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Genesis 31

    ²And Jacob noticed that Laban looked at him less favorably than before.

    ³Then the Lord said to Jacob, Return to the land of your fathers and to your people, and I will be with you.

    ⁴So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock,

    ⁵And he said to them, I see how your father looks at me, that he is not [friendly] toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me.

    ⁶You know that I have served your father with all my might and power.

    ⁷But your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to hurt me.

    ⁸If he said, The speckled shall be your wages, then all the flock bore speckled; and if he said, The streaked shall be your hire, then all the flock bore streaked.

    ⁹Thus God has taken away the flocks of your father and given them to me.

    ¹⁰And I had a ^[a]dream at the time the flock conceived. I looked up and saw that the rams which mated with the she-goats were streaked, speckled, and spotted.

    ¹¹And the ^[b]Angel of God said to me in the dream, Jacob. And I said, Here am I.

    ¹²And He said, Look up and see, all the rams which mate with the flock are streaked, speckled, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban does to you.

    ¹³I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and where you vowed a vow to Me. Now arise, get out from this land and return to your native land.

    ¹⁴And Rachel and Leah answered him, Is there any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house?

    ¹⁵Are we not counted by him as strangers? For he sold us and has also quite devoured our money [the price you paid for us].

    ¹⁶For all the riches which God has taken from our father are ours and our children's. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do it.

    ¹⁷Then Jacob rose up and set his sons and his wives upon the camels;

    ¹⁸And he drove away all his livestock and all his gain which he had gotten, the livestock he had obtained and accumulated in Padan-aram, to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan.

    ¹⁹Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep [possibly to the feast of sheepshearing], and Rachel stole her father's household gods.

    ²⁰And Jacob outwitted Laban the Syrian [Aramean] in that he did not tell him that he [intended] to flee and slip away secretly.

    ²¹So he fled with all that he had, and arose and crossed the river [Euphrates] and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.

    ²²But on the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled.

    ²³So he took his kinsmen with him and pursued after [Jacob] for seven days, and they overtook him in the hill country of Gilead.

    ²⁴But God came to Laban the Syrian [Aramean] in a dream by night and said to him, Be careful that you do not speak from good to bad to Jacob [peaceably, then violently].

    ²⁵Then Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent on the hill, and Laban coming with his kinsmen pitched [his tents] on the same hill of Gilead.

    ²⁶And Laban said to Jacob, What do you mean stealing away and leaving like this without my knowing it, and carrying off my daughters as if captives of the sword?

    ²⁷Why did you flee secretly and cheat me and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with joy and gladness and with singing, with tambourine and lyre?

    ²⁸And why did you not permit me to kiss my sons [grandchildren] and my daughters good-bye? Now you have done foolishly [in behaving like this].

    ²⁹It is in my power to do you harm; but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, Be careful that you do not speak from good to bad to Jacob [peaceably, then violently].

    ³⁰And now you felt you must go because you were homesick for your father's house, but why did you steal my [household] ^[c]gods?

    ³¹Jacob answered Laban, Because I was afraid; for I thought, Suppose you would take your daughters from me by force.

    ³²The one with whom you find those gods of yours, let him not live. Here before our kinsmen [search my possessions and] take whatever you find that belongs to you. For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen [the images].

    ³³So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and the tent of the two maids, but he did not find them. Then he went from Leah's tent into Rachel's tent.

    ³⁴Now Rachel had taken the images (gods) and put them in the camel's saddle and sat on them. Laban searched and felt through all the tent, but did not find them.

    ³⁵And [Rachel] said to her father, Do not be displeased, my lord, that I cannot rise up before you, for the period of women is upon me and I am unwell. And he searched, but did not find the gods.

    ³⁶Then Jacob became angry and reproached and argued with Laban. And Jacob said to Laban, What is my fault? What is my sin, that you so hotly pursued me?

    ³⁷Although you have searched and felt through all my household possessions, what have you found of all your household goods? Put it here before my brethren and yours, that they may judge and decide between us.

    ³⁸These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your she-goats have not lost their young, and the rams of your flock have not been eaten by me.

    ³⁹I did not bring you [the carcasses of the animals] torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss of it; you required of me [to make good] all that was stolen, whether it occurred by day or by night.

    ⁴⁰This was [my lot]; by day the heat consumed me and by night the cold, and I could not sleep.

    ⁴¹I have been twenty years in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks; and you have changed my wages ten times.

    ⁴²And if the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Dread [lest he should fall] and Fear [lest he offend] of Isaac, had not been with me, surely you would have sent me away now empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and humiliation and the [wearying] labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.

    ⁴³Laban answered Jacob, These daughters are my daughters, these children are my children, these flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do today to these my daughters or to their children whom they have borne?

    ⁴⁴So come now, let us make a covenant or league, you and I, and let it be for a witness between you and me.

    ⁴⁵So Jacob set up a stone for a pillar or monument.

    ⁴⁶And Jacob said to his brethren, Gather stones; and they took stones and made a heap, and they ate [together] there upon the heap.^(A)

    ⁴⁷Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha [witness heap, in Aramaic ], but Jacob called it Galeed [^[d]witness heap, in Hebrew. ]

    ⁴⁸Laban said, This heap is a witness today between you and me. Therefore it was named Galeed.

    ⁴⁹And [the pillar or monument was called] Mizpah [watchpost], for he [Laban] said, May the Lord watch between you and me when we are absent and hidden one from another.

    ⁵⁰If you should afflict, humiliate, or lower [divorce] my daughters, or if you should take other wives beside my daughters, although no man is with us [to witness], see (remember), God is witness between you and me.

    ⁵¹And Laban said to Jacob, See this heap and this pillar, which I have set up between you and me.

    ⁵²This heap is a witness and this pillar is a witness, that I will not pass by this heap to you, and that you will not pass by this heap and this pillar to me, for harm.

    ⁵³The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, and the god [the object of worship] of their father [Terah, an idolator], judge between us. But Jacob swore [only] by [the one true God] the Dread and Fear of his father Isaac.^(B)

    ⁵⁴Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his brethren to eat food; and they ate food and lingered all night on the mountain.

    ⁵⁵And early in the morning Laban rose up and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and pronounced a blessing [asking God's favor] on them. Then Laban departed and returned to his home.

Genesis 32

    ²When Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's army! So he named that place Mahanaim [two armies].^(C)

    ³And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

    ⁴And he commanded them, Say this to my lord Esau: Your servant Jacob says this: I have been living temporarily with Laban and have stayed there till now.

    ⁵And I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, menservants, and women servants; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find mercy and kindness in your sight.

    ⁶And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to your brother Esau; and now he is [on the way] to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.

    ⁷Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two groups,

    ⁸Thinking, If Esau comes to the one group and smites it, then the other group which is left will escape.

    ⁹Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord Who said to me, Return to your country and to your people and I will do you good,

    ¹⁰I am not worthy of the least of all the mercy and loving-kindness and all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant, for with [only] my staff I passed over this Jordan [long ago], and now I have become two companies.

    ¹¹Deliver me, I pray You, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and smite [us all], the mothers with the children.

    ¹²And You said, I will surely do you good and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.

    ¹³And Jacob lodged there that night and took from what he had with him as a present for his brother Esau:

    ¹⁴Two hundred she-goats, 20 he-goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams,

    ¹⁵Thirty milk camels with their colts, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 she-donkeys, and 10 [donkey] colts.

    ¹⁶And he put them into the charge of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, Pass over before me and put a space between drove and drove.

    ¹⁷And he commanded the first, When Esau my brother meets you and asks to whom you belong, where you are going, and whose are the animals before you,

    ¹⁸Then you shall say, They are your servant Jacob's; it is a present sent to my lord Esau; and moreover, he is behind us.

    ¹⁹And so he commanded the second and the third and all that followed the droves, saying, This is what you are to say to Esau when you meet him.

    ²⁰And say, Moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.

    ²¹So the present went on before him, and he himself lodged that night in the camp.

    ²²But he rose up that [same] night and took his two wives, his two women servants, and his eleven sons and passed over the ford [of the] Jabbok.

    ²³And he took them and sent them across the brook; also he sent over all that he had.

    ²⁴And Jacob was left alone, and a Man wrestled with him until daybreak.

    ²⁵And when [the ^[e]Man] saw that He did not prevail against [Jacob], He touched the hollow of his thigh; and Jacob's thigh was put out of joint as he wrestled with Him.

    ²⁶Then He said, Let Me go, for day is breaking. But [Jacob] said, I will not let You go unless You declare a blessing upon me.

    ²⁷[The Man] asked him, What is your name? And [in shock of realization, whispering] he said, Jacob [supplanter, schemer, trickster, swindler]!

    ²⁸And He said, Your name shall be called no more Jacob [supplanter], but Israel [contender with God]; for you have contended and have power with God and with men and have prevailed.^(D)

    ²⁹Then Jacob asked Him, Tell me, I pray You, what [in contrast] is Your name? But He said, Why is it that you ask My name? And ^[f][the Angel of God declared] a blessing on [Jacob] there.

    ³⁰And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel [the face of God], saying, For I have seen God face to face, and my life is spared and not snatched away.

    ³¹And as he passed Penuel [Peniel], the sun rose upon him, and he was limping because of his thigh.

    ³²That is why to this day the Israelites do not eat the sinew of the hip which is on the hollow of the thigh, because [the Angel of the Lord] touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh on the sinew of the hip.

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¹⁸While He was talking this way to them, behold, a ruler entered and, kneeling down, worshiped Him, saying, My daughter has just ^[a]now died; but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will come to life.

    ¹⁹And Jesus got up and accompanied him, with His disciples.

    ²⁰And behold, a woman who had suffered from a flow of blood for twelve years came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His garment;^(A)

    ²¹For she kept saying to herself, If I only touch His garment, I shall be restored to health.

    ²²Jesus turned around and, seeing her, He said, Take courage, daughter! Your faith has made you well. And at once the woman was restored to health.

    ²³And when Jesus came to the ruler's house and saw the flute players and the crowd making an uproar and din,

    ²⁴He said, Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping. And they laughed and jeered at Him.

    ²⁵But when the crowd had been ordered to go outside, He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose.

    ²⁶And the news about this spread through all that district.

    ²⁷As Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed Him, shouting loudly, Have pity and mercy on us, Son of David!

    ²⁸When He reached the house and went in, the blind men came to Him, and Jesus said to them, Do you believe that I am able to do this? They said to Him, Yes, Lord.

    ²⁹Then He touched their eyes, saying, According to your faith and trust and reliance [on the power invested in Me] be it done to you;

    ³⁰And their eyes were opened. And Jesus earnestly and sternly charged them, See that you let no one know about this.

    ³¹But they went off and blazed and spread His fame abroad throughout that whole district.

    ³²And while they were going away, behold, a dumb man under the power of a demon was brought to Jesus.

    ³³And when the demon was driven out, the dumb man spoke; and the crowds were stunned with bewildered wonder, saying, Never before has anything like this been seen in Israel.

    ³⁴But the Pharisees said, He drives out demons through and with the help of the prince of demons.

    ³⁵And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news (the Gospel) of the kingdom and curing all kinds of disease and every weakness and infirmity.

    ³⁶When He saw the throngs, He was moved with pity and sympathy for them, because they were bewildered (harassed and distressed and dejected and helpless), like sheep without a shepherd.^(B)

    ³⁷Then He said to His disciples, The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the laborers are few.

    ³⁸So pray to the Lord of the harvest to ^[b]force out and thrust laborers into His harvest.