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23 July 2022 Navigate 'up' to the Genesis index: index-genesis.
The text below is adapted from the Jewish Publication Society translation of 1917.
1 And he heard the words of Laban's sons, saying, Jacob has taken away all that was our father's, and from all that was our father's he has gotten all this wealth. 2 And Jacob saw the countenance of Laban, and indeed, it was not toward him as before.
3 And Y' said to Jacob, Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.
4 And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to his flock in the field, 5 and said to them, I see your father's countenance, that it is not toward me as before, but the god of my father has been with me. 6 And you know that with all my power I have served your father. 7 And your father has mocked me, and changed my wages ten times; but God did not allow him to hurt me. 8 If he said, The speckled will be your wages; then all the flock bore speckled. And if he said, The streaked will be your wages, then all the flock bore streaked. 9 So God has taken away your father's livestock, and given them to me. 10 When the flocks were making, I lifted up my eyes, and saw in a dream, and saw the he-goats leaping upon the flock: streaked, speckled, and grizzled.
11 And an angel of God said to me in the dream, Jacob.
And I said, Here I am.
12 And he said, Lift up your eyes now, and see, all the he-goats which leap upon the flock are streaked, speckled, and grizzled; because I have seen all that Laban does to you. 13 I am the god of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you vowed a vow to me. Now rise, get out from this land, and return to your native land.
14 And Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, Is there any portion or inheritance left for us in our father's house? 15 Does he not consider us strangers? For he has sold us, and entirely devoured our purchase price. 16 For all the riches which God has taken away from our father, that is ours and our children's. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.
17 Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives on the camels, 18 and he carried away all his livestock, and all his belongings he had gotten, the livestock which he had acquired, which he had gathered in Paddan Aram, to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan. 19 Now Laban was gone to shear his sheep. And Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father's. 20 And Jacob outwitted Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he had fled. 21 So he fled with all that he had, and he rose up and passed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead.
22 And it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled. 23 And he took his brethren with him, and pursued him seven days' jounrey, and he overtook him in the mountains of Gilead. 24 And God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream of the night, and said to him, Be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.
25 And Laban came up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent on the mountain, and Laban with his brethren pitched pitched on the mountain of Gilead. 26 And Laban said to Jacob, What have you done, that you have outwitted me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword? 27 Why did you flee secretly, and outwit me, and did not tell me? I could have sent you away with mirth and with songs, with tabret and with harp. 28 Why did you not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now you have acted foolishly. 29 It is in the power of my hand to harm you, but the god of your father spoke to me last night, saying, Be careful not to speak to Jacob either good or bad. 30 And now that you are surely gone, because you sorely missed your father's house, why have you stolen my gods?
31 And Jacob answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid, because I thought you might take your daughters from me by force. 32 Whomever you find your gods with, he shall not live. Before our brethren point out what is yours with me, and take it for yourself. For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them. 33 And Jacob went into Jacob's tent, and into Leah's tent, and went into Rachel's tent.
34 Now Rachel had taken the teraphim, and put them in the saddle of the camel, and sat on them. And Laban felt all around the tent, but did not find them. 35 And she said to her father, Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise up before you, because I am having my time of the month.
36 And Jacob was angry, and quarreled with Laban. And Jacob answered and said to Laban, What have I done wrong? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued after me? 37 While you have been feeling around all my stuff, what stuff from your house have you found? Set it here before my brethren and your brethren, that they may judge between us. 38 These twenty years I have been with you, your ewes and your she-goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock. 39 What was torn by beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss. You required payment from my hand for it, whether it was stolen by day or stolen by night. 40 So I was: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost at night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. 41 These twenty years I have been in your house. I have served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. 42 Had the god of my father, the god of Abraham and the fear of Isaac, not been on my side, surely you would have sent me off empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rendered his judgment last night.
43 And Laban replied to Jacob, The daughters are my daughters, and the children are my children, and all that you see if mine. And what can I do today for these daughters of mine, or for the children they have borne? 44 And now come, let us make a covenant, I and you, and let it serve as a witness between me and you.
45 And Jacob took a stone, and set it up as a pillar. 46 And Jacob said to his brethren, Gather stones. And they took stones, and made a heap. And they ate there by the heap. 47 And Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.
48 And Laban said, This heap is a witness between me and you today. Therefore its name was called Galeed, 49 and Mizpah, because he said, May Y' watch between me and you when we are apart from one another. 50 If you should mistreat my daughters, and if you should take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, surely God is a witness between me and you.
51 And Laban said to Jacob, See this heap, and see the pillar which I have set up between me and you. 52 May this heap be a witness, and the pillar be a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and that you shall not pass over this heap and this pillar toward me for ill. 53 May the god of Abraham, and the god of Nahor, the god of their father, judge between us.
54 And Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac. 54 And Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and called his brethren to eat bread, and they ate bread, and stayed all night on the mountain.
(31:2) "countenance". Literally, "face".
(31:12) "the god of Bethel". Hebrew, hʔl byt ʔl, where we might expect to see simply ʔl byt ʔl. The ungrammatical h- suggests something has gone wrong here. Kittel suggests we should following the Targums and Septuagint and read the god who appeared to you at Bethel (BHK).
(31:18). There is a certain redundancy to the verse, what with the parts about the livestock. Skinner believed the verse is stitched together from more than one source.
(31:35) "I am having my time of the month". Literally, "I have the way of women."
(31:47) "Jegar Sahadutha". According to the JPS notes, this means "The heap of witness" in Aramaic.
(31:47) "Galeed". According to the JPS notes, this means "The heap of witness" in Hebrew.
(31:49) "Mizpah". According to the JPS notes, this means "The watch-post".
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