²² Three days later Laban learned that Jacob had run away, ²³ so he gathered his relatives and began to chase him. After seven days Laban found him in the mountains of Gilead. ²⁴ That night God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream and said, “Be careful! Do not say anything to Jacob, good or bad.”

The Search for the Stolen Idols

²⁵ So Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had made his camp in the mountains, so Laban and his relatives set up their camp in the mountains of Gilead. ²⁶ Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You cheated me and took my daughters as if you had captured them in a war. ²⁷ Why did you run away secretly and trick me? Why didn’t you tell me? Then I could have sent you away with joy and singing and with the music of tambourines and harps. ²⁸ You did not even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters good-bye. You were very foolish to do this! ²⁹ I have the power to harm you, but last night the God of your father spoke to me and warned me not to say anything to you, good or bad. ³⁰ I know you want to go back to your home, but why did you steal my idols?”

³¹ Jacob answered Laban, “I left without telling you, because I was afraid you would take your daughters away from me. ³² If you find anyone here who has taken your idols, that person will be killed! Your relatives will be my witnesses. You may look for anything that belongs to you and take anything that is yours.” (Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen Laban’s idols.)

³³ So Laban looked in Jacob’s tent, in Leah’s tent, and in the tent where the two slave women stayed, but he did not find his idols. When he left Leah’s tent, he went into Rachel’s tent. ³⁴ Rachel had hidden the idols inside her camel’s saddle and was sitting on them. Although Laban looked through the whole tent, he did not find them.

³⁵ Rachel said to her father, “Father, don’t be angry with me. I am not able to stand up before you because I am having my monthly period.” So Laban looked through the camp, but he did not find his idols.

³⁶ Then Jacob became very angry and said, “What wrong have I done? What law have I broken to cause you to chase me? ³⁷ You have looked through everything I own, but you have found nothing that belongs to you. If you have found anything, show it to everyone. Put it in front of your relatives and my relatives, and let them decide which one of us is right. ³⁸ I have worked for you now for twenty years. During all that time none of the lambs and kids died during birth, and I have not eaten any of the male sheep from your flocks. ³⁹ Any time an animal was killed by wild beasts, I did not bring it to you, but made up for the loss myself. You made me pay for any animal that was stolen during the day or night. ⁴⁰ In the daytime the sun took away my strength, and at night I was cold and could not sleep. ⁴¹ I worked like a slave for you for twenty years—the first fourteen to get your two daughters and the last six to earn your flocks. During that time you changed my pay ten times. ⁴² But the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac, was with me. Otherwise, you would have sent me away with nothing. But he saw the trouble I had and the hard work I did, and last night he corrected you.”