31 Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken everything from our father. He has acquired all his wealth from things that belonged to our father.” ² From the look on Laban’s face Jacob realized that his attitude toward him was not what it had been before. ³ The Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”

⁴ Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah and told them to come to the field where his flock was. ⁵ He said to them, “I see the look on your father’s face, and it is not favorable toward me as it was before, but the God of my father has been with me. ⁶ You know that I have served your father with all of my strength. ⁷ Your father has cheated me by changing my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to hurt me. ⁸ If he said, ‘The speckled animals will be your wages,’ then all the flock gave birth to speckled young. If he said, ‘The streaked animals will be your wages,’ then all the flock gave birth to streaked young. ⁹ In this way God has taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me. ¹⁰ Once during mating season, in a dream I watched and saw male goats that were streaked, speckled, and spotted^[a] mating with the flock. ¹¹ The Angel of God called out to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I answered, ‘I am here.’ ¹² He said, ‘Look! All the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled, and spotted, because I have seen everything that Laban has been doing to you. ¹³ I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a memorial stone, and where you made a vow to me. Now get going, get out of this land, and return to the land where you were born.’”

¹⁴ Rachel and Leah answered him, “Do we still have any share of the inheritance in our father’s house? ¹⁵ Isn’t he treating us like foreigners? First he sold us. Now he has used up almost all the money he received for us. ¹⁶ All the riches that God has taken away from our father belong to us and our children. Now do whatever God has told you to do.”

¹⁷ Then Jacob got ready to go. He placed his sons and his wives on camels. ¹⁸ He took with him all his livestock and all his possessions that he had accumulated, including the livestock that he had acquired in Paddan Aram. He set out to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan.

¹⁹ Now when Laban had gone off to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household gods.^[b]

²⁰ Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was running away. ²¹ So he fled with all that he had. He set out, crossed over the Euphrates River, and headed toward the hill country^[c] of Gilead.

²² On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled. ²³ He took his relatives with him and pursued him for seven days. He overtook him in the hill country of Gilead. ²⁴ But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream during the night and said to him, “Be careful that you do not say anything to Jacob either good or bad.”

²⁵ Laban caught up with Jacob. Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban along with his relatives also set up camp in the hill country of Gilead. ²⁶ Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? Why have you deceived me and carried away my daughters like prisoners of war? ²⁷ Why did you flee secretly and steal from me? Why didn’t you tell me, so that I could have sent you away with a celebration and with songs, with drums and with lyres? ²⁸ Why didn’t you allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters?^[d] By doing this you have acted foolishly. ²⁹ I have it in my power to hurt you, but the God of your father spoke to me last night and said, ‘Be careful that you do not say anything to Jacob either good or bad.’ ³⁰ But even if you were so eager to leave because of your strong desire to return to your father’s house, why have you stolen my gods?”

³¹ Jacob answered Laban, “I was afraid, because I thought that you might take your daughters away from me by force. ³² But anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our relatives, identify anything I have that belongs to you, and take it.” (Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the household gods.)

³³ So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, into Leah’s tent, and into the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find the gods. After he had left Leah’s tent, he entered Rachel’s tent. ³⁴ Rachel had taken the household gods and put them into her camel’s saddle, and she was sitting on them. Laban felt all around the tent, but he did not find them. ³⁵ Rachel said to her father, “Do not be angry, my lord, because I cannot stand up in your presence. I’m having my period.” He searched, but he did not find the gods.

³⁶ Jacob became angry and argued with Laban. Jacob responded to Laban, “What is my crime? What is my sin that set you off in hot pursuit after me? ³⁷ Now that you have rummaged through all my belongings, what have you found there that came from your house? Set it out here in front of my relatives and your relatives, so that they can settle the case between the two of us. ³⁸ These twenty years that I have been with you, your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried their young, and I have not eaten rams from your flocks. ³⁹ I did not bring to you those that were torn up by wild animals. I bore the loss myself. You made me pay for all the losses, whether they were stolen by day or stolen by night. ⁴⁰ I was the one out there, consumed by the scorching heat of the day and by the frost at night, and sleep fled from my eyes. ⁴¹ These twenty years I put up with this in your house: I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for a share of your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. ⁴² Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the God revered^[e] by Isaac, had been with me, you certainly would have now sent me away empty-handed. But God saw the oppression I suffered and the labor of my hands, and he rebuked you last night.”

⁴³ Laban 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 about these daughters of mine or about the children to whom they have given birth? ⁴⁴ Now come, let us make a covenant,^[f] you and I, and let it stand as a witness between me and you.”^[g]

⁴⁵ So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a memorial stone. ⁴⁶ Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” They collected stones and piled them up. They ate there beside the pile of stones. ⁴⁷ Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha,^[h] but Jacob called it Galeed.^{[i] 48} Laban said, “This pile of stones is a witness between me and you this day.” So it was named Galeed ⁴⁹ and Mizpah,^[j] for he also said, “May the Lord watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another. ⁵⁰ If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take any wives in addition to my daughters, even if no one else sees it, understand that God is a witness between me and you.”

⁵¹ Laban said to Jacob, “See this pile of stones and see the memorial stone that I have set between me and you. ⁵² May this pile be a witness, and may the memorial stone be a witness that I will not cross over beyond this pile to you, and that you will not cross over beyond this pile and this memorial stone to harm me. ⁵³ May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.”

Then Jacob swore by the God revered by his father Isaac. ⁵⁴ Jacob offered a sacrifice there in the hill country and invited his relatives to eat bread with him. They ate bread and stayed all night in the hill country. ⁵⁵ Early in the morning Laban got up, kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Laban departed and returned to his place.