Genesis 31:8-41

8If 1he said this: ‘The speckled shall be your wages,’ then all the flock delivered speckled; and if he said this: ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock delivered striped. 9So God has 2taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me. 10And it came about at the time when the flock was breeding that I raised my eyes and saw in a dream--and behold--the male goats that were 3mating were striped, speckled, or mottled. 11Then 4the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob’; and I said, ‘Here I am.’ 12He said, ‘Now raise your eyes and see that all the male goats that are 5mating are striped, speckled, or mottled; for 6I have seen everything that Laban has been doing to you. 13I am 7the God of Bethel, where you 8anointed a memorial stone, where you made a vow to Me; now arise, 9leave this land, and 10return to the land of your birth.’” 14Rachel and Leah said to him, “Do we still have any share or inheritance in our father’s house? 15Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For 11he has sold us, and has also 12entirely consumed our 13purchase price. 16Surely all the wealth which God has taken away from our father belongs to us and our children; now then, do whatever God has told you.”

17Then Jacob stood up and put his children and his wives on camels; 18and he drove away all his livestock and all his property which he had acquired, the livestock he possessed which he had acquired in Paddan-aram, 14to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac. 19Laban had gone to shear his flock, and Rachel stole the 1516household idols that were her father’s. 20And Jacob 17deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing. 21So he fled with all that he had; and he got up and crossed the Euphrates River, and set 18out for the hill country of 19Gilead.

22When Laban was informed on the third day that Jacob had fled, 23he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him a distance of seven days’ journey, and he overtook him in the hill country of Gilead. 24However, 20God came to Laban the Aramean in a 21dream of the night and said to him, “2223Be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.”

25And Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen camped in the hill country of Gilead. 26Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done 24by deceiving me and carrying away my daughters like captives of the sword? 27Why did you flee secretly and 25deceive me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with joy and with songs, with 26tambourine and with 27lyre; 28and did not allow me 28to kiss my 29grandchildren and my daughters? Now you have done foolishly. 29It is in 30my power to do you harm, but 31the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘3233Be 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 34my gods?” 31Then Jacob replied to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force. 3235The one with whom you find your gods shall not live; in the presence of our relatives 36point out what is yours 37among 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 38household 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 39stand in your presence, because the 40way of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the 4142household 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 43heat consumed me and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. 41For these twenty years I have been in your house; 44I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you 45changed my wages ten times.