1 Jacob heard Laban’s sons saying, “Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father. From what belonged to our father he has gained all this wealth.” 2 Jacob saw from Laban’s face that his attitude toward him was not as before. 3 The LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.” 4 Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah to come to the field where his flock was. 5 He said to them, “I see from your father’s face that his attitude toward me is not as before, but the God of my father has been with me. 6 You know that I have served your father with all my strength. 7 Yet your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times, but God has not allowed him to harm me. 8 If he said, ‘The speckled ones will be your wages,’ all the flock bore speckled young. If he said, ‘The striped ones will be your wages,’ all the flock bore striped young. 9 So God has taken your father’s livestock away and given them to me. 10 At the time when the flock was mating, I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the male goats mounting the flock were striped, speckled, and mottled. 11 The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob!’ I said, ‘Here I am.’ 12 He said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see: all the male goats mounting the flock are striped, speckled, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now rise, leave this land, and return to the land of your birth.’ ” 14 Rachel and Leah answered him, “Do we still have any share or inheritance in our father’s house? 15 Does he not regard us as foreigners? For he has sold us and completely consumed our money. 16 All the wealth God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. Now do all that God has told you.” 17 Jacob rose and put his children and his wives on the camels. 18 He drove away all his livestock and all the possessions he had acquired, the livestock he had gained in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan. 19 Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father’s household idols. 20 Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing. 21 He fled with all he had, crossed the river, and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead. 22 On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled. 23 He took his relatives with him and pursued him for seven days’ journey, and he caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. 24 But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, good or bad.” 25 Laban caught up with Jacob. Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban camped with his relatives in the hill country of Gilead. 26 Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You have deceived me and driven my daughters away like captives taken by the sword. 27 Why did you flee secretly and deceive me and not tell me? I would have sent you away with joy and songs, with tambourine and lyre. 28 You did not even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters. You have acted foolishly. 29 I have the power to harm you, but the God of your father said to me last night, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, good or bad.’ 30 Now you have indeed gone, because you longed so deeply for your father’s house. But why did you steal my gods?” 31 Jacob answered Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought you might take your daughters from me by force. 32 Whoever you find your gods with shall not live. In the presence of our relatives, identify whatever of yours is with me and take it.” Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them. 33 Laban went into Jacob’s tent and Leah’s tent and the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find them. He came out of Leah’s tent and went into Rachel’s tent. 34 Rachel had taken the household idols and put them in the camel’s saddle and sat on them. Laban felt through the whole tent but did not find them. 35 She said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for I am having my period.” He searched but did not find the household idols. 36 Jacob became angry and quarreled with Laban. Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have pursued me so fiercely? 37 You have felt through all my belongings. What have you found of all the things from your house? Put it here before my relatives and yours, and let them judge between us two. 38 These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock. 39 I did not bring you what was torn by wild beasts. I bore the loss myself. You demanded payment from me, whether it was stolen by day or stolen by night. 40 Such was my life: by day heat consumed me, and frost by night, and sleep fled from my eyes. 41 These twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you changed my wages ten times. 42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.” 43 Laban answered Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flock is my flock. All that you see is mine. But what can I do today to these daughters of mine or to the children they have borne? 44 Now come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between me and you.” 45 Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. 46 Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” They took stones and made a heap, and they ate there beside the heap. 47 Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. 48 Laban said, “This heap is a witness between me and you today.” That is why it was named Galeed, 49 and Mizpah, because he said, “May the LORD watch between me and you when we are hidden from one another. 50 If you mistreat my daughters or take wives besides my daughters, though no one is with us, see, God is a witness between me and you.” 51 Laban said to Jacob, “Here is this heap, and here is the pillar I have set between me and you. 52 This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not pass beyond this heap to you, and that you will not pass beyond this heap and this pillar to me, for harm. 53 May the God of Abraham and the god of Nahor, the gods of their father, judge between us.” Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac. 54 Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country and called his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread and spent the night in the hill country. 55 Laban rose early in the morning, kissed his grandchildren and his daughters, and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his own place.