1Now he heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken all that was our father’s, and from what belonged to our father he has made all this wealth.”
2And Jacob saw the face of Laban, and behold, he was not with him as in times past.
3Then Yahweh said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”
4So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field, to his flock.
5And he said to them, “I see your father’s face, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me.
6And you yourselves know that with all my strength I have served your father.
7Yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times; but God did not allow him to do harm to me.
8If he said thus, ‘The speckled shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore speckled; and if he said thus, ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore striped.
9So God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me.
10And it happened at the time the flock was breeding that I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream, and behold, the he-goats that were mounting the flock were striped, speckled, and mottled.
11And the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’
12And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes now and see: all the he-goats mounting the flock are striped, speckled, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.
13I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you vowed a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.’”
14Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, “Do we still have any portion or inheritance in our father’s house?
15Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and he has also completely consumed our money.
16For all the wealth that God has taken away from our father is ours and our children’s. So now, all that God has said to you, do.”
17Then Jacob arose and lifted his sons and his wives onto the camels,
18and he drove off all his livestock and all his property that he had acquired, the livestock of his possession that he had acquired in Paddan-Aram, to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan.
19Now Laban had gone to shear his flock, and Rachel stole the household gods that belonged to her father.
20And Jacob stole the heart of Laban the Aramean, in that he did not tell him that he was fleeing.
21So he fled with all that he had; he arose and crossed the River and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.
22And it was told to Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled.
23Then he took his kinsmen with him and pursued after him a journey of seven days, and he overtook him in the hill country of Gilead.
24But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, “Take care that you do not speak to Jacob either good or evil.”
25So Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen pitched in the hill country of Gilead.
26Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have stolen my heart and driven off my daughters like captives of the sword?
27Why did you flee secretly and steal away from me, and not tell me, so that I might have sent you off with joy and with songs, with tambourine and with lyre?
28And you did not let me kiss my sons and my daughters. Now you have acted foolishly in doing so.
29It is in the power of my hand to do you harm, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Take care that you do not speak to Jacob either good or evil.’
30And now you have surely gone, because you longed greatly for your father’s house — but why did you steal my gods?”
31Then Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid; for I said, ‘You might tear your daughters away from me by force.’”
32“With whomever you find your gods, he shall not live. In the presence of our kinsmen, identify what is with me that is yours, and take it for yourself.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
33So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, and into Leah’s tent, and into the tent of the two maidservants, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah’s tent and went into Rachel’s tent.
34Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel’s saddle-cushion and sat on them. Laban felt through the whole tent but did not find them.
35And she said to her father, “Let it not be displeasing in my lord’s eyes that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the household gods.
36Then Jacob became angry and quarreled with Laban; and Jacob answered and said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued after me?
37For you have felt through all my belongings — what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, and let them decide between the two of us.
38These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your she-goats have not miscarried, and the rams of your flock I have not eaten.
39That which was torn by beasts I did not bring to you; I myself bore the loss of it — from my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.
40This was my lot: by day the heat consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes.
41These twenty years I have been in your house: I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you changed my wages ten times.
42Had not the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, and last night he rendered judgment.”
43Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flock is my flock; all that you see is mine. But for my daughters — what can I do this day for them, or for their children whom they have borne?
44So now, come, let us cut a covenant, I and you, and let it be a witness between me and you.”
45So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar.
46And Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap.
47Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.
48And Laban said, “This heap is a witness between me and you this day.” Therefore its name was called Galeed,
49and also Mizpah, of which he said, “May Yahweh watch between me and you when we are hidden from one another;
50If you should mistreat my daughters, or if you should take wives in addition to my daughters — though no man is with us — see, God is witness between me and you.”
51And Laban said to Jacob, “Look at this heap, and look at the pillar which I have set up between me and you.
52This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass beyond this heap to you, and that you will not pass beyond this heap and this pillar to me, to do harm.
53May the God of Abraham and the god of Nahor, the god of their father, judge between us.” And Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac.
54Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his kinsmen to eat bread; and they ate bread and spent the night on the mountain.
55Early in the morning Laban rose and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them, and Laban went and returned to his place.
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