Genesis 31-32

Common English Bible

Jacob’s household leaves Laban

31 Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob took everything our father owned and from it he produced all of this wealth.” ² And Jacob saw that Laban no longer liked him as much as he used to.

³ Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your ancestors and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”

⁴ So Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah and summoned them into the field where his flock was. ⁵ He said to them, “I am aware that your father no longer likes me as much as he used to. But my father’s God has been with me. ⁶ You know that I’ve worked for your father as hard as I could. ⁷ But your father cheated me and changed my payment ten times. Yet God didn’t let him harm me. ⁸ If he said, ‘The speckled ones will be your payment,’ the whole flock gave birth to speckled young. And if he said, ‘The striped ones will be your payment,’ the whole flock gave birth to striped young. ⁹ God took away your father’s livestock and gave them to me. ¹⁰ When the flocks were mating, I looked up and saw in a dream that the male goats that mounted the flock were striped, speckled, and spotted. ¹¹ In the dream, God’s messenger said to me, ‘Jacob!’ and I said, ‘I’m here.’ ¹² He said, ‘Look up and watch all the striped, speckled, and spotted male goats mounting the flock. I’ve seen everything that Laban is doing to you. ¹³ I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a sacred pillar and where you made a solemn promise to me. Now, get up and leave this country and go back to the land of your relatives.’”

¹⁴ Rachel and Leah answered him, “Is there any share or inheritance left for us in our father’s household? ¹⁵ Doesn’t he think of us as foreigners since he sold us and has even used up the payment he received for us? ¹⁶ All of the wealth God took from our father belongs to us and our children. Now, do everything God told you to do.”

¹⁷ So Jacob got up, put his sons and wives on the camels, ¹⁸ and set out with all of his livestock and all of his possessions that he had acquired^[a] in Paddan-aram in order to return to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan. ¹⁹ Now, while Laban was out shearing his sheep, Rachel stole the household’s divine images that belonged to her father. ²⁰ Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not sending word to him that he was leaving. ²¹ So Jacob and his entire household left. He got up, crossed the river, and set out directly for the mountains of Gilead.

²² Three days later, Laban found out that Jacob had gone, ²³ so Laban took his brothers with him, chased Jacob for seven days, and caught up with him in the mountains of Gilead. ²⁴ That night, God appeared to Laban the Aramean in a dream and said, “Be careful and don’t say anything hastily to Jacob one way or the other.”

²⁵ Laban reached Jacob after Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountains. So Laban and his brothers also pitched theirs in the mountains of Gilead. ²⁶ Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You have deceived me and taken off with my daughters as if they were prisoners of war. ²⁷ Why did you leave secretly, deceiving me, and not letting me know? I would’ve sent you off with a celebration, with songs and tambourines and harps. ²⁸ You didn’t even let me kiss my sons and my daughters good-bye. Now you’ve acted like a fool, ²⁹ and I have the power to punish you. However, your father’s God told me yesterday, ‘Be careful and don’t say anything hastily to Jacob one way or the other.’ ³⁰ You’ve rushed off now because you missed your father’s household so much, but why did you steal my gods?”

³¹ Jacob responded to Laban, “I was afraid and convinced myself that you would take your daughters away from me. ³² Whomever you find with your divine images won’t live. Identify whatever I have that is yours, in front of your brothers, and take it.” Jacob didn’t know that Rachel had stolen them. ³³ Laban went into Jacob’s tent, Leah’s tent, and her two servants’ tent and didn’t find them.

So he left Leah’s tent and went into Rachel’s. ³⁴ Now Rachel had taken the divine images and put them into the camel’s saddlebag and sat on them. Laban felt around in the whole tent but couldn’t find them. ³⁵ Rachel said to her father, “Sir, don’t be angry with me because I can’t get up for you; I’m having my period.” He searched but couldn’t find the divine images.

³⁶ Jacob was angry and complained to Laban, “What have I done wrong and what’s my crime that you’ve tracked me down like this? ³⁷ You’ve now felt through all of my baggage, and what have you found from your household’s belongings? Put it in front of our relatives, and let them decide between us. ³⁸ For these twenty years I’ve been with you, your female sheep and goats haven’t miscarried, and I haven’t eaten your flock’s rams. ³⁹ When animals were killed, I didn’t bring them to you but took the loss myself. You demanded compensation from me for any animals poached during the day or night. ⁴⁰ The dry heat consumed me during the day, and the frost at night; I couldn’t sleep. ⁴¹ I’ve now spent twenty years in your household. I worked for fourteen years for your two daughters and for six years for your flock, and you changed my pay ten times. ⁴² If the God of my father—the God of Abraham and the awesome one of Isaac—hadn’t been with me, you’d have no doubt sent me away without anything. God saw my harsh treatment and my hard work and reprimanded you yesterday.”

Jacob and Laban’s treaty

⁴³ Laban responded and told Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks. Everything you see is mine. But what can I do now about my daughters and about their sons? ⁴⁴ Come, let’s make a treaty, you and me, and let something be our witness.”^[b]

⁴⁵ So Jacob took a stone, set it up as a sacred pillar, ⁴⁶ and said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” So they took stones, made a mound, and ate there near the mound. ⁴⁷ Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha,^[c] but Jacob called it Galeed.^[d]

⁴⁸ Laban said, “This mound is our witness today,” and, therefore, he too named it Galeed. ⁴⁹ He also named it Mizpah,^[e] because he said, “The Lord will observe both of us when we are separated from each other. ⁵⁰ If you treat my daughters badly and if you marry other women, though we aren’t there, know that God observed our witness.”

⁵¹ Laban said to Jacob, “Here is this mound and here is the sacred pillar that I’ve set up for us. ⁵² This mound and the sacred pillar are witnesses that I won’t travel beyond this mound and that you won’t travel beyond this mound and this pillar to do harm. ⁵³ The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor^[f] will keep order between us.” So Jacob gave his word in the name of the awesome one of his father Isaac. ⁵⁴ Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and invited his relatives to a meal. They ate together and spent the night on the mountain. ^55 [g] Laban got up early in the morning, kissed his sons and daughters, blessed them, and left to go back to his own place.

Jacob prepares to meet Esau

32 Jacob went on his way, and God’s messengers approached him. ² When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is God’s camp,” and he named that sacred place Mahanaim.^{[h] 3} Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau, toward the land of Seir, the open country of Edom. ⁴ He gave them these orders: “Say this to my master Esau. This is the message of your servant Jacob: ‘I’ve lived as an immigrant with Laban, where I’ve stayed till now. ⁵ I own cattle, donkeys, flocks, men servants, and women servants. I’m sending this message to my master now to ask that he^[i] be kind.’”

⁶ The messengers returned to Jacob and said, “We went out to your brother Esau, and he’s coming to meet you with four hundred men.”

⁷ Jacob was terrified and felt trapped, so he divided the people with him, and the flocks, cattle, and camels, into two camps. ⁸ He thought, If Esau meets the first camp and attacks it, at least one camp will be left to escape.

⁹ Jacob said, “Lord, God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I’ll make sure things go well for you,’ ¹⁰ I don’t deserve how loyal and truthful you’ve been to your servant. I went away across the Jordan with just my staff, but now I’ve become two camps. ¹¹ Save me from my brother Esau! I’m afraid he will come and kill me, the mothers, and their children. ¹² You were the one who told me, ‘I will make sure things go well for you, and I will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, so many you won’t be able to count them.’”

¹³ Jacob spent that night there. From what he had acquired, he set aside a gift for his brother Esau: ¹⁴ two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, ¹⁵ thirty nursing camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. ¹⁶ He separated these herds and gave them to his servants. He said to them, “Go ahead of me and put some distance between each of the herds.” ¹⁷ He ordered the first group, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, ‘Who are you with? Where are you going? And whose herds are these in front of you?’ ¹⁸ say, ‘They are your servant Jacob’s, a gift sent to my master Esau. And Jacob is actually right behind us.’” ¹⁹ He also ordered the second group, the third group, and everybody following the herds, “Say exactly the same thing to Esau when you find him. ²⁰ Say also, ‘Your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” Jacob thought, I may be able to pacify Esau with the gift I’m sending ahead. When I meet him, perhaps he will be kind to me. ²¹ So Jacob sent the gift ahead of him, but he spent that night in the camp.

Jacob wrestles with God

²² Jacob got up during the night, took his two wives, his two women servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the Jabbok River’s shallow water. ²³ He took them and everything that belonged to him, and he helped them cross the river. ²⁴ But Jacob stayed apart by himself, and a man wrestled with him until dawn broke. ²⁵ When the man saw that he couldn’t defeat Jacob, he grabbed Jacob’s thigh and tore a muscle in Jacob’s thigh as he wrestled with him. ²⁶ The man said, “Let me go because the dawn is breaking.”

But Jacob said, “I won’t let you go until you bless me.”

²⁷ He said to Jacob, “What’s your name?” and he said, “Jacob.” ²⁸ Then he said, “Your name won’t be Jacob any longer, but Israel,^[j] because you struggled with God and with men and won.”

²⁹ Jacob also asked and said, “Tell me your name.”

But he said, “Why do you ask for my name?” and he blessed Jacob there. ³⁰ Jacob named the place Peniel,^[k] “because I’ve seen God face-to-face, and my life has been saved.” ³¹ The sun rose as Jacob passed Penuel, limping because of his thigh. ³² Therefore, Israelites don’t eat the tendon attached to the thigh muscle to this day, because he grabbed Jacob’s thigh muscle at the tendon.