Genesis 30:25-31:55
New American Standard Bible
Jacob Prospers
25 Now it came about, when Rachel had given birth to Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “(A)Send me away, so that I may go to my own place and to my own country. 26 Give me my wives and my children (B)for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you yourself know my service which I have [a]rendered you.” 27 But Laban said to him, “If [b]it pleases you at all, stay with me; I have determined by divination (C)that the Lord has blessed me on your account.” 28 He [c]continued, “(D)Name me your wages, and I will give them.” 29 But Jacob said to him, “(E)You yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock have [d]fared with me. 30 For you had little before [e]I came, and it has [f]increased to a multitude, and the Lord has blessed you [g]wherever I turned. But now, when shall I provide for my own household also?” 31 So he said, “What shall I give you?” And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this one thing for me, I will again pasture and keep your flock: 32 let me pass through your entire flock today, removing from there every (F)speckled or spotted sheep and every black sheep among the lambs, and the spotted or speckled among the goats; and those shall be my wages. 33 So my [h]honesty will answer for me later, when you come concerning my [i]wages. Every one that is not speckled or spotted among the goats, or black among the lambs, if found with me, will be considered stolen.” 34 Laban said, “[j]Good, let it be according to your word.” 35 So he removed on that day the striped or spotted male goats, and all the speckled or spotted female goats, every one with white on it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and put them in the [k]care of his sons. 36 And he put a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.
37 Then Jacob [l]took fresh rods of poplar, almond, and plane trees, and peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white that was [m]in the rods. 38 He set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the drinking troughs, that is, in the watering channels where the flocks came to drink; and they mated when they came to drink. 39 So the flocks mated by the rods, and the flocks delivered striped, speckled, and spotted offspring. 40 Then Jacob separated the lambs, and [n]made the flocks face toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban; and he put his own herds apart, and did not put them with Laban’s flock. 41 Moreover, whenever the stronger of the flock were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the sight of the flock in the drinking troughs, so that they would mate by the rods; 42 but when the flock was sickly, he did not put them in; so the sickly were Laban’s, and the stronger were Jacob’s. 43 So (G)the man [o]became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
Jacob Leaves Secretly for Canaan
31 Now [p]Jacob heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s, and from what belonged to our father he has made all this [q]wealth.” 2 And Jacob saw the [r]attitude of Laban, and behold, it was not friendly toward him as it had been before. 3 Then the Lord said to Jacob, “(H)Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and (I)I will be with you.” 4 So Jacob sent word and called Rachel and Leah to his flock in the field, 5 and said to them, “(J)I see your father’s [s]attitude, that it is not friendly toward me as it was before, but (K)the God of my father has been with me. 6 (L)You know that I have served your father with all my strength. 7 Yet your father has (M)cheated me and (N)changed my wages ten times; however, (O)God did not allow him to do me harm. 8 If (P)he said this: ‘The speckled shall be your wages,’ then all the flock delivered speckled; and if he said this: ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock delivered striped. 9 So God has (Q)taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me. 10 And it came about at the time when the flock was breeding that I raised my eyes and saw in a dream—and behold—the male goats that were [t]mating were striped, speckled, or mottled. 11 Then (R)the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob’; and I said, ‘Here I am.’ 12 He said, ‘Now raise your eyes and see that all the male goats that are [u]mating are striped, speckled, or mottled; for (S)I have seen everything that Laban has been doing to you. 13 I am (T)the God of Bethel, where you (U)anointed a memorial stone, where you made a vow to Me; now arise, [v]leave this land, and (V)return to the land of your birth.’” 14 Rachel and Leah said to him, “Do we still have any share or inheritance in our father’s house? 15 Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For (W)he has sold us, and has also [w]entirely consumed our [x]purchase price. 16 Surely all the wealth which God has taken away from our father belongs to us and our children; now then, do whatever God has told you.”
17 Then Jacob stood up and put his children and his wives on camels; 18 and he drove away all his livestock and all his property which he had acquired, the livestock he possessed which he had acquired in Paddan-aram, (X)to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac. 19 Laban had gone to shear his flock, and Rachel stole the [y](Y)household idols that were her father’s. 20 And Jacob [z]deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing. 21 So he fled with all that he had; and he got up and crossed the Euphrates River, and set [aa]out for the hill country of (Z)Gilead.
Laban Pursues Jacob
22 When Laban was informed on the third day that Jacob had fled, 23 he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him a distance of seven days’ journey, and he overtook him in the hill country of Gilead. 24 However, (AA)God came to Laban the Aramean in a (AB)dream of the night and said to him, “[ab](AC)Be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.”
25 And Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen camped in the hill country of Gilead. 26 Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done [ac]by deceiving me and carrying away my daughters like captives of the sword? 27 Why did you flee secretly and [ad]deceive me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with joy and with songs, with (AD)tambourine and with (AE)lyre; 28 and did not allow me (AF)to kiss my [ae]grandchildren and my daughters? Now you have done foolishly. 29 It is in [af]my power to do you harm, but (AG)the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘[ag](AH)Be careful not to speak either good or bad to Jacob.’ 30 Now you have indeed gone away because you longed greatly for your father’s house; but why did you steal (AI)my gods?” 31 Then Jacob replied to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force. 32 (AJ)The one with whom you find your gods shall not live; in the presence of our relatives [ah]point out what is yours [ai]among my belongings and take it for yourself.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, and into Leah’s tent, and into the tent of the two slave women, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent. 34 Now Rachel had taken the [aj]household idols and put them in the camel’s saddlebag, and she sat on them. So Laban searched through all the tent, but did not find them. 35 And she said to her father, “May my lord not be angry that I cannot (AK)stand in your presence, because the [ak]way of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the [al](AL)household idols.
36 Then Jacob became angry and argued with Laban; and Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me? 37 Though you have searched through all my property, what have you found of all your household property? Set it here in front of my relatives and your relatives, so that they may decide between the two of us. 38 For these twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the rams of your flocks. 39 I did not even bring to you that which was torn by wild animals; I took the loss myself. You demanded it of my hand whether stolen by day or stolen by night. 40 This is how I was: by day the [am]heat consumed me and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. 41 For these twenty years I have been in your house; (AM)I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you (AN)changed my wages ten times. 42 If (AO)the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac, had not been for me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. (AP)God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, so He (AQ)rendered judgment last night.”
The Covenant of Mizpah
43 Then Laban replied to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the [an]children are my [ao]grandchildren, (AR)the flocks are my flocks, and everything that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to these daughters of mine or to their children to whom they have given birth? 44 So now come, let’s (AS)make a covenant, [ap]you and I, and (AT)it shall be a witness between [aq]you and me.” 45 Then Jacob took (AU)a stone and set it up as a memorial stone. 46 Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. 47 Now Laban (AV)called it [ar]Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it [as]Galeed. 48 Laban said, “(AW)This heap is a witness between [at]you and me this day.” Therefore it was named Galeed, 49 and [au](AX)Mizpah, for he said, “May the Lord keep watch between [av]you and me when we are [aw]absent one from the other. 50 If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, (AY)God is witness between [ax]you and me.” 51 Laban also said to Jacob, “Behold this heap and behold the memorial stone which I have set between [ay]you and me. 52 This heap is a witness, and the memorial stone is a witness, that I will not pass by this heap to you for harm, and you will not pass by this heap and this memorial stone to me, for harm. 53 (AZ)The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, (BA)judge between us.” So Jacob swore by (BB)the fear of his father Isaac. 54 Then Jacob (BC)offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and called his relatives to [az]the meal; and they ate [ba]the meal and spent the night on the mountain. 55 [bb]Then early in the morning Laban got up, and (BD)kissed his [bc]grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place.
Footnotes
- Genesis 30:26 Lit served
- Genesis 30:27 Lit I have found favor in your eyes
- Genesis 30:28 Lit said
- Genesis 30:29 Lit been
- Genesis 30:30 Lit me
- Genesis 30:30 Lit broken forth
- Genesis 30:30 Lit at my foot
- Genesis 30:33 Lit righteousness
- Genesis 30:33 Lit wages which are before you
- Genesis 30:34 Lit Behold, would that it might be
- Genesis 30:35 Lit hand
- Genesis 30:37 Lit took to himself
- Genesis 30:37 Lit on
- Genesis 30:40 Lit set the faces
- Genesis 30:43 Lit broke forth
- Genesis 31:1 Lit he
- Genesis 31:1 Lit glory
- Genesis 31:2 Lit face
- Genesis 31:5 Lit face
- Genesis 31:10 Lit leaping upon the flock
- Genesis 31:12 Lit leaping upon the flock
- Genesis 31:13 Lit Go out from
- Genesis 31:15 I.e., enjoyed the benefit of
- Genesis 31:15 Lit money
- Genesis 31:19 Heb teraphim
- Genesis 31:20 Lit stole the heart of
- Genesis 31:21 Lit his face
- Genesis 31:24 Lit Take heed to yourself
- Genesis 31:26 Lit and you have stolen my heart
- Genesis 31:27 Lit steal me
- Genesis 31:28 Lit sons
- Genesis 31:29 Lit the power of my hand
- Genesis 31:29 Lit Take heed to yourself
- Genesis 31:32 Lit recognize
- Genesis 31:32 Lit with me
- Genesis 31:34 Heb teraphim
- Genesis 31:35 I.e., menstruation
- Genesis 31:35 Heb teraphim
- Genesis 31:40 Or drought
- Genesis 31:43 Lit sons
- Genesis 31:43 Lit sons
- Genesis 31:44 Lit I and you
- Genesis 31:44 Lit me and you
- Genesis 31:47 I.e., the heap of witness, in Aram
- Genesis 31:47 I.e., the heap of witness, in Heb
- Genesis 31:48 Lit me and you
- Genesis 31:49 Lit the Mizpah; i.e., the watchtower
- Genesis 31:49 Lit me and you
- Genesis 31:49 Lit hidden
- Genesis 31:50 Lit me and you
- Genesis 31:51 Lit me and you
- Genesis 31:54 Lit eat bread
- Genesis 31:54 Lit bread
- Genesis 31:55 Ch 32:1 in Heb
- Genesis 31:55 Lit sons
Genesis 30:25-31:55
The Message
25-26 After Rachel had had Joseph, Jacob spoke to Laban, “Let me go back home. Give me my wives and children for whom I’ve served you. You know how hard I’ve worked for you.”
27-28 Laban said, “If you please, I have learned through divine inquiry that God has blessed me because of you.” He went on, “So name your wages. I’ll pay you.”
29-30 Jacob replied, “You know well what my work has meant to you and how your livestock has flourished under my care. The little you had when I arrived has increased greatly; everything I did resulted in blessings for you. Isn’t it about time that I do something for my own family?”
31-33 “So, what should I pay you?”
Jacob said, “You don’t have to pay me a thing. But how about this? I will go back to pasture and care for your flocks. Go through your entire flock today and take out every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb, every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages. That way you can check on my honesty when you assess my wages. If you find any goat that’s not speckled or spotted or a sheep that’s not black, you will know that I stole it.”
34 “Fair enough,” said Laban. “It’s a deal.”
35-36 But that very day Laban removed all the mottled and spotted billy goats and all the speckled and spotted nanny goats, every animal that had even a touch of white on it plus all the black sheep and placed them under the care of his sons. Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob. Meanwhile Jacob went on tending what was left of Laban’s flock.
37-42 But Jacob got fresh branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees and peeled the bark, leaving white stripes on them. He stuck the peeled branches in front of the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink. When the flocks were in heat, they came to drink and mated in front of the streaked branches. Then they gave birth to young that were streaked or spotted or speckled. Jacob placed the ewes before the dark-colored animals of Laban. That way he got distinctive flocks for himself which he didn’t mix with Laban’s flocks. And when the sturdier animals were mating, Jacob placed branches at the troughs in view of the animals so that they mated in front of the branches. But he wouldn’t set up the branches before the feebler animals. That way the feeble animals went to Laban and the sturdy ones to Jacob.
43 The man got richer and richer, acquiring huge flocks, lots and lots of servants, not to mention camels and donkeys.
31 1-2 Jacob learned that Laban’s sons were talking behind his back: “Jacob has used our father’s wealth to make himself rich at our father’s expense.” At the same time, Jacob noticed that Laban had changed toward him. He wasn’t treating him the same.
3 That’s when God said to Jacob, “Go back home where you were born. I’ll go with you.”
4-9 So Jacob sent word for Rachel and Leah to meet him out in the field where his flocks were. He said, “I notice that your father has changed toward me; he doesn’t treat me the same as before. But the God of my father hasn’t changed; he’s still with me. You know how hard I’ve worked for your father. Still, your father has cheated me over and over, changing my wages time and again. But God never let him really hurt me. If he said, ‘Your wages will consist of speckled animals’ the whole flock would start having speckled lambs and kids. And if he said, ‘From now on your wages will be streaked animals’ the whole flock would have streaked ones. Over and over God used your father’s livestock to reward me.
10-11 “Once, while the flocks were mating, I had a dream and saw the billy goats, all of them streaked, speckled, and mottled, mounting their mates. In the dream an angel of God called out to me, ‘Jacob!’
“I said, ‘Yes?’
12-13 “He said, ‘Watch closely. Notice that all the goats in the flock that are mating are streaked, speckled, and mottled. I know what Laban’s been doing to you. I’m the God of Bethel where you consecrated a pillar and made a vow to me. Now be on your way, get out of this place, go home to your birthplace.’”
14-16 Rachel and Leah said, “Has he treated us any better? Aren’t we treated worse than outsiders? All he wanted was the money he got from selling us, and he’s spent all that. Any wealth that God has seen fit to return to us from our father is justly ours and our children’s. Go ahead. Do what God told you.”
17-18 Jacob did it. He put his children and his wives on camels and gathered all his livestock and everything he had gotten, everything acquired in Paddan Aram, to go back home to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.
19-21 Laban was off shearing sheep. Rachel stole her father’s household gods. And Jacob had concealed his plans so well that Laban the Aramean had no idea what was going on—he was totally in the dark. Jacob got away with everything he had and was soon across the Euphrates headed for the hill country of Gilead.
22-24 Three days later, Laban got the news: “Jacob’s run off.” Laban rounded up his relatives and chased after him. Seven days later they caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. That night God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream and said, “Be careful what you do to Jacob, whether good or bad.”
25 When Laban reached him, Jacob’s tents were pitched in the Gilead mountains; Laban pitched his tents there, too.
26-30 “What do you mean,” said Laban, “by keeping me in the dark and sneaking off, hauling my daughters off like prisoners of war? Why did you run off like a thief in the night? Why didn’t you tell me? Why, I would have sent you off with a great celebration—music, timbrels, flutes! But you wouldn’t permit me so much as a kiss for my daughters and grandchildren. It was a stupid thing for you to do. If I had a mind to, I could destroy you right now, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, ‘Be careful what you do to Jacob, whether good or bad.’ I understand. You left because you were homesick. But why did you steal my household gods?”
31-32 Jacob answered Laban, “I was afraid. I thought you would take your daughters away from me by brute force. But as far as your gods are concerned, if you find that anybody here has them, that person dies. With all of us watching, look around. If you find anything here that belongs to you, take it.” Jacob didn’t know that Rachel had stolen the gods.
33-35 Laban went through Jacob’s tent, Leah’s tent, and the tents of the two maids but didn’t find them. He went from Leah’s tent to Rachel’s. But Rachel had taken the household gods, put them inside a camel cushion, and was sitting on them. When Laban had gone through the tent, searching high and low without finding a thing, Rachel said to her father, “Don’t think I’m being disrespectful, my master, that I can’t stand before you, but I’m having my period.” So even though he turned the place upside down in his search, he didn’t find the household gods.
36-37 Now it was Jacob’s turn to get angry. He lit into Laban: “So what’s my crime, what wrong have I done you that you badger me like this? You’ve ransacked the place. Have you turned up a single thing that’s yours? Let’s see it—display the evidence. Our two families can be the jury and decide between us.
38-42 “In the twenty years I’ve worked for you, ewes and she-goats never miscarried. I never feasted on the rams from your flock. I never brought you a torn carcass killed by wild animals but that I paid for it out of my own pocket—actually, you made me pay whether it was my fault or not. I was out in all kinds of weather, from torrid heat to freezing cold, putting in many a sleepless night. For twenty years I’ve done this: I slaved away fourteen years for your two daughters and another 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 stuck with me, you would have sent me off penniless. But God saw the fix I was in and how hard I had worked and last night rendered his verdict.”
43-44 Laban defended himself: “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flock is my flock—everything you see is mine. But what can I do about my daughters or for the children they’ve had? So let’s settle things between us, make a covenant—God will be the witness between us.”
45 Jacob took a stone and set it upright as a pillar.
46-47 Jacob called his family around, “Get stones!” They gathered stones and heaped them up and then ate there beside the pile of stones. Laban named it in Aramaic, Yegar-sahadutha (Witness Monument); Jacob echoed the naming in Hebrew, Galeed (Witness Monument).
48-50 Laban said, “This monument of stones will be a witness, beginning now, between you and me.” (That’s why it is called Galeed—Witness Monument.) It is also called Mizpah (Watchtower) because Laban said, “God keep watch between you and me when we are out of each other’s sight. If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives when there’s no one around to see you, God will see you and stand witness between us.”
51-53 Laban continued to Jacob, “This monument of stones and this stone pillar that I have set up is a witness, a witness that I won’t cross this line to hurt you and you won’t cross this line to hurt me. The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor (the God of their ancestor) will keep things straight between us.”
53-55 Jacob promised, swearing by the Fear, the God of his father Isaac. Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and worshiped, calling in all his family members to the meal. They ate and slept that night on the mountain. Laban got up early the next morning, kissed his grandchildren and his daughters, blessed them, and then set off for home.
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson