Old/New Testament
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.
Jacob Meets Esau
32 Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.[k] 2 When he saw them, Jacob said, “This is God’s army.” He named that place Mahanaim.[l]
3 Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to Esau, his brother, to the land of Seir, the region of Edom. 4 He gave them a command. “Tell my lord, Esau, ‘This is what your servant Jacob says: I have lived as an alien with Laban until very recently. 5 I have cattle, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent this message to inform my lord, so that I may find favor in your sight.’”
6 The messengers returned to Jacob and reported, “We came to your brother Esau. Now he is coming to meet you, and he has four hundred men with him.”
7 So Jacob was terrified and very distressed. He divided the people who were with him, as well as the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two camps.[m] 8 He said, “If Esau comes to one camp and strikes it, then the other camp will escape.” 9 Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord, who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will do good for you,’ 10 I am not worthy of even a bit of all the mercy and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for I crossed over this Jordan with just my staff, and now I have grown into two camps. 11 Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid that he will come and strike me and the mothers, as well as the children. 12 You said, ‘I will surely do good for you and make your descendants like the grains of sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because there are so many.’”
13 Jacob spent that night there and selected a gift for Esau his brother from the possessions he had with him: 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty milk camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys with ten foals. 16 He handed them over to his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Cross over in front of me, and keep some space between each herd and the next one.” 17 He commanded the one in front, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks, ‘Whose people are you? Where are you going? Whose herds are these in front of you?’ 18 then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. It is a gift sent to you, my lord Esau. Look, he is right behind us.’” 19 He commanded the second group, and the third, and all those who followed the herds, “This is how you shall speak to Esau when you meet him. 20 You shall say, ‘What’s more, look, your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” Jacob said, “I will win his favor with the gift that I have sent ahead of me, and after that I will see his face, and perhaps he will accept me.”
21 So the gift was sent over ahead of him, but he himself spent that night in the camp.
22 He got up that night and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and he also sent his possessions across. 24 Jacob was left alone, and he wrestled with a man there until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not defeat him, he touched the socket of his thigh, and the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated as he wrestled. 26 The man said, “Let me go. It’s daybreak.”
Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27 Then he said to him, “What is your name?”
He said, “Jacob.”
28 Then he said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have fought with God and with men, and you have won.”
29 Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.”
He said, “Why do you ask what my name is?” Then he blessed him there.
30 Jacob named the place Peniel,[n] because he said, “I have seen God face-to-face, and my life has been spared.” 31 The sun rose as he crossed over at Peniel, and he was limping because of his thigh. 32 For that reason, to this day the people of Israel do not eat the tendon of the hip that is on the socket of the thigh, because God touched the socket of Jacob’s thigh on the tendon of the hip.
The Daughter of Jairus
18 As he was saying these things to them, there was a ruler who came, bowed down to him, and said, “My daughter has just died. But come, place your hand on her, and she will live.”
19 Jesus got up and followed him, as did his disciples. 20 Just then, a woman who had been suffering from chronic bleeding for twelve years came up from behind and touched the fringe of his garment. 21 For she had been saying to herself, “If I just touch his garment, I will be healed.”
22 When Jesus turned around and saw her, he said, “Take heart, daughter! Your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed from that moment.
23 When Jesus came into the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd, 24 he said to them, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but is sleeping.”
But they laughed at him.
25 When the crowd was sent out of the house, Jesus went in, took the girl by the hand, and she was raised. 26 News of this went out through the entire region.
Two Blind Men
27 As Jesus left that place, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”
28 When he entered the house, the blind men came to him. Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
They told him, “Yes, Lord.”
29 Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done for you.” 30 And their eyes were opened. Then Jesus warned them emphatically, “See to it that no one learns about this.” 31 But they went out and spread the word about him throughout that entire region.
Jesus Heals a Mute Man
32 Just as they were leaving, people brought to him a demon-possessed man who could not talk. 33 After the demon was driven out, the mute man spoke. The crowds were amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel!”
34 But the Pharisees said, “He drives out demons by the ruler of demons.”
35 Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness.
Pray for Workers
36 When he saw the crowds, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were troubled and downcast, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 38 Therefore pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers into his harvest.”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.