Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were complaining, “Everything Jacob owns he has taken from our father! He gained all his wealth from what our father owned.” And Jacob saw that Laban no longer viewed him favorably as he once did. Then YAHWEH said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your ancestors where you were born; and remember, I will be with you.” So Jacob sent a message for Leah and Rachel to meet him in the field where his flocks were grazing. When they arrived, he said to them, “I can see that your father’s attitude toward me has changed, but the God of my father has been with me. You both know I have worked for your father as hard as I could, although he has cheated me and reduced my wages over and over. Yet God has not allowed him to harm me. If he said, ‘The speckled ones will be your wages,’ then all the flock bore speckled. If he said, ‘The striped ones will be your wages,’ then all the flock bore striped. Because of these miracles, God has taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me!”
Jacob continued, “Once during the breeding season, I had a dream. I saw that the male goats who were mating were all speckled, streaked, or spotted. In the dream, the angel of God called me by my name, ‘Jacob.’ ”
“ ‘I am here,’ I answered.
“Then he said, ‘Observe and note that all the male goats that are mating are speckled, streaked, or spotted, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. I am the God who appeared to you at Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now leave this land at once and return to the land of your birth.’ ”
Then Rachel and Leah answered him, “Our father doesn’t want us to inherit a portion from his estate. Hasn’t he treated us as outsiders and not as members of his family? Not only did he sell us like property, but he has also spent our purchase price! Our father’s wealth that God has given you was legally ours and our children to begin with! So, go ahead and do whatever God has told you.”
Jacob immediately put his wives and children on camels and took with him all the livestock and everything he had amassed in Paddan-Aram. He set out to return to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.
One day, when Laban had gone to his fields to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols. Jacob had outwitted Laban the Aramean by secretly departing without telling him. He fled with all that he had, and after crossing the Euphrates, he headed for the hill country of Gilead. And it wasn’t until three days later that Laban discovered Jacob had left.
Laban, along with some of his relatives, took off in pursuit and chased after Jacob for seven days. He had almost caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead, when God appeared to Laban the Aramean in a dream and warned him, “Be careful that you neither harm nor threaten Jacob.”
Now Jacob had set up his camp with his flocks on a hill, and Laban had him in his sights. Laban and his companions set up their camp nearby. Laban approached Jacob and said, “Nephew, what have you done? You’ve deceived me and carried away my daughters like captives on a battlefield. Why did you trick me and run away in secret without telling me? I would have sent you off joyously, celebrating with singing and dancing to the tambourine and stringed instruments. And why did you not even let me kiss my daughters and grandchildren goodbye? What you have done is foolish! I could harm you, but the God of your father spoke to me in a dream last night, saying, ‘Be careful that you neither harm nor threaten Jacob.’ Now I realize you ran away because you desperately long to return to your father’s house, but why did you steal my gods?”
“I left in a hurry because I was afraid,” Jacob answered, “and I thought you would take your daughters from me by force. Whoever has taken your gods will be put to death! So here, in the presence of our relatives, if you can find among our possessions anything that is yours, take it.” Now Jacob had no clue that Rachel had stolen the gods.
Laban went immediately into Jacob’s tent to search. Then he went into the tents of Zilpah and Bilhah but found nothing. After searching Leah’s tent, he went into Rachel’s. Now Rachel had taken the family gods and put them in her camel’s cushion and sat on them. She said to her father, “Please my father, don’t be angry if I don’t rise before you, for I’m having my period.” When he rummaged through her tent, he did not find them.
Then Jacob became angry and complained to Laban, “What have I done wrong? What sin have I committed that you would hotly pursue me as if you were chasing a criminal? You have rummaged through all my things, and did you find anything of your own property? If you did, set them here in front of your relatives and mine. Let them decide between the two of us.”
Jacob continued, “For the last twenty years I have served you, and the whole time your sheep and goats did not miscarry, nor did I feast on any of your rams. If one from your flock was mauled by a wild beast, I didn’t bring it to you; I absorbed the loss myself. And you always made me pay for any missing animal, whether snatched by day or by night. Many times, scorching heat consumed me by day and hard frost by night; I endured sleepless nights. For these twenty years that I’ve lived among you, I slaved away fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flocks. And besides all that, you’ve reduced my wages over and over. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the Awesome One of Isaac , had not been on my side, you certainly would have sent me away empty-handed! But God in his mercy took notice of how much I’ve suffered and how hard I’ve worked—and that’s why he rebuked you last night in your dream!”
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