pillar and vowed to me by oath. Now get ready, leave this country and return to the land of your birth.”
14 Then Rachel and Leah replied, “Have we still any share in the inheritance of our father’s estate?
15 Haven’t we been regarded by him as foreigners since he has sold us, and well and truly used up our money?
16 Surely all the fortune that God has taken from our father belongs to us and to our children. So do then all that God has told you.”
17 So Jacob got ready and put his children and his wives on camels.
18 He also took with him all his livestock and all that he had accumulated (the livestock he had acquired at Paddan-aram) to return to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.
19 Rachel then took advantage of Laban. While he was shearing his sheep she stole her father’s family gods.
20 So Jacob tricked Laban in not letting him know he was running away.
21 He fled with all he had, and after crossing the river Euphrates he made for the hill country of Gilead.
22 Three days later Laban heard that Jacob had fled.
23 Taking his brothers with him, he followed Jacob for seven days and caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.
24 God appeared to Laban in a dream at night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything—either good or bad—to Jacob.”
25 Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead when Laban overtook him. Laban and his brothers also encamped on the hills of Gilead.
26 Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, tricking me and carrying my daughters off like prisoners of war?
27 Why did you run away secretly and cheat me? Why didn’t you tell me? I could have sent you off with joy and singing and the music of tambourine and harp.
28 You didn’t even let me kiss my grandchildren and daughters good bye. You have done a foolish thing
29 and I have power to harm you, but last night the God of your father warned me saying: ‘Be careful not to say anything—good or evil—to Jacob.’
30 Now if you have gone off because you were planning to return to your father’s house, why did you steal my gods?”
31 Jacob replied to Laban, “It was because I was afraid you would take your daughters from me!
32 But whoever is found in possession of your gods will not live. In the presence of our relatives see for yourself if anything that belongs to you is here with me and, if so, take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the gods.
33 Laban entered Jacob’s tent, then Leah’s and then the tent of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. When La ban came out of Leah’s tent, he entered the tent of Rachel.
34 Rachel had taken the gods, but put them into the camel’s saddle, and sat on them. Laban felt all about the tent but did not find them.
35 Ra chel said to her father, “Do not be angry with me, my lord, if I do not stand in your presence, for I am having my period.” So he searched but did not find the gods.
36 Then Jacob became angry and rebuked Laban. “What is my crime?” he asked him. “What sin of mine makes you hound me down?
37 Now that you have searched through all my belongings, have you found anything that belongs to your household? If so, let it be seen here in the presence of your family and mine and let them judge between the two of us.
38 During the twenty years I have been with you, your ewes and your she-goats have not miscarried and I haven’t eaten any of the rams from your flocks.
39 I haven’t brought you any animal torn by a wild beast. I suffered the loss and you demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen by day or night.
40 During the day I have been stifled by the heat and at night I have suffered from the cold, and sleep has left my eyes.
41 It’s twenty years that I’ve been with you. I worked fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and ten times you have altered my wages.
42 If the God of my father Abraham and the Fearsome God of Isaac had not been with me, you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands and last night he passed sentence.”
43 Laban answered and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, these sheep are my sheep and all that you see are mine. How can I harm today these daughters of mine or their children?
44 Come now, let us make a treaty, you and me, and let it be a witness between us.”
45 Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar.
46 He then said to his kinsmen, “Collect stones.” So they gathered stones and piled them up, and they ate there by the pile.
47 Laban called it Jegar-saha du tha, and Jacob called it, Galeed.
48 Laban said, “This pile of stones is a witness between you and me today.” That is why it was called Galeed;
49 and it was also known as Mizpah because Laban had said, “May Yahweh watch between me and you when we are no longer in sight of each other.
50 If you harm my daughters or take other wives besides my daughters, even though no man is with us, remember that God is witness between you and me.”
51 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Here is the pile and the pillar which I have set between you and me.
52 This pile and this pillar will witness that I will not pass beyond this pile to harm you and that you will not pass beyond this pile and pillar to harm me.
53 May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor judge between us!” So Jacob swore by the Fearful God of his father Isaac.
54 Jacob also offered a sacrifice on the mountain and invited his brothers to the meal. After they had eaten, they spent the night there.