Genesis 31-32

American Standard Version

31 And he heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, Jacob hath taken away all that was our father’s; and of that which was our father’s hath he gotten all this ^[a]glory. ² And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban, and, behold, it was not toward him as beforetime. ³ And Jehovah said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee. ⁴ And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field unto his flock, ⁵ and said unto them, I see your father’s countenance, that it is not toward me as beforetime; but the God of my father hath been with me. ⁶ And ye know that with all my power I have served your father. ⁷ And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me. ⁸ If he said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages; then all the flock bare speckled: and if he said thus, The ringstreaked shall be thy wages; then bare all the flock ringstreaked. ⁹ Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me. ¹⁰ And it came to pass at the time that the flock conceive, that I lifted up mine eyes, and saw in a dream, and, behold, the he-goats which leaped upon the flock were ringstreaked, speckled, and grizzled. ¹¹ And the angel of God said unto me in the dream, Jacob: and I said, Here am I. ¹² And he said, Lift up now thine eyes, and see: all the he-goats which leap upon the flock are ringstreaked, speckled, and grizzled: for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee. ¹³ I am the God of Beth-el, where thou anointedst a pillar, where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy nativity. ¹⁴ And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house? ¹⁵ Are we not accounted by him as foreigners? for he hath sold us, and hath also quite devoured ^[b]our money. ¹⁶ For all the riches which God hath taken away from our father, that is ours and our children’s: now then, whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do.

¹⁷ Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives upon the camels; ¹⁸ and he carried away all his cattle, and all his substance which he had gathered, the cattle of his getting, which he had gathered in Paddan-aram, to go to Isaac his father unto the land of Canaan. ¹⁹ Now Laban was gone to shear his sheep: and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father’s. ²⁰ And Jacob ^[c]stole away unawares to Laban the Syrian, in that he told him not that he fled. ²¹ So he fled with all that he had; and he rose up, and passed over ^[d]the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead.

²² And it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob was fled. ²³ And he took his brethren with him, and pursued after him seven days’ journey; and he overtook him in the mountain of Gilead. ²⁴ And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream of the night, and said unto him, Take heed to thyself that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad. ²⁵ And Laban came up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain: and Laban with his brethren encamped in the mountain of Gilead. ²⁶ And Laban said to Jacob, What hast thou done, that thou hast stolen away unawares to me, and carried away my daughters as captives of the sword? ²⁷ Wherefore didst thou flee secretly, and ^[e]steal away from me, and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth and with songs, with tabret and with harp; ²⁸ and didst not suffer me to kiss my sons and my daughters? now hast thou done foolishly. ²⁹ It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take heed to thyself that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad. ³⁰ And now, though thou wouldest needs be gone, because thou sore longedst after thy father’s house, yet wherefore hast thou stolen my gods? ³¹ And Jacob answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid: for I said, Lest thou shouldest take thy daughters from me by force. ³² With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, he shall not live: before our brethren discern thou what is thine with me, and take it to thee. For Jacob knew not that Rachel had stolen them.

³³ And Laban went into Jacob’s tent, and into Leah’s tent, and into the tent of the two maid-servants; but he found them not. And he went out of Leah’s tent, and entered into Rachel’s tent. ³⁴ Now Rachel had taken the teraphim, and put them in the camel’s saddle, and sat upon them. And Laban felt about all the tent, but found them not. ³⁵ And she said to her father, Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise up before thee; for the manner of women is upon me. And he searched, but found not the teraphim.

³⁶ And Jacob was wroth, and chode with Laban: and Jacob answered and said to Laban, What is my trespass? what is my sin, that thou hast hotly pursued after me? ³⁷ Whereas thou hast felt about all my stuff, what hast thou found of all thy household stuff? Set it here before my brethren and thy brethren, that they may judge betwixt us two. ³⁸ These twenty years have I been with thee; thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flocks have I not eaten. ³⁹ That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. ⁴⁰ Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from mine eyes. ⁴¹ These twenty years have I been in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy flock: and thou hast changed my wages ten times. ⁴² Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now hadst thou sent me away empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight.

⁴³ And Laban answered and said unto Jacob, The daughters are my daughters, and the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks, and all that thou seest is mine: and what can I do this day unto these my daughters, or unto their children whom they have borne? ⁴⁴ And now come, let us make a covenant, I and thou; and let it be for a witness between me and thee. ⁴⁵ And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. ⁴⁶ And Jacob said unto his brethren, Gather stones; and they took stones, and made a heap: and they did eat there by the heap. ⁴⁷ And Laban called it ^[f]Jegar-saha-dutha: but Jacob called it ^[g]Galeed. ⁴⁸ And Laban said, This heap is witness between me and thee this day. Therefore was the name of it called Galeed: ⁴⁹ and ^[h]Mizpah, for he said, Jehovah watch between me and thee, when we are ^[i]absent one from another. ⁵⁰ If thou shalt afflict my daughters, and if thou shalt take wives besides my daughters, no man is with us; see, God is witness betwixt me and thee. ⁵¹ And Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold the pillar, which I have set betwixt me and thee. ⁵² This heap be witness, and the pillar be witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me, for harm. ⁵³ The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the ^[j]God of their father, judge betwixt us. And Jacob sware by the Fear of his father Isaac. ⁵⁴ And Jacob offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his brethren to eat bread: and they did eat bread, and tarried all night in the mountain. ⁵⁵ And early in the morning Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them: and Laban departed, and returned unto his place.

32 And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. ² And Jacob said when he saw them, This is God’s host: and he called the name of that place ^[k]Mahanaim.

³ And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the field of Edom. ⁴ And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye say unto my lord Esau: Thus saith thy servant Jacob, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed until now: ⁵ and I have oxen, and asses, and flocks, and men-servants, and maid-servants: and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in thy sight. ⁶ And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and moreover he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him. ⁷ Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed: and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two companies; ⁸ and he said, If Esau come to the one company, and smite it, then the company which is left shall escape. ⁹ And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, O Jehovah, who saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will do thee good: ^10 [l]I am not worthy of the least of all the lovingkindnesses, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two companies. ¹¹ Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he come and smite me, the mother with the children. ¹² And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.

¹³ And he lodged there that night, and took of that which he had with him a present for Esau his brother: ¹⁴ two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, ¹⁵ thirty milch camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty she-asses and ten foals. ¹⁶ And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove. ¹⁷ And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee? ¹⁸ then thou shalt say, They are thy servant Jacob’s; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau: and, behold, he also is behind us. ¹⁹ And he commanded also the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, On this manner shall ye speak unto Esau, when ye find him; ²⁰ and ye shall say, Moreover, behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept me. ²¹ So the present passed over before him: and he himself lodged that night in the company.

²² And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two handmaids, and his eleven children, and passed over the ford of the Jabbok. ²³ And he took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over that which he had. ²⁴ And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. ²⁵ And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was strained, as he wrestled with him. ²⁶ And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. ²⁷ And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. ²⁸ And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but ^[m]Israel: for thou hast ^[n]striven with God and with men, and hast prevailed. ²⁹ And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. ³⁰ And Jacob called the name of the place ^[o]Peniel: for, said he, I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. ³¹ And the sun rose upon him as he passed over Penuel, and he limped upon his thigh. ³² Therefore the children of Israel eat not the sinew of the hip which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip.