In the Shadow of Your Wings

A ^(A)Prayer of David.

²² When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled, ²³ he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for seven days and followed close after him into the hill country of Gilead. ²⁴ But God came to Laban the Aramean ^(A)in a dream by night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, ^(B)either good or bad.”

²⁵ And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen pitched tents in the hill country of Gilead. ²⁶ And Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have ^(C)tricked me and driven away my daughters like captives of the sword? ²⁷ Why did you flee secretly ^(D)and trick me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with mirth and songs, with tambourine and lyre? ²⁸ And why did you not permit me ^(E)to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? Now you have done foolishly. ²⁹ It is ^(F)in my power to do you harm. But the ^(G)God of your^[a] father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, ^(H)either good or bad.’ ³⁰ And now you have gone away because you longed greatly for your father's house, but why did you ^(I)steal my gods?” ³¹ Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force. ^32 (J)Anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our kinsmen point out what I have that is yours, and take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

³³ So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find them. And he went out of Leah's tent and entered Rachel's. ³⁴ Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel's saddle and sat on them. Laban felt all about the tent, but did not find them. ³⁵ And she said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot ^(K)rise before you, for the way of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the household gods.

³⁶ Then Jacob became angry and berated Laban. Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me? ³⁷ For you have felt through all my goods; what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and ^(L)your kinsmen, that they may decide between us two. ³⁸ These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks. ³⁹ What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself. ^(M)From my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. ⁴⁰ There I was: by day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. ⁴¹ These twenty years I have been in your house. ^(N)I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and ^(O)you have changed my wages ten times. ^42 (P)If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the ^(Q)Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. ^(R)God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and ^(S)rebuked you last night.”

Longing to Go to Rome

⁸ First, ^(A)I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, ^(B)because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. ^9 (C)For God is my witness, ^(D)whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, ^(E)that without ceasing I mention you ¹⁰ always in my prayers, asking that somehow ^(F)by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. ¹¹ For ^(G)I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— ¹² that is, that we may be mutually encouraged ^(H)by each other's faith, both yours and mine. ¹³ I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,^[a] that ^(I)I have often intended to come to you (but ^(J)thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some ^(K)harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. ^14 (L)I am under obligation both to Greeks and to ^(M)barbarians,^[b] both to the wise and to the foolish. ¹⁵ So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.