31
About Jacob running away from Laban
1 After a while Jacob heard that Laban's sons were talking about him. They said, “Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father. He is rich now, but all those things of his were our father's first.” 2 Jacob also saw that Laban was no longer as friendly as he had been before. 3 Then Yahweh said to him, “Go back to your father's country and to your own people. I will go with you.”
4 So Jacob sent word to Rachel and Leah and they came and met him where his sheep and goats were. 5 He said to them, “I have noticed that your father has not been as friendly as he was at first. But my father's God has been with me, and he is still with me. 6 You both know that I have worked well for your father, 7 but he has cheated me. He should have paid me but he has changed my pay ten times. But God did not let Laban harm me. 8 Sometimes Laban said, ‘I will give you the spotted goats.’ Then all the goats had spotted young. Sometimes he said, ‘I will give you the striped goats.’ Then all the goats had striped young. 9 God took the goats away from your father and gave them to me.
10 “When the goats were taking each other, I had a dream. I saw that the male goats that were mating were striped or spotted. 11 Then God's angel spoke to me in the dream and said, ‘Jacob!’ ‘What is it?’ I answered. 12 He said, ‘Listen to God's message. God said, The male goats that are mating are striped or spotted. I am making this happen because I have seen all the harm that Laban has been doing to you. 13 I am the God who came and appeared to you while you were at Bethel. You stood up a stone there and poured olive oil on it to make it holy, and you made a promise to me. Now go back to the place where you were born.’ ”
14 Rachel and Leah answered Jacob, “When our father dies, there will be nothing here for us. 15 He treats us as he treats strangers. Long ago he sold us to you, but he has finished all the money you gave him. 16 Everything that God has taken from our father belongs to us now and to our children. So do whatever God has told you.”
17-18 So Jacob got his things ready to go back to his father in Canaan. He put his children and his wives on the camels, and sent the sheep and goats ahead with everything he had got in Mesopotamia. 19 Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and while he was away Rachel stole her father's carved gods. 20 Jacob didn't tell Laban that he was going away; he tricked him. 21 He took everything he owned and he and his family left in a hurry. They crossed the Euphrates River and went towards the hill country of Gilead.
About Laban chasing Jacob
22 Three days later some people told Laban that Jacob had run away. 23 So Laban took his relatives with him and chased him. They chased Jacob for seven days until they reached the hill country of Gilead, 24-25 where Jacob had set up his camp. Laban and his relatives set up their camp there too. That night Laban had a dream. God came to him in his dream and said to him, “Don't say anything wrong to Jacob.”
26 The next day Laban went to Jacob and said, “Why did you trick me and take my daughters just as people take women away in a war? 27 Why did you trick me and run away? You didn't tell me. If you had told me, I would have sent you off happily with singing and music. 28 You stopped me from kissing my grandchildren and my daughters before they left. That was foolish of you. 29 If I want to, I can harm you. But last night your father's God spoke to me in a dream. He warned me and told me not to say anything wrong to you. 30 I know you were always thinking about going home and that is why you left, but you have stolen my gods. Why did you steal them?”
31 Jacob answered, “I was afraid, because I thought that you would take your daughters away from me. 32 But if you find your gods with any of us here that person will die. Look around for anything of yours and take it, so that our relatives can watch you.” But Jacob didn't know that his wife Rachel had stolen Laban's gods.
33 Laban went to Jacob's tent and searched there first, then in Leah's and then in Bilhah's and Zilpah's tent, but he couldn't find his gods. Then he went to Rachel's tent. 34 Before this Rachel had taken them and put them in a camel's bag and she was sitting on top of the bag inside her tent. Laban searched there but he didn't find them. 35 Rachel said to her father, “Don't be angry with me, because I can't stand up. I am having my monthly period.” Laban looked everywhere but he couldn't find his gods.
36 Then Jacob got angry. “What have I done wrong? What law have I broken that you are looking for me? 37 You have looked through all my belongings, and what have you found that belongs to you? Put it here where your relatives and mine can see it. Let them decide which one of us is right.
38 “I have been with you now for twenty years. I looked after your sheep and goats and they never miscarried. I have not eaten even one ram. 39 When a wild animal killed any of your sheep I gave you some of mine. I didn't take them to you to show you so that you would know that it was not my fault. You said to me, ‘If anyone steals one of my sheep or goats during the day or during the night you will have to give me one of your own.’ 40 Many times I was hot in the daytime and cold at night. I couldn't sleep.
41 “It was like that the whole time I was with you. I worked for fourteen years for you to give me your daughters. Then afterwards I worked another six years for your sheep and goats. But you changed my pay ten times. 42 If God had not been with me you would have sent me away empty-handed. But the God of my fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac, saw my trouble and my work, and last night he decided between us.”
About Jacob and Laban making an agreement
43 Laban answered Jacob, “These women are my daughters and their children belong to me. And these sheep and goats are mine. Everything you see here belongs to me. But I can't do anything. I can't keep my daughters and their children. 44 So let us make an agreement. And let us make a pile of rocks so that we won't forget.”
45 So Jacob took a stone and stood it up as a special stone so that they would not forget their agreement. 46 He told his men to gather some rocks and pile them up. Then they ate a meal beside the pile of rocks. 47 Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha and Jacob called it Galeed. Both these names mean “rocks to remember.” 48 Laban said to Jacob, “These rocks are here today so that we will both remember our agreement afterwards,” and that is why Jacob called the place Galeed. 49 Laban also said, “May Yahweh watch over us while we are separated.” Because he said that, the place was also named Mizpah, which means “he will see us.”
50 Laban went on, “If you harm my daughters or if you marry any other women, even though I don't know about it, remember that God is watching us. 51-52 Look at these rocks that I have piled up here between us and this one special stone that I have stood up so that we will remember. I will never go past these rocks I have gathered. So I won't fight you. And you must never go past these rocks I have gathered today or this special stone. So you mustn't fight me. 53 Abraham's God who is also the God of Nahor will judge between us.”
Then Jacob promised to keep Laban's word and not change it. And when he made his promise he used the name of the God his father Isaac worshipped. 54 Then he killed a bullock and burned it on the mountain as a sacrifice for God. Then he asked his relatives to a meal, and after they had eaten they stayed on the mountain for the night.
55 The next morning Laban got up and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters goodbye, and then he went back home.