Genesis 31
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1And he hears the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken all that our father has; indeed, from that which our father has, he has made all this glory”; 2and Jacob sees the face of Laban, and behold, it is not with him as before. 3And YHWH says to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers, and to your family, and I am with you.” 4And Jacob sends and calls for Rachel and for Leah to the field to his flock; 5and says to them, “I am beholding your father’s face—that it is not toward me as before, and the God of my father has been with me, 6and you have known that with all my power I have served your father, 7and your father has played on me, and has changed my hire ten times; and God has not permitted him to do evil with me. 8If he says thus: The speckled are your hire, then all the flock bore speckled ones; and if he says thus: The striped are your hire, then all the flock bore striped; 9and God takes away the substance of your father, and gives to me. 10And it comes to pass at the time of the flock conceiving, that I lift up my eyes and see in a dream, and behold, the male goats, which are going up on the flock, [are] striped, speckled, and spotted; 11and the Messenger of God says to me in the dream, Jacob, and I say, Here I [am]. 12And He says, Now lift up your eyes and see [that] all the male goats which are going up on the flock [are] striped, speckled, and spotted, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you; 13I [am] the God of Bethel where you have anointed a standing pillar, where you have vowed a vow to me; now, arise, go out from this land, and return to the land of your birth.” 14And Rachel answers—Leah also—and says to him, “Have we yet a portion and inheritance in the house of our father? 15Have we not been reckoned strangers to him? For he has sold us, and he also utterly consumes our money; 16for all the wealth which God has taken away from our father, it [is] ours, and our children’s; and now, all that God has said to you—do.”

17And Jacob rises, and lifts up his sons and his wives on the camels, 18and leads all his livestock, and all his substance which he has acquired, the livestock of his getting, which he has acquired in Padan-Aram, to go to his father Isaac, to the land of Canaan. 19And Laban has gone to shear his flock, and Rachel steals the teraphim which her father has; 20and Jacob deceives the heart of Laban the Aramean, because he has not declared to him that he is fleeing; 21and he flees, he and all that he has, and rises, and passes over the River, and sets his face [toward] the Mount of Gilead.

22And it is told to Laban on the third day that Jacob has fled, 23and he takes his brothers with him, and pursues after him a journey of seven days, and overtakes him in the Mount of Gilead. 24And God comes to Laban the Aramean in a dream of the night and says to him, “Take heed to yourself lest you speak with Jacob from good to evil.”

25And Laban overtakes Jacob; and Jacob has fixed his tent in the mountain; and Laban with his brothers have fixed [theirs] in the Mount of Gilead. 26And Laban says to Jacob, “What have you done that you deceive my heart, and lead away my daughters as captives of the sword? 27Why have you hidden yourself to flee, and deceive me, and have not declared to me, and I send you away with joy and with songs, with tambourine and with harp, 28and have not permitted me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now you have acted foolishly in doing [so]; 29my hand is to God to do evil with you, but the God of your father last night has spoken to me, saying, Take heed to yourself from speaking with Jacob from good to evil. 30And now, you have certainly gone, because you have been very desirous for the house of your father; why have you stolen my gods?” 31And Jacob answers and says to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I said, Lest you violently take away your daughters from me; 32with whomsoever you find your gods—he must not live; before our brothers discern for yourself what [is] with me, and take to yourself”: and Jacob has not known that Rachel has stolen them.

33And Laban goes into the tent of Jacob, and into the tent of Leah, and into the tent of the two handmaidens, and has not found; and he goes out from the tent of Leah, and goes into the tent of Rachel. 34And Rachel has taken the teraphim, and puts them in the furniture of the camel, and sits on them; and Laban feels all the tent, and has not found; 35and she says to her father, “Let it not be displeasing in the eyes of my lord that I am not able to rise at your presence, for the way of women [is] on me”; and he searches, and has not found the teraphim.

36And it is displeasing to Jacob, and he strives with Laban; and Jacob answers and says to Laban, “What [is] my transgression? What my sin, that you have burned after me? 37For you have felt all my vessels: what have you found of all the vessels of your house? Set here before my brothers, and your brothers, and they decide between us both. 38These twenty years I [am] with you: your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and the rams of your flock I have not eaten; 39the torn I have not brought to you—I repay it—from my hand you seek it; I have been deceived by day, and I have been deceived by night; 40I have been [thus]: drought has consumed me in the day, and frost by night, and my sleep wanders from my eyes. 41This [is] to me twenty years in your house: I have served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock; and you change my hire ten times; 42unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the Fear of Isaac, had been for me, surely now you had sent me away empty; God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and reproves last night.”

43And Laban answers and says to Jacob, “The daughters [are] my daughters, and the sons my sons, and the flock my flock, and all that you are seeing [is] mine; and to my daughters—what do I to these today, or to their sons whom they have born? 44And now, come, let us make a covenant, I and you, and it has been for a witness between me and you.” 45And Jacob takes a stone, and lifts it up [for] a standing pillar; 46and Jacob says to his brothers, “Gather stones,” and they take stones, and make a heap; and they eat there on the heap; 47and Laban calls it Jegar-Sahadutha; and Jacob has called it Galeed. 48And Laban says, “This heap [is] witness between me and you today”; therefore has he called its name Galeed; 49Mizpah also, for he said, “YHWH watches between me and you, for we are hidden from one another; 50if you afflict my daughters, or take wives beside my daughters—there is no man with us—see, God [is] witness between me and you.” 51And Laban says to Jacob, “Behold, this heap, and behold, the standing pillar which I have cast between me and you; 52this heap [is] witness, and the standing pillar [is] witness, that I do not pass over this heap to you, and that you do not pass over this heap and this standing pillar to me—for evil; 53the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, judges between us—the God of their father,” and Jacob swears by the Fear of his father Isaac. 54And Jacob sacrifices a sacrifice on the mountain, and calls to his brothers to eat bread, and they eat bread, and lodge on the mountain; 55and Laban rises early in the morning, and kisses his sons and his daughters, and blesses them; and Laban goes on, and turns back to his place.


Literal Standard Version
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Genesis 30
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