Genesis 31
1 And he hears the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken all that our father has; indeed, from that which our father has, he has made all this glory”;
But after that he heard the words of the sons of Laban, saying: Jacob hath taken away all that was our father’s, and being enriched by his substance is become great:
2 and Jacob sees the face of Laban, and behold, it is not with him as before.
And perceiving also that Laban’s countenance was not towards him as yesterday and the other day,
3 And YHWH says to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers, and to your family, and I am with you.”
Especially the Lord saying to him: Return into the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred, and I will be with thee.
4 And Jacob sends and calls for Rachel and for Leah to the field to his flock;
He sent, and called Rachel and Lia into the field, where he fed the flocks,
5 and says to them, “I am beholding your father’s face—that it is not toward me as before, and the God of my father has been with me,
And said to them: I see your father’s countenance is not towards me as yesterday and the other day: but the God of my father hath been with me.
6 and you have known that with all my power I have served your father,
And you know that I have served your father to the uttermost of my power.
7 and your father has played on me, and has changed my hire ten times; and God has not permitted him to do evil with me.
Yea, your father also hath overreached me, and hath changed my wages ten times: and yet God hath not suffered him to hurt me.
8 If he says thus: The speckled are your hire, then all the flock bore speckled ones; and if he says thus: The striped are your hire, then all the flock bore striped;
If at any time he said: The speckled shall be thy wages: all the sheep brought forth speckled: but when he said on the contrary: Thou shalt take all the white ones for thy wages: all the flocks brought forth white ones.
9 and God takes away the substance of your father, and gives to me.
And God hath taken your father’s substance, and given it to me.
10 And it comes to pass at the time of the flock conceiving, that I lift up my eyes and see in a dream, and behold, the male goats, which are going up on the flock, [are] striped, speckled, and spotted;
For after that time came of the ewes conceiving, I lifted up my eyes, and saw in my sleep that the males which leaped upon the females were of divers colours, and spotted, and speckled.
11 and the Messenger of God says to me in the dream, Jacob, and I say, Here I [am].
And the angel of God said to me in my sleep: Jacob? And I answered: Here I am.
12 And He says, Now lift up your eyes and see [that] all the male goats which are going up on the flock [are] striped, speckled, and spotted, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you;
And he said: Lift up thy eyes, and see that all the males leaping upon the females, are of divers colours, spotted, and speckled. For I have seen all that Laban hath done to thee.
13 I [am] the God of Bethel where you have anointed a standing pillar, where you have vowed a vow to me; now, arise, go out from this land, and return to the land of your birth.”
I am the God of Bethel, where thou didst anoint the stone, and make a vow to me. Now therefore arise, and go out of this land, and return into thy native country.
14 And Rachel answers—Leah also—and says to him, “Have we yet a portion and inheritance in the house of our father?
And Rachel and Lia answered: Have we any thing left among the goods and inheritance of our father’s house?
15 Have we not been reckoned strangers to him? For he has sold us, and he also utterly consumes our money;
Hath he not counted us as strangers and sold us, and eaten up the price of us?
16 for all the wealth which God has taken away from our father, it [is] ours, and our children’s; and now, all that God has said to you—do.”
But God hath taken our father’s riches, and delivered them to us, and to our children: wherefore do all that God hath commanded thee.
17 And Jacob rises, and lifts up his sons and his wives on the camels,
Then Jacob rose up, and having set his children and wives upon camels, went his way.
18 and leads all his livestock, and all his substance which he has acquired, the livestock of his getting, which he has acquired in Padan-Aram, to go to his father Isaac, to the land of Canaan.
And he took all his substance, and flocks, and whatsoever he had gotten in Mesopotamia, and went forward to Isaac his father to the land of Chanaan.
19 And Laban has gone to shear his flock, and Rachel steals the teraphim which her father has;
At that time Laban was gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole away her father’s idols.
20 and Jacob deceives the heart of Laban the Aramean, because he has not declared to him that he is fleeing;
And Jacob would not confess to his father in law that he was flying away.
21 and he flees, he and all that he has, and rises, and passes over the River, and sets his face [toward] the Mount of Gilead.
And when he was gone, together with all that belonged to him, and having passed the river, was going on towards mount Galaad,
22 And it is told to Laban on the third day that Jacob has fled,
It was told Laban on the third day that Jacob fled.
23 and he takes his brothers with him, and pursues after him a journey of seven days, and overtakes him in the Mount of Gilead.
And he took his brethren with him, and pursued after him seven days; and overtook him in the mount of Galaad.
24 And God comes to Laban the Aramean in a dream of the night and says to him, “Take heed to yourself lest you speak with Jacob from good to evil.”
And he saw in a dream God saying to him: Take heed thou speak not any thing harshly against Jacob.
25 And Laban overtakes Jacob; and Jacob has fixed his tent in the mountain; and Laban with his brothers have fixed [theirs] in the Mount of Gilead.
Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain: and when he with his brethren had overtaken him, he pitched his tent in the same mount of Galaad.
26 And Laban says to Jacob, “What have you done that you deceive my heart, and lead away my daughters as captives of the sword?
And he said to Jacob: Why hast thou done thus, to carry away, without my knowledge, my daughters, as captives taken with the sword.
27 Why have you hidden yourself to flee, and deceive me, and have not declared to me, and I send you away with joy and with songs, with tambourine and with harp,
Why wouldst thou run away privately and not acquaint me, that I might have brought thee on the way with joy, and with songs, and with timbrels, and with harps?
28 and have not permitted me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now you have acted foolishly in doing [so];
Thou hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and daughters: thou hast done foolishly: and now, indeed,
29 my hand is to God to do evil with you, but the God of your father last night has spoken to me, saying, Take heed to yourself from speaking with Jacob from good to evil.
It is in my power to return thee evil: but the God of your father said to me yesterday: Take heed thou speak not any thing harshly against Jacob.
30 And now, you have certainly gone, because you have been very desirous for the house of your father; why have you stolen my gods?”
Suppose thou didst desire to go to thy friends, and hadst a longing after thy father’s house: why hast thou stolen away my gods?
31 And Jacob answers and says to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I said, Lest you violently take away your daughters from me;
Jacob answered: That I departed unknown to thee, it was for fear lest thou wouldst take away thy daughters by force.
32 with whomsoever you find your gods—he must not live; before our brothers discern for yourself what [is] with me, and take to yourself”: and Jacob has not known that Rachel has stolen them.
But whereas thou chargest me with theft: with whomsoever thou shalt find thy gods, let him be slain before our brethren. Search, and if thou find any of thy things with me, take them away. Now when he said this, he knew not that Rachel had stolen the idols.
33 And Laban goes into the tent of Jacob, and into the tent of Leah, and into the tent of the two handmaidens, and has not found; and he goes out from the tent of Leah, and goes into the tent of Rachel.
So Laban went into the tent of Jacob, and of Lia, and of both the handmaids, and found them not. And when he was entered into Rachel’s tent,
34 And Rachel has taken the teraphim, and puts them in the furniture of the camel, and sits on them; and Laban feels all the tent, and has not found;
She in haste hid the idols under the camel’s furniture, and sat upon them: and when he had searched all the tent, and found nothing,
35 and she says to her father, “Let it not be displeasing in the eyes of my lord that I am not able to rise at your presence, for the way of women [is] on me”; and he searches, and has not found the teraphim.
She said: Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise up before thee, because it has now happened to me, according to the custom of women, So his careful search was in vain.
36 And it is displeasing to Jacob, and he strives with Laban; and Jacob answers and says to Laban, “What [is] my transgression? What my sin, that you have burned after me?
And Jacob being angry, said in a chiding manner: For what fault of mine, and for what offence on my part hast thou so hotly pursued me,
37 For you have felt all my vessels: what have you found of all the vessels of your house? Set here before my brothers, and your brothers, and they decide between us both.
And searched all my household stuff? What hast thou found of all the substance of thy house? lay it here before my brethren, and thy brethren, and let them judge between me and thee.
38 These twenty years I [am] with you: your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and the rams of your flock I have not eaten;
Have I therefore been with thee twenty years? thy ewes and goats were not barren, the rams of thy flocks I did not eat:
39 the torn I have not brought to you—I repay it—from my hand you seek it; I have been deceived by day, and I have been deceived by night;
Neither did I show thee that which the beast had torn, I made good all the damage: whatsoever was lost by theft, thou didst exact it of me:
40 I have been [thus]: drought has consumed me in the day, and frost by night, and my sleep wanders from my eyes.
Day and night was I parched with heat, and with frost, and sleep departed from my eyes.
41 This [is] to me twenty years in your house: I have served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock; and you change my hire ten times;
And in this manner have I served thee in thy house twenty years, fourteen for thy daughters, and six for thy flocks: thou hast changed also my wages ten times.
42 unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the Fear of Isaac, had been for me, surely now you had sent me away empty; God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and reproves last night.”
Unless the God of my father Abraham, and the fear of Isaac had stood by me, peradventure now thou hadst sent me away naked: God beheld my affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesterday.
43 And Laban answers and says to Jacob, “The daughters [are] my daughters, and the sons my sons, and the flock my flock, and all that you are seeing [is] mine; and to my daughters—what do I to these today, or to their sons whom they have born?
Laban answered him: The daughters are mine and the children, and thy flocks, and all things that thou seest are mine: what can I do to my children, and grandchildren?
44 And now, come, let us make a covenant, I and you, and it has been for a witness between me and you.”
Come therefore, let us enter into a league: that it may be for a testimony between me and thee.
45 And Jacob takes a stone, and lifts it up [for] a standing pillar;
And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a title:
46 and Jacob says to his brothers, “Gather stones,” and they take stones, and make a heap; and they eat there on the heap;
And he said to his brethren: Bring hither stones. And they gathering stones together, made a heap, and they ate upon it.
47 and Laban calls it Jegar-Sahadutha; and Jacob has called it Galeed.
And Laban called it The witness heap: and Jacob, The hillock of testimony: each of them according to the propriety of his language.
48 And Laban says, “This heap [is] witness between me and you today”; therefore has he called its name Galeed;
And Laban said: This heap shall be a witness between me and thee this day, and therefore the name thereof was called Galaad, that is, The witness heap.
49 Mizpah also, for he said, “YHWH watches between me and you, for we are hidden from one another;
The Lord behold and judge between us when we shall be gone one from the other.
50 if you afflict my daughters, or take wives beside my daughters—there is no man with us—see, God [is] witness between me and you.”
If thou afflict my daughters, and if thou bring in other wives over them: none is witness of our speech but God, who is present and beholdeth.
51 And Laban says to Jacob, “Behold, this heap, and behold, the standing pillar which I have cast between me and you;
And he said again to Jacob: Behold, this heap, and the stone which I have set up between me and thee,
52 this heap [is] witness, and the standing pillar [is] witness, that I do not pass over this heap to you, and that you do not pass over this heap and this standing pillar to me—for evil;
Shall be a witness: this heap, I say, and the stone, be they for a testimony, if either I shall pass beyond it going towards thee, or thou shalt pass beyond it, thinking harm to me.
53 the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, judges between us—the God of their father,” and Jacob swears by the Fear of his father Isaac.
The God of Abraham, and the God of Nachor, the God of their father, judge between us. And Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac.
54 And Jacob sacrifices a sacrifice on the mountain, and calls to his brothers to eat bread, and they eat bread, and lodge on the mountain;
And after he had offered sacrifices in the mountain, he called his brethren to eat bread. And when they had eaten, they lodged there:
55 and Laban rises early in the morning, and kisses his sons and his daughters, and blesses them; and Laban goes on, and turns back to his place.
But Laban arose in the night, and kissed his sons, and daughters, and blessed them: and returned to his place.
