Now Jacob noticed that Laban’s conduct toward him was not as friendly as it used to be. And he heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken what rightfully belongs to our father, and all his wealth has been gotten at our father’s expense.”
So Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah, and they met him in the open country where he was tending his flocks. And he said to them, “I have noticed that your father isn’t as friendly to me as he once was. You know that I have served your father faithfully, yet he has cheated me and changed my wages a dozen times. But God didn’t let him do me any harm. When your father assigned me the speckled lambs and kids as my wages, nothing but speckled ones were born; when he assigned me the streaked lambs and kids as my wages, nothingbut streaked ones were born. Now last night God came to me in a dream and said, ‘Jacob.’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ And he said, ‘I am the God who appeared to you at Beth-El, where you anointed the stone and made a vow to me. I have seen everything that Laban has done to you; go now, leave this land and return to the land where you were born.’ ”
And Rachel and Leah said to him, “We no longer have any share in our father’s estate. Doesn’t he treat us like outsiders, now that he has sold us and used up our purchase price? All the riches that God has taken from our father belong to us and our children. So do whatever God has told you to do.”
Then Jacob put his children and his wives on camels, and he rode off with all his livestock. (Laban had gone away for the sheepshearing, and while he was gone, Rachel had stolen his idols.) So Jacob fled with everything he owned, and he crossed the Euphrates and headed toward the hill country of Gilead.
Three days later, Laban was told that Jacob had fled, and he took his kinsmen and pursued Jacob for seven days until he caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. And he said to Jacob, “What have I done to make you carry off my daughters like captives in war? Why did you sneak away without saying a word about it to me? I would have seen you off with music and rejoicing, with tambourines and lyres. You didn’t even give me a chance to kiss my daughters and grandchildren goodbye! That was a very stupid thing to do. I can understand that you had to leave because you were longing for your father’s house; but why did you steal my gods?”
And Jacob said, “I didn’t tell you because I was afraid you would force your daughters to stay. As for your gods, search my baggage: if you find them with anyone here, that person dies.” (Jacob didn’t know that Rachel had stolen them.)
So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and Leah’s tent and the tents of the two maids, but he didn’t find them. Then he went into Rachel’s tent. Now Rachel had taken the idols and put them under her saddle cushion, and she was sitting on top of them. And she said to her father, “Please don’t be angry, sir, if I don’t stand up to greet you, but I have my period now.” And Laban searched through the whole tent, but he didn’t find the idols.
Then Jacob was angry, and he said to Laban, “What crime have I committed, to make you pursue me like this? You combed through all my possessions, but did you find a single thing that belongs to you? If you did, bring it here, show it to your kinsmen and mine, and let them decide between us. In the twenty years I was with you, did your ewes and she-goats ever miscarry? Did I ever slaughter your rams and eat them? When an animal was killed by wild beasts, didn’t I make good the loss myself? Often the heat consumed me by day and the cold by night, and sleep fled from my eyes. Twenty years I served you: fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flocks, though you changed my wages a dozen times. If the God of my father hadn’t been with me, you would have sent me away empty-handed.”
And Laban said, “These daughters are mine, these children are mine, these flocks are mine: everything you see is mine. Yet how can I harm my daughters or the children they have borne? Come now, let us make a pact, you and I: let us make a mound, and it will stand as a witness between us.”
And Laban said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” And they gathered stones and made a mound. And Laban said, “This mound is a witness today between you and me: may God keep watch between us when we are out of each other’s sight. If you ill-treat my daughters, or if you take other wives besides them — though no one else is there, God will be a witness between us.”
And Jacob swore by the God of his father Isaac. Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the hill, and invited his kinsmen to eat. And they ate and spent the night on the hill.
And in the morning Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters goodbye, and blessed them, and returned home.