²² Three days later, somebody reported to Laban that Jacob had left, ²³ so he took his relatives with him and pursued Jacob. Laban^[a] was on the road for seven days when he finally caught up with Jacob^[b] in the hill country of Gilead.

God Warns Laban

²⁴ That night, God appeared to Laban the Aramean^[c] in a dream and warned him, “Be careful what you say to Jacob, whether it’s one word good or bad.” ²⁵ Meanwhile, Jacob had pitched his tent on the mountain, where Laban had caught up with him.^[d] Laban and his relatives encamped on that same mountain in the hill country of Gilead, too.

²⁶ Then Laban asked Jacob, “What did you do? You deceived me,^[e] carried off my daughters like you would war captives,^{[f] 27} ran away from me secretly,^[g] and stole from me by not keeping me informed. Otherwise, I could have sent you off with a party and singing, accompanied by a band playing tambourines and harps. ²⁸ As it is, you didn’t even allow me to kiss my grandchildren^[h] and daughters goodbye! You’ve acted foolishly. ²⁹ It’s actually in my power to do some serious^[i] evil to you, but last night the God of your father told me, ‘Be careful what you say to Jacob whether good or evil.’ ³⁰ Now, you can go if you must go, because you certainly are longing to go to your father’s house. But why did you steal my gods?”

Laban Searches for His Idols

³¹ “I was afraid,” Jacob replied. “I thought you might take your daughters from me. ³² Now as to your gods, if you find someone has them in their possession, he’s a dead man.^[j] Take our relatives as witnesses, search through our belongings, and take whatever belongs to you that’s in my possession.” But Jacob didn’t know that Rachel had stolen the idols.^{[k] 33} So Laban entered Jacob’s tent, Leah’s tent, and the tents of the two maid servants, but he didn’t find them.^[l] Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent.

³⁴ Meanwhile, Rachel had taken the idols,^[m] placed them inside the saddle of her camel, and sat on them. Laban searched through the whole tent, but found nothing. ³⁵ Then Rachel told her father, “Sir, please don’t be angry that I cannot stand up in your presence. It’s that time of the month.”^[n] So Laban^[o] searched for the idols,^[p] but never did find them.^[q]

Jacob Rebukes Laban

³⁶ Then Jacob got angry and started an argument with Laban. “What have I done?” he demanded. “What’s my crime that would cause you to come pursue me so violently? ³⁷ Now that you’ve searched all my belongings, what did you find that belongs to your house? Set it here in front of our relatives^[r] and we’ll let them judge between us! ³⁸ Meanwhile, these past 20 years that I’ve been with you, your sheep and goats never had miscarriages, I never once ate any of the rams from your flock, ³⁹ and whatever was torn by beasts, I never bothered to bring to you. Instead, I bore the losses myself. Even so, you demanded that I provide restitution for anything that was stolen, whether during the day or the night. ⁴⁰ As it was, I was attacked by drought during the day and by cold at night. I never got any decent rest. ⁴¹ I’ve lived in your house these 20 years—serving fourteen years for your two daughters and another six years for your flocks. During all that time you changed^[s] my wages ten times. ⁴² If the God of my father—the God of Abraham, the God whom Isaac feared—had not been with me, you would have sent me away empty handed. But God saw my misery and how hard I’ve worked with my own hands—and he rebuked you last night.”