Genesis 31:22-42

Evangelical Heritage Version

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?^[a] 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^[b] 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.”