ULT GEN Chapter 31

Jacob and His Family Flee from Laban

31:1-21

31 Then he heard the words of the sons of Laban, who were saying, “Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father, and from what belonged to our father he has gained all this wealth!” 2 And Jacob saw the face of Laban, and behold, he was not with him as yesterday and three days ago. 3 Then Yahweh said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”

4 Then Jacob sent and called for Rachel and Leah to the field to his flocks. 5 Then he said to them, “I have seen the face of your father, that he is not toward me as yesterday and three days ago, but the God of my father has been with me. 6 And you know that with all my might I have served your father, 7 but your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times. However, God has not allowed him to harm me. 8 If he said like this: ‘The speckled animals will be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore speckled young. But if he said like this: ‘The streaked ones will be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore streaked young. 9 So God took away the livestock of your father and gave them to me.

10 “And it happened in the season the flocks were in heat, and I lifted my eyes and saw in a dream that, behold, the he-goats that were mounting the flocks were streaked, speckled, and spotted. 11 Then an angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob!’ and I said, ‘Behold me.’ 12 Then he said, ‘Please lift up your eyes and see all the he-goats that are mounting the flocks are streaked, speckled, and spotted, because I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you vowed a vow to me. Now get up, go out from this land, and return to the land of your birth.’ ”

14 Then Rachel replied, and Leah, and they said to him, “Is there still for us a portion or inheritance in the house of our father? 15 Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he sold us, and he has indeed completely eaten up our silver. 16 For all the wealth that God took from our father belongs to us and to our children. So now, do all that God has said to you.”

17 So Jacob got up and put his sons and his wives 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 to Isaac his father, to the land of Canaan.

19 Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, so Rachel stole the idols that belonged to her father, 20 and Jacob stole the heart of Laban the Aramean by not informing him that he was fleeing. 21 And he fled and all that belonged to him. And he got up and crossed the River and set his face toward the mountains of Gilead.

Laban Pursues Jacob and His Family

31:22-42

22 And on the third day it was told to Laban that Jacob had fled. 23 So he took his relatives with him and pursued after him a seven-day journey and overtook him in the mountains of Gilead. 24 But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream that night and said to him, “Watch yourself that you do not speak with Jacob either good or bad.”

25 And Laban overtook Jacob, and Jacob had pitched his tents in the mountains, so Laban with his relatives pitched theirs in the mountains of Gilead. 26 Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? And you have stolen my heart and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword! 27 Why did you secretly flee and deceive me and not tell me? For I would have sent you with joy and with songs, with tambourines and with lyres! 28 And you did not let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters! Now you have acted foolishly by doing that! 29 It is in the power of my hand to do harm to you, but last night the God of your father said to me, saying, ‘Keep yourself from speaking with Jacob either good or bad.’ 30 So now, you have surely gone because you greatly long for the house of your father. Why did you steal my gods?”

31 Then Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, because I said that perhaps you would seize your daughters from me. 32 Whomever you find your gods with will not live! In front of our relatives, observe for yourself what is with me, and take what belongs to you.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

33 Then Laban went into the tent of Jacob and into the tent of Leah and into the tent of the two slave women, but he did not find anything. Then he came out of Leah’s tent and went into Rachel’s tent. 34 Now Rachel had taken the idols and put them inside the camel’s saddle and was sitting on them. And Laban felt throughout the entire tent, but he did not find them. 35 And she said to her father, “Do not let it burn in the eyes of my lord that I am not able to stand up in your presence, because the way of women is on me.” So he searched, but he did not find the idols.

36 Then it burned within Jacob, and he disputed with Laban, and Jacob responded and said to Laban, “What is my crime? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued after me? 37 Since you have felt through all my things, what have you found from any of the things of your house? Put it here in front of my relatives and your relatives, and let them judge between the two of us!

38 “These twenty years I have been with you! Your ewes and your she-goats did not miscarry, and I have not eaten rams from your flocks. 39 I did not bring torn animals to you; I bore the loss of it myself. You required it from my hand, those stolen by day and those stolen by night. 40 There I was: In the day, heat devoured me, and in the night the frost, so that my sleep fled from my eyes. 41 That is how it was for me twenty years in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times. 42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the toil of my palms, and he judged you last night.”

Jacob and Laban Cut a Covenant

31:43-55

43 And Laban responded and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, and the children are my grandchildren, and the flocks are my flocks. And everything that you see belongs to me! But what can I do today about these daughters of mine or about their children whom they have born? 44 So now, come, let us cut a covenant, I and you, and let it be a witness between me and you.” 45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. 46 Then Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a heap. Then they ate there by the heap. 47 And Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. 48 And Laban said, “This heap is a witness between me and you today.” For that reason he called its name Galeed. 49 It is also Mizpah, because he said, “May Yahweh watch between me and you when we are hidden one from the other. 50 If you afflict my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, even though there is not someone with us, behold, God is a witness between me and you.”

51 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Behold this heap, and behold the pillar which I set up between me and you. 52 This heap is a witness and the pillar is a witness that I will not pass by this heap to you, and that you will not pass by this heap and this pillar to me, to do harm. 53 May the God of Abraham and the gods of Nahor, the gods of their father, judge between us!” Then Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac, 54 and Jacob sacrificed a sacrifice on the mountain. Then he called his relatives to eat bread. Then they ate bread and spent the night on the mountain.

55 Then in the morning Laban got up early and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters, and he blessed them. Then Laban left and returned to his place.