Genesis 31:14-44

14Rachel and Leah responded, “That’s fine with us! We won’t inherit any of our father’s wealth anyway.

15He has reduced our rights to those of foreign women. And after he sold us, he wasted the money you paid him for us.

16All the wealth God has given you from our father legally belongs to us and our children. So go ahead and do whatever God has told you.”

17So Jacob put his wives and children on camels,

18and he drove all his livestock in front of him. He packed all the belongings he had acquired in Paddan-aram and set out for the land of Canaan, where his father, Isaac, lived.

19At the time they left, Laban was some distance away, shearing his sheep. Rachel stole her father’s household idols and took them with her.

20Jacob outwitted Laban the Aramean, for they set out secretly and never told Laban they were leaving.

21So Jacob took all his possessions with him and crossed the Euphrates River, heading for the hill country of Gilead.

22Three days later, Laban was told that Jacob had fled.

23So he gathered a group of his relatives and set out in hot pursuit. He caught up with Jacob seven days later in the hill country of Gilead.

24But the previous night God had appeared to Laban the Aramean in a dream and told him, “I’m warning you—leave Jacob alone!”

25Laban caught up with Jacob as he was camped in the hill country of Gilead, and he set up his camp not far from Jacob’s.

26“What do you mean by deceiving me like this?” Laban demanded. “How dare you drag my daughters away like prisoners of war?

27Why did you slip away secretly? Why did you deceive me? And why didn’t you say you wanted to leave? I would have given you a farewell feast, with singing and music, accompanied by tambourines and harps.

28Why didn’t you let me kiss my daughters and grandchildren and tell them good-bye? You have acted very foolishly!

29I could destroy you, but the God of your father appeared to me last night and warned me, ‘Leave Jacob alone!’

30I can understand your feeling that you must go, and your intense longing for your father’s home. But why have you stolen my gods?”

31“I rushed away because I was afraid,” Jacob answered. “I thought you would take your daughters from me by force.

32But as for your gods, see if you can find them, and let the person who has taken them die! And if you find anything else that belongs to you, identify it before all these relatives of ours, and I will give it back!” But Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the household idols.

33Laban went first into Jacob’s tent to search there, then into Leah’s, and then the tents of the two servant wives—but he found nothing. Finally, he went into Rachel’s tent.

34But Rachel had taken the household idols and hidden them in her camel saddle, and now she was sitting on them. When Laban had thoroughly searched her tent without finding them,

35she said to her father, “Please, sir, forgive me if I don’t get up for you. I’m having my monthly period.” So Laban continued his search, but he could not find the household idols.

36Then Jacob became very angry, and he challenged Laban. “What’s my crime?” he demanded. “What have I done wrong to make you chase after me as though I were a criminal?

37You have rummaged through everything I own. Now show me what you found that belongs to you! Set it out here in front of us, before our relatives, for all to see. Let them judge between us!

38“For twenty years I have been with you, caring for your flocks. In all that time your sheep and goats never miscarried. In all those years I never used a single ram of yours for food.

39If any were attacked and killed by wild animals, I never showed you the carcass and asked you to reduce the count of your flock. No, I took the loss myself! You made me pay for every stolen animal, whether it was taken in broad daylight or in the dark of night.

40“I worked for you through the scorching heat of the day and through cold and sleepless nights.

41Yes, for twenty years I slaved in your house! I worked for fourteen years earning your two daughters, and then six more years for your flock. And you changed my wages ten times!

42In fact, if the God of my father had not been on my side—the God of Abraham and the fearsome God of Isaac—you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen your abuse and my hard work. That is why he appeared to you last night and rebuked you!”

43Then Laban replied to Jacob, “These women are my daughters, these children are my grandchildren, and these flocks are my flocks—in fact, everything you see is mine. But what can I do now about my daughters and their children?

44So come, let’s make a covenant, you and I, and it will be a witness to our commitment.”