Open English Translation GEN Chapter 31

31 One day, Yacob overheard the words of Lavan’s sons who were saying, “Yacob has taken everything that belonged to our father, and from what originally belonged to our father he has gained all this wealth.” 2 Then Yacob 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 Yacob, “Go back to the land of your ancestors and to your relatives, and I’ll be with you.”

4 So Yacob sent for Rahel 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, ‘Yacob!’ 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 is doing to you. 13 I’m the god of Beyt-El, where you anointed a pillar—where you vowed a vow to me. Now pack up and depart from this land, and return to the land where you were born.’ ”[ref]

14 Then Rahel 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 Yacob 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 Paddan-Aram—to go back to Isaac his father in the 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 Yacob deceived Lavan (the Syrian) by not telling him that they all were leaving. 21 So Yacob took his household and everything that belonged to them and crossed the Euphrates River and headed upward toward the hill-country of Gilead.

22 Three days later, Lavan was informed that Yacob had fled with his family, 23 so he took some of his relatives with him and chased after Yacob and his family for seven days until they overtook them in the hill-country of Gilead. 24 But that night God appeared to Lavan the Syrian in a dream and told him, “Watch yourself that you don’t say anything to Yacob, either good or bad.” 25 When Lavan had caught up to Yacob, Yacob had pitched their tents in the hills, so Lavan with his relatives also pitched theirs on the Gilead hills.

26 Then Lavan said to Yacob, “What have you done? You’ve deceived me and carried away my daughters like prisoners of war. 27 Why did you flee secretly and deceive me and not tell me? I would have sent you all off with music and singing and a cheery party. 28 You didn’t let me kiss my grandchildren goodbye and my daughters, instead you made a foolish decision. 29 I have the right and the ability to punish you, but last night your father’s god told me, ‘Be careful not to speak either good or bad to Yacob.’ 30 So now, you probably left because you miss your father’s place badly, but why did you steal my gods?”

31 “We left like that,” Yacob answered Lavan, “because I was afraid, because I said that perhaps you would use force to take your married daughters from me. 32 As for your idols, whoever you find your gods with will be put to death. Look through everything we have and take back anything that belongs to you, with our relatives as witnesses.” (Now Yacob didn’t know that Rahel had stolen them.)

33 So Lavan inspected Yacob’s and Le’ah’s tents, and the tent of the two slave women, but he didn’t find anything. Then he came out of Le’ah’s tent and went into Rahel’s tent. 34 Now Rahel had taken the idols and put them in the camel’s saddle which she was now sitting on, so although Lavan searched throughout her entire tent, he didn’t find them, 35 and she said to her father, “Don’t let my master be upset that I’m not able to stand up in your presence, because I have the regular female concern at the moment.” So he searched, but he didn’t find the idols.

36 So Yacob got very angry and he argued with Lavan, demanding from him, “What’s my crime? What’s my sin, that you’ve hotly chased after me? 37 Since you’ve searched through all our things, what things from your house have you found? Put it here in front of my relatives and your relatives, and let them judge between the two of us!

38 “I’ve worked for you for twenty years. Your ewes and your female goats didn’t miscarry, and I haven’t eaten rams from your flocks. 39 I didn’t bring dead sheep or goats to you that had been attacked by wild animals—I bore the loss of those myself. You required that I cover anything stolen during the day or during the night. 40 I was always out there—during the day the heat tormented me, and at night the frost so bad that I couldn’t sleep. 41 That’s how it was for me for twenty years in your house. I worked for you for fourteen years for your two daughters, then six more years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times to your advantage. 42 If my father’s god—the god of Abraham and the one Yitshak respected—had not been with me, surely you would have sent me away empty-handed now. God has seen my suffering and my hard work, and last night, he rebuked you.”

43 Then Lavan responded and told Yacob, “These women are my daughters, and the children are my grandchildren, and the flocks are my flocks. Everything that you see here belongs to me. But what can I do today about these daughters of mine or about their children that they gave birth to? 44 So come now, let’s make an agreement, I and you, and let it be a witness between me and you.”

45 So Yacob took a stone and stood it up longways as a pillar, 46 then he instructed his relatives, “Gather stones.” So they fetched stones and made a pile, then they ate there by the pile. 47 Lavan gave the pile the Aramaic name ‘Yegar Sahadutha’ (which means ‘pile that reminds’) while Yacob gave it the Hebrew name ‘Gale’ed’ (which has the same meaning).

48 Then Lavan said, “This pile is a witness of the agreement between me and you today.” (That’s why he’d named it Galeed.) 49 It’s also named ‘Mitspah’ (which means ‘watchtower’), because he said, “May Yahweh watch between me and you when we are hidden one from the other. 50 If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take other wives besides my daughters, even though there’s not someone there to see it, listen, God will be a witness between me and you.” 51 Then Lavan said to Yacob, “Look at this pile of stones, and look at the pillar which I set up between me and you. 52 This pile is a witness and the pillar is a witness that I won’t go past these to you, and that you won’t go past these to me to do harm. 53 May Abraham’s god and the gods of their ancestor Nahor judge between us.” Then Yacob swore by the one respected by his father Yitshak, 54 and Yacob offered a sacrifice on the hill. Then he called his relatives to eat bread and they ate bread and spent the night on the hill. 55 In the morning, Lavan got up early and gave his grandchildren and his daughters a kiss, and he blessed them. Then he left and returned to his place.