He heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Yaqub has taken away all that was our father’s. From that which was our father’s, has he gotten all this wealth.“2Yaqub saw the expression on Laban’s face, and, behold, it was not toward him as before. 3Allah said to Yaqub, “Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives, and I will be with you.“
4Yaqub sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock, 5and said to them, “I see the expression on your father’s face, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me. 6You know that I have served your father with all of my strength. 7Your father has deceived me, and changed my wages ten times, but God didn’t allow him to hurt me. 8If he said this, ‘The speckled will be your wages,’ then all the flock bore speckled. If he said this, ‘The streaked will be your wages,’ then all the flock bore streaked. 9Thus God has taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me. 10It happened at the time that the flock conceive, that I lifted up my eyes, and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats which leaped on the flock were streaked, speckled, and grizzled. 11The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Yaqub,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’ 12He said, ‘Now lift up your eyes, and behold, all the male goats which leap on the flock are streaked, speckled, and grizzled, for I have seen all that Laban does to you. 13I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you vowed a vow to me. Now arise, get out from this land, and return to the land of your birth.“
14Rachel and Leah answered him, “Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house? 15Aren’t we accounted by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and has also quite devoured our money. 16For all the riches which God has taken away from our father, that is ours and our children’s. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.“
17Then Yaqub rose up, and set his sons and his wives on the camels, 18and he carried away all his cattle, and all his substance which he had gathered, the cattle of his getting, which he had gathered in Paddan Aram, to go to Ishaq his father to the land of Canaan. 19Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep: and Rachel stole the idols that were her father’s.
20Yaqub deceived Laban the Syrian, in that he did not tell him that he was running away. 21So he fled with all that he had. He rose up, passed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead.
22Laban was told on the third day that Yaqub had fled. 23He took his relatives with him, and pursued after him seven days’ journey. He overtook him in the mountain of Gilead. 24God came to Laban, the Syrian, in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Take heed to yourself that you do not speak to Yaqub either good or bad.“
25Laban caught up with Yaqub. Now Yaqub had pitched his tent in the mountain, and Laban with his relatives encamped in the mountain of Gilead. 26Laban said to Yaqub, “What have you done, that you have deceived me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword? 27Why did you flee secretly, and deceive me, and not tell me, that I might have sent you away with mirth and with songs, with tambourine and with harp; 28and not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now you have done foolishly. 29It is in the power of my hand to hurt you, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Take heed to yourself that you do not speak to Yaqub either good or bad.’ 30Now, you want to be gone, because you greatly longed after your father’s house, but why have you stolen my gods?“
31Yaqub answered Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I said, ‘Lest you should take your daughters from me by force.’ 32With whoever you find your gods, he shall not live. Before our relatives, discern what is yours with me, and take it.“ For Yaqub did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
33Laban went into Yaqub’s tent, into Leah’s tent, and into the tent of the two maid-servants; but he did not find them. He went out of Leah’s tent, and entered into Rachel’s tent. 34Now Rachel had taken the idols, put them in the camel’s saddle, and sat on them. Laban felt about all the tent, but did not find them. 35She said to her father, “Do not let my lord be angry that I cannot rise up before you; for the manner of women is on me.“ He searched, but did not find the idols.
36Yaqub was angry, and argued with Laban. Yaqub answered Laban, “What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued after me? 37Now that you have felt around in all my stuff, what have you found of all your household stuff? Set it here before my relatives and your relatives, that they may judge between us two. 38These twenty years have I been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not cast their young, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks. 39That which was torn of animals, I did not bring to you. I bore its loss. Of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. 40Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my eyes. 41These twenty years have I been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. 42Unless the God of my father, the God of Ibrahim, and the fear of Ishaq, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God has seen my affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked you last night.“
43Laban answered Yaqub, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine: and what can I do this day to these my daughters, or to their children whom they have borne? 44Now come, let us make a covenant, you and I; and let it be for a witness between me and you.“
45Yaqub took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. 46Yaqub said to his relatives, “Gather stones.“ They took stones, and made a heap. They ate there by the heap. 47Laban called it Yegar Sahadutha,[1] but Yaqub called it Galeed.[2] 48Laban said, “This heap is witness between me and you this day.“ Therefore it was named Galeed 49and Mizpah, for he said, “Allah watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another. 50If you will afflict my daughters, and if you will take wives besides my daughters, no man is with us; behold, God is witness between me and you.“ 51Laban said to Yaqub, “See this heap, and see the pillar, which I have set between me and you. 52May this heap be a witness, and the pillar be a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and that you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, for harm. 53The God of Ibrahim, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.“ Then Yaqub swore by the fear of his father, Ishaq. 54Yaqub offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread, and stayed all night in the mountain. 55Early in the morning, Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Laban departed and returned to his place.
[1] 31:47 “Yegar Sahadutha“ means “Witness Heap“ in Aramaic.
[2] 31:47 “Galeed“ means “Witness Heap“ in Hebrew.