Shared Word Translation
Genesis 31
Jacob Flees from Laban
Now Jacob heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken all that belonged to our father, and from what belonged to our father he has gained all this wealth.” And Jacob saw that Laban’s face was not toward him as before. Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”
So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was, and said to them, “I see that your father’s face is not toward me as before, but the God of my father has been with me. You yourselves know that I have served your father with all my strength. Yet your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to harm me. If he said, ‘The speckled shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore speckled. And if he said, ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore striped. Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me.
In the breeding season of the flock I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the male goats mating with the flock were striped, speckled, and mottled. Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’ And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see: all the male goats mating with the flock are striped, speckled, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land, and return to the land of your birth.’”
Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, “Is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father’s house? Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and he has entirely consumed our money. Surely all the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.”
Then Jacob arose and set his sons and his wives upon camels. And he drove away all his livestock and all the property that he had gained, the livestock in his possession that he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan.
Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole the household gods that belonged to her father. And Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he intended to flee. He fled with all that he had and arose and crossed the River and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.
Laban Pursues Jacob
On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled. So he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for seven days and overtook him in the hill country of Gilead. But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, “Take care not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
Then Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen pitched tents in the hill country of Gilead. And Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have deceived me and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword? Why did you flee secretly and deceive me and not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with joy and songs, with tambourine and lyre? And why did you not permit me to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? Now you have acted foolishly. It is in my power to do you harm, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Take care not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’ And now you have certainly gone because you longed greatly for your father’s house, but why did you steal my gods?”
The Search for the Household Gods
Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you might take your daughters from me by force. But anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our kinsmen identify what I have of yours and take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent. Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel’s saddle and sat upon them. And Laban felt through all the tent but did not find them. And she said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the household gods.
The Covenant at Gilead
Then Jacob became angry and rebuked Laban. Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me? For you have felt through all my goods. What have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, that they may decide between us. These 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 flocks. What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss myself. From my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. By day the heat consumed me and the cold by night, and sleep fled from my eyes. 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 changed my wages ten times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.”
Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do today for these my daughters or for their children whom they have borne? Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and me.”
So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. And Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” Therefore its name was called Galeed, and Mizpah, for he said, “May the LORD watch between you and me when we are hidden from one another. If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, though no one is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.”
Then Laban said to Jacob, “See this heap and the pillar, which I have set between you and me. This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass beyond this heap to you, and you will not pass beyond this heap and this pillar to me, to do harm. 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. And Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country and called his kinsmen to eat bread. They ate bread and spent the night in the hill country. Early in the morning Laban rose and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place.