Genesis 31

Divine Instruction to Return Genesis 31:6–13

⁶Verse 6. You know that I have served your father with all of my strength. ⁷Verse 7. Your father has deceived me, and changed my wages ten times, but God didn’t allow him to hurt me. ⁸Verse 8. If he said this, ‘The speckled will be your wages,’ then all the flock bore speckled. If he said this, ‘The streaked will be your wages,’ then all the flock bore streaked. ⁹Verse 9. Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock, and given them to me. ¹⁰Verse 10. 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.

¹¹Verse 11. The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’ ¹²Verse 12. 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. ¹³Verse 13. 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 Agree to Leave Genesis 31:14–21

¹⁴Verse 14. Rachel and Leah answered him, “Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house? ¹⁵Verse 15. Aren’t we considered as foreigners by him? For he has sold us, and has also used up our money. ¹⁶Verse 16. For all the riches which God has taken away from our father, that is ours and our children’s. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.” ¹⁷Verse 17. Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives on the camels, ¹⁸Verse 18. 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.

¹⁹Verse 19. Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep: and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father’s. ²⁰Verse 20. Jacob deceived Laban the Syrian, in that he didn’t tell him that he was running away. ²¹Verse 21. 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 Genesis 31:22–30

²²Verse 22. Laban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled. ²³Verse 23. He took his relatives with him, and pursued him seven days’ journey. He overtook him in the mountain of Gilead. ²⁴Verse 24. 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.” ²⁵Verse 25. 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. ²⁶Verse 26. Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have deceived me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword?

²⁷Verse 27. 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; ²⁸Verse 28. and didn’t allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now have you done foolishly. ²⁹Verse 29. 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.’ ³⁰Verse 30. Now, you want to be gone, because you greatly longed for your father’s house, but why have you stolen my gods?”

The Confrontation Genesis 31:31–36

³¹Verse 31. Jacob answered Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I said, ‘Lest you should take your daughters from me by force.’ ³²Verse 32. 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. ³³Verse 33. 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. ³⁴Verse 34. 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.

³⁵Verse 35. 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. ³⁶Verse 36. Jacob was angry, and argued with Laban. Jacob answered Laban, “What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me?

Jacob's Justification Genesis 31:37–42

³⁷Verse 37. 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. ³⁸Verse 38. “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. ³⁹Verse 39. 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. ⁴⁰Verse 40. This was my situation: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my eyes.

⁴¹Verse 41. 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. ⁴²Verse 42. 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.”

Covenant Between Jacob and Laban Genesis 31:43–55

⁴³Verse 43. 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: and what can I do today to these my daughters, or to their children whom they have borne? ⁴⁴Verse 44. Now come, let us make a covenant, you and I; and let it be for a witness between me and you.” ⁴⁵Verse 45. Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. ⁴⁶Verse 46. Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” They took stones, and made a heap. They ate there by the heap. ⁴⁷Verse 47. Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.

⁴⁸Verse 48. Laban said, “This heap is witness between me and you today.” Therefore it was named Galeed ⁴⁹Verse 49. and Mizpah, for he said, “Yahweh watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another. ⁵⁰Verse 50. If you afflict my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, no man is with us; behold, God is witness between me and you.” ⁵¹Verse 51. Laban said to Jacob, “See this heap, and see the pillar, which I have set between me and you. ⁵²Verse 52. 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.

⁵³Verse 53. 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. ⁵⁴Verse 54. Jacob offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread, and stayed all night in the mountain. ⁵⁵Verse 55. Early in the morning, Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Laban departed and returned to his place.