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Genesis, starting at chapter 31
{31:1} He heard the words of Laban's sons, saying, "Jacob has taken
away all that was our father's. From that which was our father's, has
he gotten all this wealth." {31:2} Jacob saw the expression on Laban's
face, and, behold, it was not toward him as before. {31:3} The LORD
said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your fathers, and to your
relatives, and I will be with you."
{31:4} Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his
flock, {31:5} and said to them, "I see the expression on your father's
face, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father has
been with me. {31:6} You know that I have served your father with all
of my strength. {31:7} Your father has deceived me, and changed my
wages ten times, but God didn't allow him to hurt me. {31:8} If he
said this, 'The speckled will be your wages,' then all the flock bore
speckled. If he said this, 'The streaked will be your wages,' then all
the flock bore streaked. {31:9} Thus God has taken away your father's
livestock, and given them to me. {31:10} It happened during mating
season that I lifted up my eyes, and saw in a dream, and behold, the
male goats which leaped on the flock were streaked, speckled, and
grizzled. {31:11} The angel of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacob,'
and I said, 'Here I am.' {31:12} He said, 'Now lift up your eyes, and
behold, all the male goats which leap on the flock are streaked,
speckled, and grizzled, for I have seen all that Laban does to you.
{31:13} I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you
vowed a vow to me. Now arise, get out from this land, and return to
the land of your birth.'"
{31:14} Rachel and Leah answered him, "Is there yet any portion or
inheritance for us in our father's house? {31:15} Aren't we accounted
by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and has also quite devoured
our money. {31:16} For all the riches which God has taken away from
our father, that is ours and our children's. Now then, whatever God
has said to you, do."
{31:17} Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives on the
camels, {31:18} and he took away all his livestock, and all his
possessions which he had gathered, including the livestock which he
had gained in Paddan Aram, to go to Isaac his father, to the land of
Canaan. {31:19} Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep: and Rachel
stole the [1>]teraphim[<1] that were her father's.
{31:20} Jacob deceived Laban the Syrian, in that he didn't tell him
that he was running away. {31:21} So he fled with all that he had. He
rose up, passed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain
of Gilead.
{31:22} Laban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled. {31:23}
He took his relatives with him, and pursued after him seven days'
journey. He overtook him in the mountain of Gilead. {31:24} God came
to Laban, the Syrian, in a dream of the night, and said to him, "Take
heed to yourself that you don't speak to Jacob either good or bad."
{31:25} Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent
in the mountain, and Laban with his relatives encamped in the mountain
of Gilead. {31:26} Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done, that you
have deceived me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the
sword? {31:27} Why did you flee secretly, and deceive me, and didn't
tell me, that I might have sent you away with mirth and with songs,
with tambourine and with harp; {31:28} and didn't allow me to kiss my
sons and my daughters? Now have you done foolishly. {31:29} It is in
the power of my hand to hurt you, but the God of your father spoke to
me last night, saying, 'Take heed to yourself that you don't speak to
Jacob either good or bad.' {31:30} Now, you want to be gone, because
you greatly longed for your father's house, but why have you stolen my
gods?"
{31:31} Jacob answered Laban, "Because I was afraid, for I said,
'Lest you should take your daughters from me by force.' {31:32} Anyone
you find your gods with shall not live. Before our relatives, discern
what is yours with me, and take it." For Jacob didn't know that Rachel
had stolen them.
{31:33} Laban went into Jacob's tent, into Leah's tent, and into the
tent of the two female servants; but he didn't find them. He went out
of Leah's tent, and entered into Rachel's tent. {31:34} Now Rachel had
taken the teraphim, put them in the camel's saddle, and sat on them.
Laban felt about all the tent, but didn't find them. {31:35} She said
to her father, "Don't let my lord be angry that I can't rise up before
you; for I'm having my period." He searched, but didn't find the
teraphim.
{31:36} Jacob was angry, and argued with Laban. Jacob answered
Laban, "What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have hotly
pursued after me? {31:37} Now that you have felt around in all my
stuff, what have you found of all your household stuff? Set it here
before my relatives and your relatives, that they may judge between us
two.
{31:38} "These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your
female goats have not cast their young, and I haven't eaten the rams
of your flocks. {31:39} That which was torn of animals, I didn't bring
to you. I bore its loss. Of my hand you required it, whether stolen by
day or stolen by night. {31:40} This was my situation: in the day the
drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my
eyes. {31:41} These twenty years I have been in your house. I served
you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your
flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. {31:42} Unless the God
of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with
me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God has seen my
affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night."
{31:43} Laban answered Jacob, "The daughters are my daughters, the
children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you
see is mine: and what can I do this day to these my daughters, or to
their children whom they have borne? {31:44} Now come, let us make a
covenant, you and I; and let it be for a witness between me and you."
{31:45} Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. {31:46}
Jacob said to his relatives, "Gather stones." They took stones, and
made a heap. They ate there by the heap. {31:47} Laban called it
[2>]Jegar Sahadutha,[<2] but Jacob called it [3>]Galeed.[<3] {31:48}
Laban said, "This heap is witness between me and you this day."
Therefore it was named Galeed {31:49} and Mizpah, for he said, "The
LORD watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another.
{31:50} If you afflict my daughters, or if you take wives besides my
daughters, no man is with us; behold, God is witness between me and
you." {31:51} Laban said to Jacob, "See this heap, and see the pillar,
which I have set between me and you. {31:52} May this heap be a
witness, and the pillar be a witness, that I will not pass over this
heap to you, and that you will not pass over this heap and this pillar
to me, for harm. {31:53} The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the
God of their father, judge between us." Then Jacob swore by the fear
of his father, Isaac. {31:54} Jacob offered a sacrifice in the
mountain, and called his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread, and
stayed all night in the mountain. {31:55} Early in the morning, Laban
rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them.
Laban departed and returned to his place.
{32:1} Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. {32:2}
When he saw them, Jacob said, "This is God's army." He called the name
of that place Mahanaim.
{32:3} Jacob sent messengers in front of him to Esau, his brother,
to the land of Seir, the field of Edom. {32:4} He commanded them,
saying, "This is what you shall tell my lord, Esau: 'This is what your
servant, Jacob, says. I have lived as a foreigner with Laban, and
stayed until now. {32:5} I have cattle, donkeys, flocks, male
servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, that I may
find favor in your sight.'" {32:6} The messengers returned to Jacob,
saying, "We came to your brother Esau. Not only that, but he comes to
meet you, and four hundred men with him." {32:7} Then Jacob was
greatly afraid and was distressed. He divided the people who were with
him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two
companies; {32:8} and he said, "If Esau comes to the one company, and
strikes it, then the company which is left will escape." {32:9} Jacob
said, "God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD,
who said to me, 'Return to your country, and to your relatives, and I
will do you good,' {32:10} I am not worthy of the least of all the
loving kindnesses, and of all the truth, which you have shown to your
servant; for with just my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I
have become two companies. {32:11} Please deliver me from the hand of
my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he come and
strike me, and the mothers with the children. {32:12} You said, 'I
will surely do you good, and make your seed as the sand of the sea,
which can't be numbered because there are so many.'"
{32:13} He lodged there that night, and took from that which he had
with him, a present for Esau, his brother: {32:14} two hundred female
goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, {32:15}
thirty milk camels and their colts, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty
female donkeys and ten foals. {32:16} He delivered them into the hands
of his servants, every herd by itself, and said to his servants, "Pass
over before me, and put a space between herd and herd." {32:17} He
commanded the foremost, saying, "When Esau, my brother, meets you, and
asks you, saying, 'Whose are you? Where are you going? Whose are these
before you?' {32:18} Then you shall say, 'They are your servant,
Jacob's. It is a present sent to my lord, Esau. Behold, he also is
behind us.'" {32:19} He commanded also the second, and the third, and
all that followed the herds, saying, "This is how you shall speak to
Esau, when you find him. {32:20} You shall say, 'Not only that, but
behold, your servant, Jacob, is behind us.'" For, he said, "I will
appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will
see his face. Perhaps he will accept me."
{32:21} So the present passed over before him, and he himself lodged
that night in the camp.
{32:22} He rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two
handmaids, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford of the
Jabbok. {32:23} He took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent
over that which he had. {32:24} Jacob was left alone, and wrestled
with a man there until the breaking of the day. {32:25} When he saw
that he didn't prevail against him, he touched the hollow of his
thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was strained, as he wrestled.
{32:26} The man said, "Let me go, for the day breaks."
Jacob said, "I won't let you go, unless you bless me."
{32:27} He said to him, "What is your name?"
He said, "Jacob." {32:28} He said, "Your name will no longer be
called Jacob, but Israel; for you have fought with God and with men,
and have prevailed."
{32:29} Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name."
He said, "Why is it that you ask what my name is?" He blessed him
there.
{32:30} Jacob called the name of the place [4>]Peniel[<4]: for, he
said, "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."
{32:31} The sun rose on him as he passed over Peniel, and he limped
because of his thigh. {32:32} Therefore the children of Israel don't
eat the sinew of the hip, which is on the hollow of the thigh, to this
day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew of
the hip.
{33:1} Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau was
coming, and with him four hundred men. He divided the children between
Leah, Rachel, and the two handmaids. {33:2} He put the handmaids and
their children in front, Leah and her children after, and Rachel and
Joseph at the rear. {33:3} He himself passed over in front of them,
and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his
brother.
{33:4} Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck, kissed
him, and they wept. {33:5} He lifted up his eyes, and saw the women
and the children; and said, "Who are these with you?"
He said, "The children whom God has graciously given your servant."
{33:6} Then the handmaids came near with their children, and they
bowed themselves. {33:7} Leah also and her children came near, and
bowed themselves. After them, Joseph came near with Rachel, and they
bowed themselves.
{33:8} Esau said, "What do you mean by all this company which I met?"
Jacob said, "To find favor in the sight of my lord."
{33:9} Esau said, "I have enough, my brother; let that which you
have be yours."
{33:10} Jacob said, "Please, no, if I have now found favor in your
sight, then receive my present at my hand, because I have seen your
face, as one sees the face of God, and you were pleased with me.
{33:11} Please take the gift that I brought to you, because God has
dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough." He urged him,
and he took it.
{33:12} Esau said, "Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I
will go before you."
{33:13} Jacob said to him, "My lord knows that the children are
tender, and that the flocks and herds with me have their young, and if
they overdrive them one day, all the flocks will die. {33:14} Please
let my lord pass over before his servant, and I will lead on gently,
according to the pace of the livestock that are before me and
according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord to
Seir."
{33:15} Esau said, "Let me now leave with you some of the folk who
are with me."
He said, "Why? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord."
{33:16} So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. {33:17} Jacob
traveled to Succoth, built himself a house, and made shelters for his
livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called [5>]Succoth.[<5]
{33:18} Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the
land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan Aram; and encamped before the
city. {33:19} He bought the parcel of ground where he had spread his
tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for one
hundred pieces of money. {33:20} He erected an altar there, and called
it [6>]El Elohe Israel.[<6]
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Footnotes:
[1] {31:19} teraphim were household idols that may have been associated
with inheritance rights to the household property.
[2] {31:47} "Jegar Sahadutha" means "Witness Heap" in Aramaic.
[3] {31:47} "Galeed" means "Witness Heap" in Hebrew.
[4] {32:30} Peniel means "face of God."
[5] {33:17} succoth means shelters or booths.
[6] {33:20} El Elohe Israel means "God, the God of Israel" or "The God
of Israel is mighty."
________________________________________________________________________
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