¹⁷ Then Jacob got up and put his children and wives on camels. ¹⁸ He drove away all his livestock and all his possessions that he had acquired—the livestock in his possession that he acquired in Paddan-aram—to go to his father Isaac, to the land of Canaan.

¹⁹ But while Laban went to shear his flocks, Rachel stole the idols that belonged to her father, ²⁰ while Jacob stole the heart from Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing. ²¹ He himself fled with everything that belonged to him, and he got up and crossed the River, and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.

Laban Confronts Jacob and Makes Covenant

²² When Laban was told on the third day after Jacob had fled, ²³ he took his relatives with him and pursued him a seven days’ journey. Then he overtook him in the hill country of Gilead. ²⁴ But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Watch yourself—lest you say anything to Jacob, good or bad.”

²⁵ So Laban caught up to Jacob. (Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, so Laban and his brothers pitched their tents in the hill country of Gilead as well). ²⁶ Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you’ve stolen my heart and have driven my daughters away like captives of the sword? ²⁷ Why did you secretly flee away, and steal from me? Why didn’t you tell me, so I could send you away with joy and with songs, with tambourines and with lyres? ²⁸ And you didn’t even let me kiss my sons and daughters!

“Now, you’ve behaved foolishly. ²⁹ It is in the power of my hand to do evil with you, but yesterday the God of your fathers spoke to me, saying, ‘Watch yourself—lest you say anything to Jacob, good or bad.’ ³⁰ So now, when you up and left because you really missed your father’s house, why did you steal my gods?”

³¹ In response, Jacob said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought, ‘Suppose you snatch your daughters away from me.’ ³² Anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live. In front of our relatives, identify whatever is yours that is with me, and take it back.” (But Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.)

³³ So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, and Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two maids, but he found nothing. Then he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent. ³⁴ (Now Rachel had taken the idols, put them in the camel’s saddlebag and sat on them.) So Laban felt around the entire tent but did not find them. ³⁵ She said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for I am having the way of women.” So he searched but did not find the idols.

³⁶ Then Jacob got angry and argued with Laban. Jacob answered and said to Laban, “What’s my crime? What’s my sin that you’ve hotly pursued me? ³⁷ For you’ve felt through all my things. What did you find? Any of your household things? Put them here, in front of my relatives and yours—so they can decide between the two of us. ³⁸ These past twenty years I’ve been with you, your ewes and female goats have never miscarried, and I’ve never eaten the rams of your flock. ³⁹ I didn’t bring you animals torn by wild beasts. I myself would bear the loss. You would require it from my hand, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. ⁴⁰ I was consumed by heat during the day, consumed by frost during the night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. ⁴¹ This is how it’s been for me twenty years in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flocks—and you changed my salary ten times! ⁴² Had I not had the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, you would have sent me away empty-handed now. But God saw my misery and the toil of my hands and last night He became the Judge.”