Genesis 31:26-42

26Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done 1by deceiving me and carrying away my daughters like captives of the sword? 27Why did you flee secretly and 2deceive me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with joy and with songs, with 3tambourine and with 4lyre; 28and did not allow me 5to kiss my 6grandchildren and my daughters? Now you have done foolishly. 29It is in 7my power to do you harm, but 8the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘910Be careful not to speak either good or bad to Jacob.’ 30Now you have indeed gone away because you longed greatly for your father’s house; but why did you steal 11my gods?” 31Then Jacob replied to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force. 3212The one with whom you find your gods shall not live; in the presence of our relatives 13point out what is yours 14among my belongings 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 slave women, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent. 34Now Rachel had taken the 15household idols and put them in the camel’s saddlebag, and she sat on them. So Laban searched through all the tent, but did not find them. 35And she said to her father, “May my lord not be angry that I cannot 16stand in your presence, because the 17way of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the 1819household idols.

36Then Jacob became angry and argued with Laban; and Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me? 37Though you have searched through all my property, what have you found of all your household property? Set it here in front of my relatives and your relatives, so that they may decide between the two of us. 38For these twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the rams of your flocks. 39I did not even bring to you that which was torn by wild animals; I took the loss myself. You demanded it of my hand whether stolen by day or stolen by night. 40This is how I was: by day the 20heat consumed me and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. 41For these twenty years I have been in your house; 21I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you 22changed my wages ten times. 42If 23the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac, had not been for me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. 24God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, so He 25rendered judgment last night.”