31:1 He heard Laban's sons saying:
Jacob took away all our father had
and gained his wealth from our father.
31:2 Then Jacob saw that Laban
did not have the same attitude as before.
31:3 Then Yahweh spoke to Jacob:
Return to the land of your fathers and relatives
and I will be with you.
31:4 Then Jacob summoned
Rachel and Leah to the fields
where his flocks were.
31:5 He said to them:
I understand your father's attitude
about me is not what it was.
But the God of my teacher
has been with me.
31:6 You know I worked hard
for your father with all my strength.
31:7 But your father deceived me
and changed my wages ten times.
Yet God allowed him to harm me not.
31:8 If he said the speckled ones
will be your wages
then the flocks bore speckled young.
If he said the streaked ones
will be your wages
then the flocks bore streaked young.
31:9 So God took away the flocks
of your father and gave them to me.
31:10 Once I had a dream
and saw the male goats mating
with the striped, speckled and spotted flock.
31:11 Then the angel of God
spoke to me in the dream.
Jacob and I answered:
Here I am.
31:12 Then he said:
See all the rams leaping
in the flock that are striped
speckled or spotted.
I have seen what Laban
has been doing to you.
31:13 I am the God of
where you dedicated a monument
and devoted yourself to Me.
Now leave this land at once
and go back to your home land.
31:14 Then Rachel and Leah replied:
Is there anything inheritance left
for us of our father's estate?
31:15 Are we not considered foreigners?
Surely he sold us and spent
what was paid for us.
31:16 For the wealth God took away
from our father belongs to us
and our children.
So do whatever God has told you.
31:17 Then Jacob got up
and put his sons and wives on camels.
31:18 Then he drove his flocks ahead
along with all the things
he got in Paddan
and went to his teacher Isaac
in the
31:19 When Laban went out
to shear his sheep
Rachel took her father's shrines.
31:20 Thus Jacob betrayed Laban the Syrian
without his knowing
saying nothing as he left.
31:21 Thus he fled with everything
crossed over the river
and headed for the hills of
31:22 This was told to Laban
on the third day of Jacob’s fleeing.
31:23 He took his brothers with him
and chased after him for seven days.
Then they caught up to him
in the hills of
31:24 God came to Laban the Aramean
in a dream one night and said:
Take care not to say anything to Jacob
either good or bad.
31:25 Laban overtook Jacob
where Jacob had set up camp
in the hills of
Laban and his brothers also camped there.
31:26 Laban asked Jacob:
What are you doing?
You have deceived me
and have taken my daughters
like captives under a sword.
31:27 Why did you run away
secretly and deceive me?
Why didn't you tell me
so I could send you away joyfully
singing to music of timbrels and harps?
31:28 You didn't let me kiss
my sons and daughters?
You have acted very foolishly.
31:29 I have the power to hurt you.
But the God of your teacher told me last night:
Take care not to say anything to Jacob
either good or bad.
31:30 Now you’ve run off
because you longed
for your father's household.
But why did you steal my shrines?
31:31 Jacob replied to Laban:
I worried that you might
take your daughters
away from me.
31:32 But if you find
who has your shrines
they should not be protected.
In the presence of our brothers
check to see
if we have anything of yours
if so take it back.
(For Jacob knew not
that Rachel had taken the shrines.)
31:33 So Laban entered Jacob's tent
then into Leah's tent
and into the tent of the two maids
yet he found nothing.
After leaving Leah's tent
he went into Rachel's tent.
31:34 Now Rachel had taken the shrines
and put them in her camel's saddle
and thus was sitting on them.
Laban searched through the entire tent
and found nothing.
31:35 Rachel said to her father:
Don't be displeased, sir
that I cannot rise in your presence
due to the manner of women.
He searched but found no shrines.
31:36 Then Jacob became angry
and challenged Laban:
What is my crime?
How have I wronged you
such that you are pursuing me?
31:37 Now that you have searched
through all my things
what have you found
that belongs to your family?
Set it down here before our brothers
and let them judge between us.
31:38 For twenty years
have I been with you.
Your sheep and goats
have not lost their young
nor have I burnt rams
from your flocks.
31:39 Those torn up by beasts
I brought you not.
I took those losses on myself.
And you required payment from me
for what was stolen by day or night.
31:40 This is what happened to me.
The heat burned me in the daytime
and the cold froze me at night.
And my eyes saw little sleep.
31:41 This was what it was like
over the twenty years in your home.
I worked for you fourteen years
for your two daughters
then six years for your flocks.
And you changed my wages ten times.
31:42 If the God of my teacher
the God of Abraham
and the reverence of Isaac
had not been with me
certainly would you have
dispatched me with nothing.
But God saw my hardship
and the labor of my hands
and last night did He rebuke you.
31:43 Then Laban replied to Jacob:
These daughters are my daughters
the children are my children
and the flocks are my flocks
and all you see is mine.
But today what can I do
about these daughters of mine
or the children they have borne?
31:44 So let’s make a deal
you and I
as a witness between us.
31:45 Then Jacob took a stone
and set it up as a monument.
31:46 He told his brothers:
Gather some stones.
And they gathered stones
and piled them up in a mound
and then ate there by the mound.
31:47 Laban called it Jegarsahadutha
(witness mound in Aramaic)
and Jacob called it Galeed
(witness mound in Hebrew).
31:48 Then Laban said:
This mound serves as a witness
between you and me today.
Therefore it is called Galeed.
31:49 Then also Mizpah said:
May Yahweh watch over me and you
when we are separated from each other.
31:50 If you harm my daughters
or take other wives besides my daughters
even though no one is with us
remember that God is our witness.
31:51 Laban also said to Jacob:
Consider this mound
and consider this monument
set up between you and I.
31:52 May this mound be our witness
and this monument our witness
that I will not go past this mound
on your side to harm you
and that you will not go past this mound
and monument on my side to harm me.
31:53 May the God of Abraham
and the God of Nahor
the God of their teacher
judge between us.
Then Jacob made a promise
on account of the reverence
of his teacher Isaac.
31:54 Jacob then made an offering
there on the mount
inviting his brothers to a meal.
After they had ate bread
they spent the night on the mount.
31:55 Early the next morning
Laban awoke and kissed his sons
and daughters and blessed them.
Then he departed and returned home.
