Jacob Prepares to Leave Laban
1Jacob heard what Laban’s sons were saying: “Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father, and from what belonged to our father he has built up all this wealth.” 2And Jacob saw from Laban’s face that his attitude toward him was no longer what it had been before. 3Then Yahweh said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers, to your kindred, and I will be with you.” 4So Jacob sent word and called Rachel and Leah out to the field where his flock was, 5and said to them, “I see that your father’s attitude toward me is no longer what it was before, but the God of my father has been with me. 6You yourselves 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 has not allowed him to harm me. 8If he said, ‘The speckled ones will be your wages,’ then all the flock bore speckled young; and if he said, ‘The striped ones will be your wages,’ then all the flock bore striped young. 9In this way God has taken away your father’s livestock and given it to me. 10Once, at the time when the flock was mating, I lifted my eyes and saw in a dream that the male goats mating with the flock were striped, speckled, and spotted. 11The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob.’ ‘Here I am,’ I answered. 12He said, ‘Look up and see — all the male goats mating with the flock are striped, speckled, and spotted, for I have seen everything Laban has been doing to you. 13I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now get up, leave this land, and return to the land of your birth.’” 14Rachel and Leah answered him, “Do we still have any share or inheritance in our father’s house? 15Does he not regard us as foreigners? He has sold us, and he has used up what was paid for us. 16Surely all the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. So now, do whatever God has told you.”
Jacob’s Flight
17So Jacob got up and put his children and his wives on camels, 18and he drove off all his livestock and all the goods he had accumulated, the livestock he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan. 19Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father’s household gods. 20And Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing. 21So he fled with everything he had, crossed the Euphrates, and set out toward the hill country of Gilead.
Laban Pursues Jacob
22On the third day, Laban was told that Jacob had fled. 23So he took his relatives with him and pursued Jacob for seven days, catching up with him in the hill country of Gilead. 24But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, good or bad.” 25When Laban caught up with Jacob, Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban and his relatives camped there too, in the hill country of Gilead. 26Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You have deceived me, and carried off my daughters like captives of war. 27Why did you flee secretly and deceive me, instead of telling me, so that I could have sent you off with joy and singing, with tambourines and lyres? 28You did not even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye. You have acted foolishly. 29I have the power to harm you, but the God of your father said to me last night, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, good or bad.’ 30Now you have gone off because you longed so much for your father’s house. But why did you steal my gods?” 31Jacob answered Laban, “I was afraid, because I thought you would take your daughters from me by force. 32But if you find your gods with anyone here, that person will not live. In front of our relatives, look through what I have and take whatever is yours.” Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them. 33So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, then Leah’s tent, then the tent of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. Then he came out of Leah’s tent and went into Rachel’s tent. 34Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them inside the camel’s saddlebag and was sitting on them. Laban searched through the whole tent but found nothing. 35Rachel said to her father, “Do not be angry, my lord, that I cannot rise before you — I am having my period.” So he searched, but he did not find the household gods.
Jacob’s Rebuke of Laban
36Then Jacob became angry and confronted Laban. “What is my crime?” he said. “What sin of mine has made you hunt me down like this? 37You have gone through all my belongings — what have you found of your household goods? Put it here in front of your relatives and mine, and let them decide between the two of us. 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 flock. 39I never brought you any animal torn by wild beasts — I bore the loss myself. You demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen, whether by day or by night. 40This was my life: the heat consumed me by day and the frost by night, and sleep fled from my eyes. 41These twenty years I have been in your household. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you changed my wages ten times. 42If the God of my father — the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac — had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the labor of my hands, and last night he rendered judgment.” 43Laban answered Jacob, “These daughters are my daughters, these children are my children, and this flock is my flock. Everything you see belongs to me. But what can I do today about my daughters, or about the children they have borne?
The Covenant at Galeed
44Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it stand as a witness between us.” 45So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. 46Then Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a mound, and they ate there beside the mound. 47Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. 48Laban said, “This mound is a witness between you and me today.” That is why it was named Galeed — 49and also Mizpah, because he said, “May Yahweh keep watch between you and me when we are out of each other’s sight. 50If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take other wives besides my daughters, remember — even though no one else is with us, God is a witness between you and me.” 51Laban also said to Jacob, “Here is this mound, and here is this pillar that I have set up between you and me. 52This mound is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not pass beyond this mound to your side to harm you, and that you will not pass beyond this mound and this pillar to my side to harm me. 53May 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. 54Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the hill country and invited his relatives to the meal. They ate the meal and spent the night on the hill.
