The Bible

The Bible › Genesis

Genesis 31

1Jacob heard Laban's sons saying, “Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father. He has made all this wealth from what belonged to our father.” 2Jacob saw Laban's face, and it was no longer toward him as before. 3Yahweh said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and your kindred, and I will be with you.” 4Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah to come to the field where his flock was. 5He said to them, “I can see your father's face: he is no longer toward me as before. But the God of my father has been with me. 6You yourselves know that I have served your father with all my strength. 7Yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God has not allowed him to harm me. 8If he said, ‘The speckled animals will be your wages,’ the whole flock bore speckled young. If he said, ‘The striped animals will be your wages,’ the whole flock bore striped young. 9God has taken away your father's livestock and given them to me. 10Once, when the flock was mating, I lifted my eyes and saw in a dream that the male goats mating with the flock were striped, speckled, and mottled. 11The messenger of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob!’ I said, ‘Here I am.’ 12He said, ‘Lift your eyes and see: all the male goats mating with the flock are striped, speckled, and mottled, because I have seen everything Laban is doing to you. 13I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now get up, leave this land, and return to the land of your birth.’”

14Rachel and Leah answered him, “Do we still have any share or inheritance in our father's household? 15Does he not regard us as foreigners? He has sold us, and he has completely consumed our money. 16All the wealth God has taken from our father belongs to us and our children. Now do everything God has told you.” 17Jacob got up and put his children and his wives on the camels. 18He drove away all his livestock and all the property he had acquired—the livestock he had gained in Paddan-aram—to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan. 19Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father's household gods. 20Jacob stole the heart of Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing. 21He fled with everything he owned. He rose, crossed the River, and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.

22On the third day, Laban was told that Jacob had fled. 23He took his relatives with him and pursued Jacob for a seven-day journey. He overtook him in the hill country of Gilead. 24God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Be careful that you say nothing to Jacob, either good or bad.” 25Laban caught up with Jacob. Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban and his relatives camped in the hill country of Gilead. 26Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You have stolen my heart and driven my daughters away like captives of the sword. 27Why did you flee secretly and deceive me? You did not tell me, so that I could send you away with joy and songs, with tambourine and lyre. 28You did not even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters. Now you have acted foolishly. 29I have it in the power of my hand to harm you, but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful that you say nothing to Jacob, either good or bad.’ 30Now, you have gone because you longed so deeply for your father's household. But why did you steal my gods?” 31Jacob answered Laban, “Because I was afraid. I thought you might tear your daughters away from me. 32Anyone with whom you find your gods will not live. In front of our relatives, identify anything of yours that is with me, and take it.” Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

33Laban went into Jacob's tent, Leah's tent, and the tent of the two slave women, but he did not find them. He came out of Leah's tent and went into Rachel's tent. 34Rachel had taken the household gods, put them in the camel's saddle, and sat on them. Laban felt through the whole tent but did not find them. 35She said to her father, “Do not be angry, my lord, that I cannot rise before you, because the way of women is upon me.” He searched but did not find the household gods. 36Jacob grew angry and argued with Laban. Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me? 37You have felt through all my possessions. What have you found from all your household's possessions? Put it here in front of my relatives and yours, and let them decide between us. 38These twenty years I have been with you, your ewes and female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock. 39I did not bring you animals torn by predators. I bore the loss myself. You demanded payment from my hand for anything stolen by day or by night. 40By day the heat consumed me, and by night the frost; sleep fled from my eyes. 41These twenty years I have been in your household: I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you changed my wages ten times. 42If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands, and last night he gave judgment.”

43Laban answered Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flock is my flock. Everything you see is mine. But what can I do today about these daughters of mine or the children they have borne? 44Now come, let us make a covenant, you and I. Let it be a witness between you and me.” 45Jacob took a stone and raised it as a pillar. 46Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” They took stones and made a heap, and they ate there beside the heap. 47Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. 48Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” That is why it was named Galeed, 49and Mizpah, because he said, “May Yahweh watch between you and me when we are hidden from each other. 50If you mistreat my daughters, or take wives besides my daughters, though no one is with us, see: God is a witness between you and me.” 51Laban said to Jacob, “Here is this heap, and here is the pillar I have set up between you and me. 52This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not cross this heap to you and you will not cross this heap and this pillar to me, to do harm. 53May the God of Abraham and the god of Nahor—the gods of their father—judge between us.” Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac. 54Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country and invited his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread and spent the night in the hill country. 55Early in the morning Laban rose, kissed his grandchildren and his daughters, and blessed them. Then Laban left and returned to his own place.

Translation notes 9

31:19 — Household gods. The Hebrew calls these objects teraphim. Their use and Rachel's motive for stealing them are not explained here. Proposed connections with inheritance rights should not be treated as facts supplied by this account.

31:20, 26 — Stealing the heart. This Hebrew expression describes deceiving someone or keeping someone unaware. The repeated image connects Jacob's secret departure with Rachel's literal theft.

31:21 — The River. In this setting this is the Euphrates. Gilead is a region east of the Jordan.

31:24, 29 — Good or bad. The paired terms encompass what Laban might say. In context the warning restrains his interference with Jacob, rather than prohibiting the conversation that follows.

31:35 — The way of women. Rachel claims to be menstruating. The bodily expression is retained; the narrator does not independently confirm whether her claim was true.

31:42, 53 — The Fear of Isaac. This unusual designation identifies the one Isaac feared or revered. It is retained as a title rather than silently replaced with the ordinary word “God.”

31:47–49 — Two languages. Jegar-sahadutha is Aramaic and Galeed is Hebrew; both mean “heap of witness.” Mizpah means “watchpost.” Laban's appeal to divine watching belongs to an agreement against mistreatment and aggression.

31:53 — The gods of their father. Laban's wording uses a plural verb, “judge.” It can invoke the ancestral gods of Abraham and Nahor, though the same word can also designate God. Jacob's answering oath specifically names the Fear of Isaac. The translation does not smooth out the distinction between their oaths.

31:55 — Verse numbering. This verse is Genesis 32:1 in the Hebrew numbering; the following chapter is correspondingly offset by one verse.