And he heard the words of Laban's sons, saying, Jacob hath taken away all that was our father's; and of that which was our father's hath he gotten all this glory.

2And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban, and, behold, it was not toward him as before.

3And the LORD said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee.

4And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field unto his flock,

5And said unto them, I see your father's countenance, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father hath been with me.

6And ye know that with all my power I have served your father.

7And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me.

8If he said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages; then all the cattle bare speckled: and if he said thus, The ringstraked shall be thy hire; then bare all the cattle ringstraked.

9Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given themto me.

10And it came to pass at the time that the cattle conceived, that I lifted up mine eyes, and saw in a dream, and, behold, the rams which leaped upon the cattle were ringstraked, speckled, and grisled.

11And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob: And I said, Here am I.

12And he said, Lift up now thine eyes, and see, all the rams which leap upon the cattle are ringstraked, speckled, and grisled: for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.

13I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.

14And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house?

15Are we not counted of him strangers? for he hath sold us, and hath quite devoured also our money.

16For all the riches which God hath taken from our father, that is ours, and our children's: now then, whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do.

17Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives upon camels;

18And he carried away all his cattle, and all his goods which he had gotten, the cattle of his getting, which he had gotten in Padanaram, for to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan.

19And Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father's.

20And Jacob stole away unawares to Laban the Syrian, in that he told him not that he fled.

21So he fled with all that he had; and he rose up, and passed over the river, and set his face toward the mount Gilead.

22And it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob was fled.

23And he took his brethren with him, and pursued after him seven days' journey; and they overtook him in the mount Gilead.

24And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night, and said unto him, Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.

25Then Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mount: and Laban with his brethren pitched in the mount of Gilead.

26And Laban said to Jacob, What hast thou done, that thou hast stolen away unawares to me, and carried away my daughters, as captives taken with the sword?

27Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me; and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth, and with songs, with tabret, and with harp?

28And hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters? thou hast now done foolishly in so doing.

29It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.

30And now, though thou wouldest needs be gone, because thou sore longedst after thy father's house, yet wherefore hast thou stolen my gods?

31And Jacob answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid: for I said, Peradventure thou wouldest take by force thy daughters from me.

32With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let him not live: before our brethren discern thou what is thine with me, and take it to thee. For Jacob knew not that Rachel had stolen them.

33And Laban went into Jacob's tent, and into Leah's tent, and into the two maidservants' tents; but he found them not. Then went he out of Leah's tent, and entered into Rachel's tent.

34Now Rachel had taken the images, and put them in the camel's furniture, and sat upon them. And Laban searched all the tent, but found them not.

35And she said to her father, Let it not displease my lord that I cannot rise up before thee; for the custom of women is upon me. And he searched, but found not the images.

36And Jacob was wroth, and chode with Laban: and Jacob answered and said to Laban, What is my trespass? what is my sin, that thou hast so hotly pursued after me?

37Whereas thou hast searched all my stuff, what hast thou found of all thy household stuff? set it here before my brethren and thy brethren, that they may judge betwixt us both.

38This twenty years have I been with thee; thy ewes and thy she goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten.

39That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day, or stolen by night.

40Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes.

41Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle: and thou hast changed my wages ten times.

42Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight.

43And Laban answered and said unto Jacob, These daughters are my daughters, and these children are my children, and these cattle aremy cattle, and all that thou seest is mine: and what can I do this day unto these my daughters, or unto their children which they have born?

44Now therefore come thou, let us make a covenant, I and thou; and let it be for a witness between me and thee.

45And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar.

46And Jacob said unto his brethren, Gather stones; and they took stones, and made an heap: and they did eat there upon the heap.

47And Laban called it Jegarsahadutha: but Jacob called it Galeed.

48And Laban said, This heap is a witness between me and thee this day. Therefore was the name of it called Galeed;

49And Mizpah; for he said, The LORD watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another.

50If thou shalt afflict my daughters, or if thou shalt take other wives beside my daughters, no man is with us; see, God is witness betwixt me and thee.

51And Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold this pillar, which I have cast betwixt me and thee;

52This heap be witness, and this pillar be witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me, for harm.

53The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge betwixt us. And Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac.

54Then Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount, and called his brethren to eat bread: and they did eat bread, and tarried all night in the mount.

55And early in the morning Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them: and Laban departed, and returned unto his place.

And he heard the words of Labans sonnes, saying, Iacob hath taken away all that was our fathers; and of that which was of our fathers, hath hee gotten all this glory.

2And Iacob behelde the countenance of Laban, and behold, it was not toward him as before.

3And the LORD said vnto Iacob, Returne vnto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I wil be with thee.

4And Iacob sent and called Rachel and Leah, to the field vnto his flocke,

5And said vnto them, I see your fathers countenance, that it is not toward mee as before: but the God of my father hath bene with me.

6And yee know, that with all my power I haue serued your father.

7And your father hath deceiued mee, and changed my wages ten times: but God suffered him not to hurt me.

8If hee said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages, then all the cattell bare speckled: and if he said thus, The ring-straked shalbe thy hire, then bare all the cattell ring-straked.

9Thus God hath taken away the cattell of your father, and giuen them to mee.

10And it came to passe at the time that the cattell conceiued, that I lifted vp mine eyes and saw in a dreame, and behold, the rammes which leaped vpon the cattell were ring-straked, speckled and grisled.

11And the Angel of God spake vnto me in a dreame, saying, Iacob; And I said, Here am I.

12And hee said, Lift vp now thine eyes, and see, all the rammes which leape vpon the cattell are ring-straked, speckled and grisled: for I haue seene all that Laban doeth vnto thee.

13I am the God of Bethel, where thou annoyntedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow vnto mee: now arise, get thee out from this land, and returne vnto the land of thy kindred.

14And Rachel and Leah answered, and said vnto him; Is there yet any portion or inheritance for vs in our fathers house?

15Are we not counted of him strangers? for he hath sold vs, and hath quite deuoured also our money.

16For all the riches which God hath taken from our father, that is ours, and our childrens: now then whatsoeuer God hath said vnto thee, doe.

17 Then Iacob rose vp, and set his sonnes and his wiues vpon camels.

18And he caried away all his cattell, and all his goods which he had gotten, the cattell of his getting, which hee had gotten in Padan Aram, for to goe to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan.

19And Laban went to sheare his sheepe: and Rachel had stollen the Images that were her fathers.

20And Iacob stale away vnawares to Laban the Syrian, in that he told him not that he fled.

21So hee fled with all that hee had, and he rose vp and passed ouer the Riuer, and set his face toward the mount Gilead.

22And it was tolde Laban on the third day, that Iacob was fled.

23And hee tooke his brethren with him, and pursued after him seuen dayes iourney, and they ouertooke him in the mount Gilead.

24And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dreame by night, and saide vnto him, Take heed that thou speake not to Iacob either good or bad.

25 Then Laban ouertooke Iacob. Now Iacob had pitched his tent in the mount: and Laban with his brethren pitched in the mount of Gilead.

26And Laban said to Iacob, What hast thou done, that thou hast stollen away vnawares to me, and caried away my daughters, as captiues taken with the sword?

27Wherefore didst thou flie away secretly, and steale away from me, and didst not tell mee? that I might haue sent thee away with mirth, and with songs, with tabret, and with harpe,

28And hast not suffered me to kisse my sonnes and my daughters? thou hast now done foolishly in so doing.

29It is in the power of my hand to doe you hurt: but the God of your father spake vnto mee yesternight, saying, Take thou heed, that thou speake not to Iacob either good or bad.

30And now though thou wouldest needes bee gone, because thou sore longedst after thy fathers house; yet wherefore hast thou stollen my gods?

31And Iacob answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid: for I said, Peraduenture thou wouldest take by force thy daughters from me.

32With whomsoeuer thou findest thy gods, let him not liue: before our brethren discerne thou what is thine with me, and take it to thee: for Iacob knew not that Rachel had stollen them.

33And Laban went into Iacobs tent, and into Leahs tent, and into the two maid seruants tents: but he found them not. Then went he out of Leahs tent, and entred into Rachels tent.

34Now Rachel had taken the images, and put them in the camels furniture, and sate vpon them: and Laban searched all the tent, but found them not.

35And shee said to her father, Let it not displease my lord, that I cannot rise vp before thee; for the custome of women is vpon mee: and he searched, but found not the images.

36 And Iacob was wroth, and chode with Laban: and Iacob answered and said to Laban, what is my trespasse? what is my sinne, that thou hast so hotly pursued after me?

37Whereas thou hast searched all my stuffe, what hast thou found of all thy houshold stuffe? set it here before my brethren, and thy brethren, that they may iudge betwixt vs both.

38This twentie yeeres haue I bene with thee: thy ewes and thy shee goates haue not cast their yong, and the rammes of thy flocke haue I not eaten.

39That which was torne of beasts, I brought not vnto thee: I bare the losse of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stollen by day, or stollen by night.

40Thus I was in þe day, the drought consumed mee, and the frost by night, aud my sleep departed from mine eyes.

41Thus have I bene twentie yeres in thy house: I serued thee fourteene yeeres for thy two daughters, and sixe yeres for thy cattel; and thou hast changed my wages ten times.

42Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the feare of Isaac had bin with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now emptie: God hath seene mine affliction, and the labour of my hands, & rebuked thee yesternight.

43 And Laban answered and said vnto Iacob, These daughters are my daughters, and these children are my children, and these cattell are my cattell, and all that thou seest, is mine: and what can I doe this day vnto these my daughters, or vnto their children which they haue borne?

44Now therefore come thou, let vs make a couenant, I and thou: and let it be for a witnesse betweene me and thee.

45And Iacob tooke a stone, and set it vp for a pillar.

46And Iacob saide vnto his brethren, Gather stones: and they tooke stones, and made an heape, and they did eate there vpon the heape.

47And Laban called it Iegar-Sahadutha: but Iacob called it Galeed.

48And Laban said, This heape is a witnesse betweene mee and thee this day. Therefore was the name of it called Galeed,

49And Mizpah: for he said, The LORD watch betweene me and thee when we are absent one from another.

50If thou shalt afflict my daughters, or if thou shalt take other wiues beside my daughters, no man is with vs; See, God is witnesse betwixt mee and thee.

51And Laban said to Iacob, Behold this heape, and behold this pillar, which I haue cast betwixt me and thee.

52This heape be witnesse, and this pillar be witnesse, that I will not passe ouer this heape to thee, and that thou shalt not passe ouer this heape, and this pillar vnto me, for harme.

53The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, iudge betwixt vs. And Iacob sware by the feare of his father Isaac.

54Then Iacob offred sacrifice vpon the mount, and called his brethren to eate bread, and they did eate bread, and taried all night in the mount.

55And earely in the morning, Laban rose vp and kissed his sonnes, and his daughters, and blessed them: and Laban departed, and returned vnto his place.

I == Ps 49:16

 

 

II == Gen 4:5 ; Deut 28:54 ; 1st Sam 19:7

 

III == Gen 31:2-3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VI == Gen 30:29 ; Gen 31:38-41

 

VII == Gen 20:6 ; 31:41 ; Num 14:22 ; Neh 4:12 ; Job 19:3 ; Ps 105:14 ; Zech 8:23

VIII == Gen 30:32

 

IX == Gen 31:1 , 16

 

 

 

 

 

XI == Gen 48:16

 

XII == Ex 3:7

 

 

 

 

XIII == Gen 28:18-20 ; 31:3 ; Gen 32:9

 

 

XIV == Gen 2:24

 

 

XV == Gen 29:15 , 27

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

XIX == Gen 35:2 ; Judg 17:5 ; 1st Sam 19:13 ; Hos 3:4

 

 

 

XXI == Gen 46:28 ; 2nd Kings 12:17 ; Luke 9:51 , 53

 

 

 

XXIII == Gen 13:8

 

 

XXIV == Gen 20:3 ; 24:50 ; Job 33:15 ; Matt 1:20

 

 

 

 

XXVI == 1st Sam 30:2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

XXVIII == Gen 31:5 ; Ruth 1:9 , 14 ; 1st Sam 13:13 ; 1st Kigs 19:20 ; 2nd Chr 16:9 ; Acts 20:37

XXIX == Gen 28:13 ; 31:24 , 53

XXX == Gen 31:19 ; Judg 18:24

 

 

 

 

 

XXXII == Gen 44:9

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

XXXV == Ex 20:12 ;Lev 19:32

 

 

XXXIX == Ex 22:10-13

 

 

XLI == Gen 29:27-28 ; 31:7

 

 

XLII == Gen 29:32 ; 31:53 ; Ex 3:7 ; 1st Chr 12:17 ; Ps 124:1-2 ; Isa 8:13 ; Jude 1:9

 

XLIV == Gen 26:28 ; Josh 24:27

 

XLV == Gen 28:18

 

XLVIII == Josh 24:27

 

XLIX == Judg 11:29 ; 1st Sam 7:5

 

LIII == Gen 16:5 ; 21:23 ; 31:42

 

LV == Gen 18:33 ; 28:1 ; 30:25

 

1 Jacob learned that Laban's sons were saying, "Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father, and he has accumulated all this wealth of his by using our father's property."

2 Jacob perceived, too, that Laban's attitude toward him was not what it had previously been.

3 Then the LORD said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your fathers, where you were born, and I will be with you."

4 So Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah to meet him where he was in the field with his flock.

5 There he said to them: "I have noticed that your father's attitude toward me is not as it was in the past; but the God of my father has been with me.

6 You well know what effort I put into serving your father;

7 yet your father cheated me and changed my wages time after time. God, however, did not let him do me any harm.

8 Whenever your father said, 'The speckled animals shall be your wages,' the entire flock would bear speckled young; whenever he said, 'The streaked animals shall be your wages,' the entire flock would bear streaked young.

9 Thus God reclaimed your father's livestock and gave it to me.

10 Once, in the breeding season, I had a dream in which I saw mating he-goats that were streaked, speckled and mottled.

11 In the dream God's messenger called to me, 'Jacob!' 'Here!' I replied.

12 Then he said: 'Note well. All the he-goats in the flock, as they mate, are streaked, speckled and mottled, for I have seen all the things that Laban has been doing to you.

13 I am the God who appeared to you in Bethel, where you anointed a memorial stone and made a vow to me. Up, then! Leave this land and return to the land of your birth.'"

14 Rachel and Leah answered him: "Have we still an heir's portion in our father's house?

15 Are we not regarded by him as outsiders? He not only sold us; he has even used up the money that he got for us!

16 All the wealth that God reclaimed from our father really belongs to us and our children. Therefore, do just as God has told you."

17 Jacob proceeded to put his children and wives on camels,

18 and he drove off with all his livestock and all the property he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.

19 Now Laban had gone away to shear his sheep, and Rachel had meanwhile appropriated her father's household idols.

20 Jacob had hoodwinked Laban the Aramean by not telling him of his intended flight.

21 Thus he made his escape with all that he had. Once he was across the Euphrates, he headed for the highlands of Gilead.

22 On the third day, word came to Laban that Jacob had fled.

23 Taking his kinsmen with him, he pursued him for seven days until he caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.

24 But that night God appeared to Laban the Aramean in a dream and warned him, "Take care not to threaten Jacob with any harm!"

25 When Laban overtook Jacob, Jacob's tents were pitched in the highlands; Laban also pitched his tents there, on Mount Gilead.

26 "What do you mean," Laban demanded of Jacob, "by hoodwinking me and carrying off my daughters like war captives?

27 Why did you dupe me by stealing away secretly? You should have told me, and I would have sent you off with merry singing to the sound of tambourines and harps.

28 You did not even allow me a parting kiss to my daughters and grandchildren! What you have now done is a senseless thing.

29 I have it in my power to harm all of you; but last night the God of your father said to me, 'Take care not to threaten Jacob with any harm!'

30 Granted that you had to leave because you were desperately homesick for your father's house, why did you steal my gods?"

31 "I was frightened," Jacob replied to Laban, "at the thought that you might take your daughters away from me by force.

32 But as for your gods, the one you find them with shall not remain alive! If, with my kinsmen looking on, you identify anything here as belonging to you, take it." Jacob, of course, had no idea that Rachel had stolen the idols.

33 Laban then went in and searched Jacob's tent and Leah's tent, as well as the tents of the two maidservants; but he did not find the idols. Leaving Leah's tent, he went into Rachel's.

34 Now Rachel had taken the idols, put them inside a camel cushion, and seated herself upon them. When Laban had rummaged through the rest of her tent without finding them,

35 Rachel said to her father, "Let not my lord feel offended that I cannot rise in your presence; a woman's period is upon me." So, despite his search, he did not find his idols.

36 Jacob, now enraged, upbraided Laban. "What crime or offense have I committed," he demanded, "that you should hound me so fiercely?

37 Now that you have ransacked all my things, have you found a single object taken from your belongings? If so, produce it here before your kinsmen and mine, and let them decide between us two.

38 "In the twenty years that I was under you, no ewe or she-goat of yours ever miscarried, and I have never feasted on a ram of your flock.

39 I never brought you an animal torn by wild beasts; I made good the loss myself. You held me responsible for anything stolen by day or night.

40 How often the scorching heat ravaged me by day, and the frost by night, while sleep fled from my eyes!

41 Of the twenty years that I have now spent in your household, I slaved fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, while you changed my wages time after time.

42 If my ancestral God, the God of Abraham and the Awesome One of Isaac, had not been on my side, you would now have sent me away empty-handed. But God saw my plight and the fruits of my toil, and last night he gave judgment."

43 Laban replied to Jacob: "The women are mine, their children are mine, and the flocks are mine; everything you see belongs to me. But since these women are my daughters, I will now do something for them and for the children they have borne.

44 Come, then, we will make a pact, you and I; the LORD shall be a witness between us."

45 Then Jacob took a stone and set it up as a memorial stone.

46 Jacob said to his kinsmen, "Gather some stones." So they got some stones and made a mound; and they had a meal there at the mound.

47 Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob named it Galeed.

48 "This mound," said Laban, "shall be a witness from now on between you and me." That is why it was named Galeed - 

49 and also Mizpah, for he said: "May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are out of each other's sight.

50 If you mistreat my daughters, or take other wives besides my daughters, remember that even though no one else is about, God will be witness between you and me."

51 Laban said further to Jacob: "Here is this mound, and here is the memorial stone that I have set up between you and me.

52 This mound shall be witness, and this memorial stone shall be witness, that, with hostile intent, neither may I pass beyond this mound into your territory, nor may you pass beyond it into mine.

53 May the God of Abraham and the god of Nahor (their ancestral deities) maintain justice between us!" Jacob took the oath by the Awesome One of Isaac.

54 He then offered a sacrifice on the mountain and invited his kinsmen to share in the meal. When they had eaten, they passed the night on the mountain.

 

v 3. Having met his obligations to Laban, he is to go back to the land of promise.

 

v 4-9. Jacob properly took his wives into confidence on plans and the unfair treatment from Laban. “Ten times” is often used in the Old Testament for “many times”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

v 10-12. He acknowledges it was not trickery or good herdsmanship that brought the increase, but God selecting the gene pool. The pre-incarnate Christ, as God in v 13, had been watching over Jacob in all the testing. This dream of Jacob is not recorded in our Bibles, but the whole dream is recorded in the Samaritan text.

 

v 13. God reminds him of Bethel and his vow, and instructs him to return.

 

 

v 14-16. Both women realized they had been used and had no inheritance. They recognize the hand of God in gaining the wealth and give their approval to leaving.
17 to 25 Jacob’s Flight and Laban’s Pursuit

 

v 17-22. Jacob may have gradually moved the flocks up to 200 miles away while he and the family stayed close, then taking advantage of Laban being at the sheep shearing feast, put the family on fast camels and got away. Thus he was not missed until the third day. He had done nothing dishonest, but Rachel stole her father’s images. She may have thought that would keep her father from gaining help from them, or she may have sought vengeance for her father’s initial trickery which caused family problems, as well as later deceits. She may have been aware that if a son-in-law had the gods, it entitled him to the whole inheritance.

HER FATHER'S IDOLS: Laban was an idolater; and some of the fathers are of opinion that Rachel stole away these idols to withdraw him from idolatry, removing the occasion of his sin.

 

v 23,24. Laban’s group pursued seven days before catching up. God warned him not to speak from good to bad, from a peaceable approach, changing to violence.

v 25-30. Both men camped on the same hill of Gilead. Laban pretends righteous indignation and lack of a farewell party, but admits the warning not to be deceitful and try to persuade him to return by either good or evil words, and not to harm Jacob. Most important, obviously, was loss of the gods.

THE ARGUMENT V 26 to 43

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

v 31,32. Jacob rightly suspected Laban would try to withhold his family, but he had no idea Rachel had stolen the gods. He knew that under the oral laws from which came the code of Hammurabi, stealing temple gods was punishable by death

 

v 33-35. Laban searched thoroughly, not suspecting Rachel’s scheme.

 

 

 

 

v 36--42. Jacob had always been meek with Laban, but the supposedly false accusation, after he had been so honest for 20 years makes him blow his top. He had suffered normal privations, but had borne losses which according to custom should have been Laban’s, and finally confronts him with the trickery and cheating Laban had done. He acknowledges that God had been his protector.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

v 43. This indicates Laban would have kept the family if God had not intervened.

 

 

 

v 44-51. Laban tries to save face by inferring Jacob might come back to harm him, so a peace pillar was needed, and they called it the witness heap. He may also have used this as a barrier in case Jacob still had the gods. Mizpah means Watch post. Many of us have used verse 49b as a gentle benediction, but it was a thing to separate enemies. After the way Laban treated his daughters, he suddenly fakes concern for them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

v 52. Laban swore by the ancestral gods in a general way, which included false gods. Jacob swore by the fear of Isaac who had never been in the pagan country, only by the one true God.

v 53,54. Jacob properly offered sacrifice to God, there was fellowship in eating. Laban calmed down and gave a proper farewell before leaving next morning.