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31
Jacob ran away from Laban
1 Laban’s sons talked to each other about Jacob. They said, “Jacob took everything that our father owned, and now it all belongs to Jacob, and he is rich.” And Jacob heard that Laban’s sons said those things. 2 Jacob also saw that Laban wasn’t friendly to him any more.
3 Then God talked to Jacob. God said, “Leave this place, and go back to your home country, and to your relatives. I will go with you, to take care of you.”
4 Jacob wanted to talk about that with his wives, Rachel and Leah. So he sent somebody to get them, and he met them in the place where he kept his sheep and goats. 5 Jacob said to them, “I can see that your father isn’t friendly to me any more. But God is still with me. He is the one that looked after my father Isaac, and he is with me. 6 You both know that I worked really hard for your father. 7 But your father kept cheating me. He promised to give me things for working for him, but then he kept changing his mind. He did that lots and lots of times. He wanted to give me trouble, but God didn’t let him. Yes, God looked after me. 8 Sometimes your father promised to give me all the spotty sheep and goats, and then all the sheep and goats had babies with spots on their wool. And sometimes he promised to give me all the stripy sheep and goats, and then all the sheep and goats had babies with stripes on their wool. 9 You know, God was the one that made those things happen. It’s like God took away your father’s animals and gave them to me.”
10 Then Jacob said, “One time, I had a dream. It was the month when the male and female animals join together to make babies. In that dream, I saw male and female goats joining together, and all the male goats had black and white spots and stripes on their wool. 11 Then in that dream there was an angel messenger from God, and he said, ‘Jacob.’ And I said, ‘Yes, I am listening.’ 12 And he said, ‘God says, “Look at the male goats that are joining together with the female goats. You can see that all those male goats have black and white spots on their wool. That shows that I am helping you to get sheep and goats for yourself, because I know that Laban is cheating you. 13 I am God. A long time ago, I came to you at the place called Bethel. That’s the place where you poured olive oil on top of a stone to show that it was a special place, and you made promises to me. Now leave this country straight away, and go back to your home country.” ’ ”*Genesis 28:18-22
14 Then Rachel and Leah said to Jacob, “We will go with you. We don’t want to live here with our father any more. He will never give us anything. 15 He treats us like we are not part of his family. First, he got you to work for him so that you could marry us. It’s like he sold us to you. Then you worked really hard for our father, so that he got very rich. But our father still didn’t give us anything, even though we are his daughters. He cheated us, and he kept everything for himself. 16 But God took away some of our father’s animals and gave them to you, and you got rich. So now all those animals and good things, they belong to us and our kids.”
Then Rachel and Leah said to Jacob, “Do whatever God told you to do.”
17-19 So Jacob and his family got ready to leave. Laban wasn’t there at that time. He was cutting the wool off his sheep out in the grass lands, a long way away. So Laban didn’t know that Jacob was getting ready to leave. And while Jacob was getting ready, Rachel went into Laban’s tent, and she stole some little statues that belonged to Laban. Sometimes, Laban and his family used to pray to those statues and ask them for help. They thought that those statues were gods that had power.
Jacob went and got all his animals, and all the other things that he owned. You know, a long time before this, when Jacob came to Laban’s home, he didn’t own anything. But now he owned lots and lots of things. So Jacob took all those things that he owned, and he put them on camels. Then he helped his kids and his wives to get on camels, and he got his other animals to walk in front of him, and they all left quickly to go to Canaan country. That’s the country where Jacob’s father Isaac lived. 20 But Jacob tricked Laban, he didn’t tell Laban that he left.
Laban belonged to the Aram tribe, and his country was called Paddan Aram. 21 So Jacob left Paddan Aram country with his wives, his kids, his animals, and everything that he owned. They crossed over the Euphrates River, and then they started to go south, towards the hill country called Gilead.
Laban found Jacob
22 2 days later, somebody told Laban, “Jacob ran away.” 23 As soon as Laban heard that, he took some of his relatives with him, and they started to go after Jacob. 7 days later, they almost caught up to Jacob in the hill country called Gilead. 24 But that night, Laban had a dream, and he heard God talk to him in that dream. God said, “Be careful about the way you talk to Jacob. Don’t make trouble for him.”
25 The next day, Laban and his relatives caught up to Jacob. Jacob and his mob were in that hill country. That’s where they set up their tents. So Laban and his relatives, they set up their tents in that place too.
26 Then Laban went and talked to Jacob. Laban said, “You did a bad thing to me. You tricked me, and you took my daughters away. It’s like I’m your enemy and you came and stole my daughters from me. 27-28 Why didn’t you tell me that you wanted to leave? You tricked me, and you ran away. That was a stupid thing to do. I didn’t get to say goodbye to you properly. I wanted to have a party for you, with people singing and playing music on drums and harps. You didn’t even let me kiss my daughters and my grand-kids and say goodbye to them.”
29 Then Laban said to Jacob, “You know, I can hurt you and your family. But I will not do that. You see, last night, your father’s God talked to me. He said, ‘Be careful about how you talk to Jacob. Don’t make trouble for him.’ ”
30 Laban kept on talking to Jacob. He said, “Look, I know that you want to see your father again, and that’s the reason why you left. But why did you steal my little statues from my tent?”
You see, Laban didn’t know that his daughter Rachel stole those statues. He thought that Jacob stole them.
31 Then Jacob talked to Laban. First, he told Laban why he ran away. He said, “I ran away because I was frightened of you. I thought that if I say, ‘I want to leave,’ then you will fight me and take your daughters away from me.”
32 After that, Jacob talked about those little statues that belonged to Laban. Jacob didn’t know that his wife Rachel stole those statues, so he said to Laban, “We didn’t take your little statues. You can look in our tents, and you can look at all our things. If you find those statues, then you can kill the person that stole them. And if you find anything else that belongs to you, then tell me, and show our relatives here, and you can have it back.”
33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, and he looked all around. But he didn’t find those statues. Then he went into Leah’s tent and he looked all around there too. And then he went into the tent that belonged to those 2 women that worked for Rachel and Leah. Laban looked all around that tent too, but he didn’t find those statues. After that, Laban went into Rachel’s tent. 34 He looked through everything in her tent, but he didn’t find those statues. You see, Rachel already hid those statues. She put them inside a soft seat, called a saddle, that she used to sit on when she rode her camel. Then she put that saddle on the ground, and she sat on it. 35 When Rachel’s father Laban came into the tent, Rachel said to him, “Sir, I’m sorry, I can’t stand up to show you respect, because I am bleeding, like a woman does every month. Please don’t be angry with me.” So Laban looked all around Rachel’s tent, but he didn’t find those statues.
36 Then Jacob got very angry, and he talked strongly to Laban. Jacob said, “Listen, I didn’t do anything wrong to you. I didn’t do any bad thing. You came after me for no reason. 37 And you looked through all my things. If you found anything that belongs to you, then you can put those things here, in front of all our relatives. And they can say which one of us is right and which one is wrong. Did you find anything that belongs to you? No you didn’t. I didn’t take any of your things.”
38 Then Jacob said to Laban, “I worked hard for you for 20 years, and I looked after your sheep and goats really well. They had lots of babies, and none of those babies died. And I never took any of your sheep for my food, not even your male sheep. 39 And whenever a wild animal killed one of your sheep or goats, I always paid for it. I never showed you that dead sheep or goat, I never asked you to pay for it. You made me pay for every sheep or goat that somebody stole, even if that happened at night time. That’s not fair. 40 And I had a really hard time when I worked for you. In the day time, it was really hot. And in the night time, it was really cold. It was so cold that I couldn’t sleep. 41 I worked for you like that for 20 years. First, I worked for you for 14 years so that I could marry your 2 daughters. Then I worked for you for 6 years, so that you would give me some of your sheep and goats. You kept promising to give me things for working for you, but then you kept changing your mind. That’s not fair.”
42 Then Jacob said to Laban, “I know that you wanted to send me away with nothing. But God was with me, and he helped me. He is the one that looked after my grand-father Abraham. And my father Isaac respected him properly too. Yes, God helped me. He saw that I worked very hard for you, and he saw that you gave me trouble. So last night, he talked strongly to you, and he showed you that you did the wrong thing.”
Jacob and Laban agreed to be good to each other
43 Then Laban said, “Your wives are my daughters. Your kids are my grand-kids. All these animals here, they belong to me, and everything else here belongs to me too. But I can’t get my daughters and my grand-kids back now. I know that they will go with you to your home country, and I will go back to my home country. 44 So before I go, let’s agree that we will be good to each other. And let’s put some stones in this place to show that we made that agreement.”
45 So Jacob got a big stone, and he stood it up. 46 Then Jacob said to his relatives, “Pick up some more stones.” So they picked up some more stones, and they piled those stones on top of each other. Then Jacob, and Laban, and all their relatives, they sat down beside that pile of stones, and they ate some food. 47 Laban named that pile of stones Jegar Sahadutha. That name comes from Laban’s language. And Jacob named that pile of stones Gal-Ed. That name comes from Jacob’s language. Both those names mean a pile that shows we agreed with each other. 48 And Laban said, “This pile of stones shows that we agreed with each other today.” So that place is called Gal-Ed.
49-50 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Tomorrow, you will go to your home country, and I will go back to my home country, and we will not see each other any more. So I’m asking Yahweh your God to always watch both of us. If you treat my daughters badly, or if you marry any other women, remember that God will see you do those things. Even if nobody else sees you, God will see you.”
So that place is also called Mizpah. That name means place where he watches.
51 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Look at this pile of stones, and this other big stone. We have put them here, between my country and your country. 52 This pile of stones, and this other big stone, they show that we agreed to be good to each other. I will not go past these stones into your country, to hurt you. And you will not go past these stones into my country, to hurt me. 53 I’m asking the gods of our grand-fathers to watch us and judge us. I’m asking the God of your grand-father Abraham, and the god of my grand-father Nahor and their father Terah. Those gods will keep on watching us, and they will know if one of us does the wrong thing.”
Then Jacob made a strong promise to Laban. He said, “I promise that I will not go past these stones into your country, to hurt you. I’m making this promise with God listening. He is the one that my father Isaac respected.”
54 Then Jacob killed an animal and burned it, to show respect to God. He did that right there, in the hill country. Then Jacob said to his relatives, “Come and eat food with me.” So they all ate food, and then they spent the night in that place.
55 Early the next morning, Laban got up. He kissed his grand-kids and his daughters, and he said goodbye to them. Then Laban and his relatives left that place, and they went back to their home country.

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*31:13 Genesis 28:18-22

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