31 One day, Ya’akov (Jacob) overheard the words of Lavan’s (Laban) sons who were saying, “Ya’akov has taken everything that belonged to our father, and from what originally belonged to our father he has gained all this wealth.” 2 Then Ya’akov also noticed that Lavan’s attitude towards him had changed, and he wasn’t in favour of him like he’d been in the past. 3 Then Yahweh told Ya’akov, “Go back to the land of your ancestors and to your relatives, and I’ll be with you.”

4 So Ya’akov sent for Rahel (Rachel) and Le’ah to come to him out in the countryside where he was with his flocks 5 and he told them, “I’ve noticed your father’s attitude and that he’s not positive toward me like he was a few days ago, but my father’s god has been with me. 6 You both know that I’ve served your father with all my strength, 7 but your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times. However, God hasn’t allowed him to harm me. 8 When he told me: ‘The speckled animals will be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore speckled young. But when he told me: ‘The streaked ones will be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore streaked young. 9 In that way, God took your father’s animals away from him and gave them to me.

10 “One day during the season when the flocks were mating, I looked up and saw in a dream that, wow, the male goats that were mounting the flocks were streaked, speckled, and spotted. 11 Then God’s messenger said to me in the dream, ‘Ya’akov!’ and I said, ‘I’m listening.’ 12 Then he told me, ‘Please look up and observe that all the male goats that are mounting the flocks are streaked, speckled, and spotted, because I have seen everything that Lavan (Laban) is doing to you. 13 I’m the god of Beyt-El (Bethel), where you anointed a pillar—where you vowed a vow to me.[ref] Now pack up and depart from this land, and return to the land where you were born.’ ”

14 Then Rahel (Rachel) and Le’ah replied, “Yes, we’re not expecting any portion or inheritance from our father’s property. 15 Doesn’t he just treat us like foreigners now? Yes, he sold us and then he frittered away all the money that should have been ours, 16 so all the wealth that God took from our father belonged to us and to our children anyway. So yes, go ahead and do everything that God’s told you to do.”

17 So Ya’akov packed up and put his wives and children on the camels. 18 Then he drove all his livestock and all his property that he had acquired—the livestock in his possession that he had acquired in Padan-Aram—to go back to Yitshak (Isaac) his father in the Kena’an (Canaan) region. 19 Now Lavan had gone off for several days to shear his sheep, so Rahel stole the idols that belonged to her father, 20 and Ya’akov deceived Lavan (the Arami (Syrian)) by not telling him that they all were leaving. 21 So Ya’akov took his household and everything that belonged to them and crossed the Perat (Euphrates) River and headed upward toward the hill-country of Gilead.