Genesis 31

1 Now Jacob heard the words of Laban’s sons, who were saying, “Jacob has taken everything that was our father’s — out of our father’s property he has gotten all this glory.” 2 And Jacob saw Laban’s face — and look, it was not toward him as it had been before. 3 And the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your father and to your family, and I will be with you.” 4 So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah out to the plain where the flocks were, 5 and he said to them, “I see your father’s face — that it is not toward me as it was before. 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 cheated me and changed my wages — the ten lambs. Yet God did not give him power to harm me. [a] 8 If he said, ‘The speckled shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore speckled. And if he said, ‘The white shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore white. 9 So God has taken away all your father’s cattle and given them to me. 10 And when the flock was conceiving, I looked up in a dream, and saw the he-goats and the rams leaping on the sheep and the she-goats — speckled and streaked and spotted with ash-gray spots. 11 And the messenger of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob.’ And I said, ‘What is it?’ [h] 12 And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see: the he-goats and the rams leaping on the sheep and the she-goats, speckled and streaked and spotted with ash-gray spots — for I have seen everything Laban is doing to you. 13 I am the God who appeared to you in the place of God, where you anointed a pillar to me and vowed a vow to me. Now rise, leave this land, and go to the land of your birth — and I will be with you.’” [b] 14 And Rachel and Leah answered him, “Do we still have any portion or inheritance in our father’s house? 15 Are we not counted as strangers by him? He has sold us, and eaten up our money entirely. 16 All the wealth and the glory that God has taken from our father belongs to us and to our children. So now — do whatever God has told you.”

17 Then Jacob rose and set his wives and his children on the camels, 18 and took away all his possessions and all his goods that he had gained in Mesopotamia, to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan. 19 Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep — and Rachel stole her father’s idols. 20 And Jacob kept the matter hidden from Laban the Syrian, not telling him that he was running away. 21 So he fled with all that was his, crossed the river, and headed for the mountain of Gilead. 22 On the third day, Laban the Syrian was told that Jacob had fled. 23 And taking his kinsmen with him, he pursued him seven days’ journey, and overtook him at Mount Gilead. 24 But God came to Laban the Syrian in his sleep by night and said to him, “Watch yourself — never speak evil things to Jacob.”

25 So Laban overtook Jacob. Jacob had pitched his tent on the mountain, and Laban stationed his kinsmen on Mount Gilead. 26 And Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? Why did you run away in secret, and rob me, and lead my daughters away like captives taken by the sword? 27 If only you had told me — I would have sent you off with celebration, with songs, with timbrels and harp. 28 I was not even allowed to kiss my children and my daughters goodbye. You have acted foolishly. 29 My hand has the power to hurt you — but the God of your father spoke to me yesterday, saying, ‘Watch yourself: never speak evil words to Jacob.’ 30 So now, go your way — you have been longing for your father’s house. But why did you steal my gods?” 31 And Jacob answered Laban, “I said to myself: you might take your daughters away from me, and everything that is mine.” 32 “Point out anything of yours that I have, and take it.” But he found nothing with him. And Jacob said, “Whoever you find your gods with — he shall not live, here in the presence of our kinsmen.” And Jacob did not know that his wife Rachel had stolen them. 33 So Laban went in and searched Leah’s house, and found nothing. He left Leah’s house and searched Jacob’s house, and the house of the two servant girls, and found nothing. Then he went into Rachel’s house. [g] 34 Now Rachel had taken the idols and tucked them into the camel’s saddle-packs, and was sitting on them. 35 And she said to her father, “Do not be angry, sir. I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me.” And Laban searched through the whole house, and did not find the idols.

36 Then Jacob grew angry and confronted Laban. And Jacob answered Laban, “What is my wrong? What is my sin, that you have chased after me, 37 and searched through all the goods of my house? What have you found of all the goods of your house? Set it out here, in front of your kinsmen and my kinsmen, and let them judge between the two of us. 38 These twenty years I have been with you: your sheep and your she-goats never failed to bear, and I never ate the rams of your flock. 39 What wild beasts killed, I never brought to you — I made the loss good myself, thefts of the day and thefts of the night alike. 40 By day the heat consumed me, and by night the frost — and sleep fled from my eyes. 41 These twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years among your sheep — and you falsely reckoned my wages, the ten lambs. 42 If the God of my father Abraham, and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would have sent me away empty now. God saw my humiliation and the labor of my hands — and yesterday he rebuked you.”

43 And Laban answered Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, and the sons are my sons, and the cattle are my cattle — everything you see is mine, and my daughters’. But what can I do today about them, or about the children they have borne? 44 So come now, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between me and you.” And he said to him, “Look — there is no one with us. See: God is witness between me and you.” 45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. 46 And Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” And they gathered stones and made a heap, and they ate and drank there on the heap. And Laban said to him, “This heap is a witness between me and you today.” 47 And Laban called it the Heap of Testimony, and Jacob called it the Witness Heap. [c] 48 And Laban said to Jacob, “Look at this heap, and this pillar, which I have set between me and you: this heap is witness, and this pillar is witness.” That is why its name was called The Heap Witnesses, 49 and The Vision — of which he said, “Let God watch between me and you, now that we are parting from one another. [d] 50 If you mistreat my daughters, or take wives in addition to my daughters — look, no one is with us to see.” [e] 51 And Laban said to Jacob, “Here is this heap, and this pillar — a witness: [f] 52 I will not cross over this heap toward you, and you shall not cross over this heap and this pillar toward me, for harm. 53 May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor judge between us.” And Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac. 54 And Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and called his kinsmen, and they ate and drank, and spent the night on the mountain. 55 And Laban rose in the morning, kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Then Laban turned back, and went home to his own place.