Genesis 31 — Read & Listen Online | Father's Heart Bible™

Resentment in Laban's House

Chapter 31.

Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, "Jacob has taken all that was our father's, and from what was our father's he has gained all this wealth." And Jacob saw the face of Laban, and it was not toward him as before.

Then our Father said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you."

So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field, to his flock, and said to them, "I see that your father's face is not toward me as it was before. But the Father of my father has been with me." "You know that I have served your father with all my strength, yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But our Father did not allow him to harm me." "If he said, 'The speckled shall be your wages,' then all the flock bore speckled; and if he said, 'The striped shall be your wages,' then all the flock bore striped." "Thus our Father has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me." "In the breeding season of the flock I lifted my eyes and saw in a dream that the male goats mating with the flock were striped, speckled, and mottled." "Then the messenger of the Father said to me in the dream, 'Jacob,' and I said, 'Here I am.'" "And he said, 'Lift up your eyes and see, all the male goats mating with the flock are striped, speckled, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.'" "I am the Father of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to me. Now arise, leave this land and return to the land of your kindred."

Then Rachel and Leah answered him, "Is there any portion or inheritance left for us in our father's house?" "Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and he has even completely consumed our money." "Surely all the wealth that our Father has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. Now then, whatever our Father has said to you, do."

So Jacob arose and set his sons and his wives on the camels. He drove away all his livestock and all his property that he had gained, the livestock he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan. Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole the household gods that belonged to her father. And Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing. So he fled with all that he had. He arose and crossed the Euphrates and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.

Laban Gives Chase

On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled. He took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for seven days and overtook him in the hill country of Gilead.

But our Father came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, "Take care that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad."

And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen pitched against him in the hill country of Gilead. Then Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done, that you have deceived me and driven away my daughters like captives of the sword?" "Why did you flee secretly and trick me, and not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with mirth and songs, with tambourine and lyre?" "And why did you not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? Now you have done foolishly." "It is in my power to do you harm. But the Father of your father spoke to me last night, saying, 'Take care that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.'" "And now you have indeed gone because you longed greatly for your father's house, but why did you steal my gods?"

Then Jacob answered and said to Laban, "Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force." "Anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our kinsmen, point out what is yours with me and take it." Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the tent of the two maidservants, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah's tent and entered Rachel's tent. Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel's saddle and was sitting on them. Laban felt all about the tent, but did not find them. And she said to her father, "Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me." So he searched but did not find the household gods.

Then Jacob became angry and quarreled with Laban. Jacob answered and said to Laban, "What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me?" "For you have felt through all my goods. What have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, that they may decide between us two."

"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 flocks." "What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself. From my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night." "There I was: by day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes." "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 have changed my wages ten times." "If the Father of my father, the Father of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. Our Father has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night." ^a

Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, "The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day for these my daughters or for their children whom they have borne?" "Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I. And let it be a witness between you and me."

So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. And Jacob said to his kinsmen, "Gather stones." And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. Laban said, "This heap is a witness between you and me today." Therefore he named it Galeed, and Mizpah, for he said, "May our Father watch between you and me, when we are out of one another's sight." "If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, our Father is witness between you and me." Then Laban said to Jacob, "See this heap and the pillar, which I have set between you and me." "This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, for harm." "The Father of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us." So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac. Then Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country and called his kinsmen to eat bread. They ate bread and spent the night in the hill country. Early in the morning Laban arose and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place.

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