NAS - Genesis Chapter 31 to 32

31 Jacob Leaves Secretly for Canaan

¹Now Jacob heard the words of Laban's sons, saying, "Jacob has taken away all that was our father's, and from what belonged to our father he has made all this wealth." ²Jacob saw the attitude of Laban, and behold, it was not friendly toward him as formerly. ³Then the LORD said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you." ⁴So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to his flock in the field, ⁵and said to them, "I see your father's attitude, that it is not friendly toward me as formerly, but the God of my father has been with me. ⁶"You know that I have served your father with all my strength. ⁷"Yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times; however, God did not allow him to hurt me. ⁸"If he spoke thus, `The speckled shall be your wages,' then all the flock brought forth speckled; and if he spoke thus, `The striped shall be your wages,' then all the flock brought forth striped. ⁹"Thus God has taken away your father's livestock and given them to me. ¹⁰"And it came about at the time when the flock were mating that I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats which were mating were striped, speckled, and mottled. ¹¹"Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, `Jacob,' and I said, `Here I am.' ¹²"He said, `Lift up now your eyes and see that all the male goats which are mating are striped, speckled, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. ¹³`I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you made a vow to Me; now arise, leave this land, and return to the land of your birth.'" ¹⁴Rachel and Leah said to him, "Do we still have any portion or inheritance in our father's house? ¹⁵"Are we not reckoned by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and has also entirely consumed our purchase price. ¹⁶"Surely all the wealth which God has taken away from our father belongs to us and our children; now then, do whatever God has said to you."

¹⁷Then Jacob arose and put his children and his wives upon camels; ¹⁸and he drove away all his livestock and all his property which he had gathered, his acquired livestock which he had gathered in Paddan-aram, to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac. ¹⁹When Laban had gone to shear his flock, then Rachel stole the household idols that were her father's. ²⁰And Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing. ²¹So he fled with all that he had; and he arose and crossed the Euphrates River, and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.

Laban Pursues Jacob

²²When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled, ²³then he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him a distance of seven days' journey, and he overtook him in the hill country of Gilead. ²⁴God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream of the night and said to him, "Be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad."

²⁵Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen camped in the hill country of Gilead. ²⁶Then Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done by deceiving me and carrying away my daughters like captives of the sword? ²⁷"Why did you flee secretly and deceive me, and did not tell me so that I might have sent you away with joy and with songs, with timbrel and with lyre; ²⁸and did not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now you have done foolishly. ²⁹"It is in my power to do you harm, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, `Be careful not to speak either good or bad to Jacob.' ³⁰"Now you have indeed gone away because you longed greatly for your father's house; but why did you steal my gods?" ³¹Then Jacob replied to Laban, "Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force. ³²"The one with whom you find your gods shall not live; in the presence of our kinsmen point out what is yours among my belongings and take it for yourself." For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

³³So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the tent of the two maids, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah's tent and entered Rachel's tent. ³⁴Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them in the camel's saddle, and she sat on them. And Laban felt through all the tent but did not find them. ³⁵She said to her father, "Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is upon me." So he searched but did not find the household idols.

³⁶Then Jacob became angry and contended with Laban; and Jacob said to Laban, "What is my transgression? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me? ³⁷"Though you have felt through all my goods, what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, that they may decide between us two. ³⁸"These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the rams of your flocks. ³⁹"That which was torn of beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it myself. You required it of my hand whether stolen by day or stolen by night. ⁴⁰"Thus I was: by day the heat consumed me and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. 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 changed my wages ten times. ⁴²"If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had not been for me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, so He rendered judgment last night."

The Covenant of Mizpah

⁴³Then Laban replied to Jacob, "The daughters are my daughters, and the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to these my daughters or to their children whom they have borne? ⁴⁴"So now come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and me." ⁴⁵Then Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. ⁴⁶Jacob said to his kinsmen, "Gather stones." So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. ⁴⁷Now Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. ⁴⁸Laban said, "This heap is a witness between you and me this day." Therefore it was named Galeed, ⁴⁹and Mizpah, for he said, "May the LORD watch between you and me when we are absent one from the other. ⁵⁰"If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us, see, God is witness between you and me." ⁵¹Laban said to Jacob, "Behold this heap and behold the pillar which I have set between you and me. ⁵²"This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass by this heap to you for harm, and you will not pass by this heap and this pillar to me, for harm. ⁵³"The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us." So Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac. ⁵⁴Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and called his kinsmen to the meal; and they ate the meal and spent the night on the mountain. ⁵⁵Early in the morning Laban arose, and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place.

32 Jacob's Fear of Esau

¹Now as Jacob went on his way, the angels of God met him. ²Jacob said when he saw them, "This is God's camp." So he named that place Mahanaim.

³Then Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. ⁴He also commanded them saying, "Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: `Thus says your servant Jacob, "I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed until now; ⁵I have oxen and donkeys and flocks and male and female servants; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight."'"

⁶The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, "We came to your brother Esau, and furthermore he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him." ⁷Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and the herds and the camels, into two companies; ⁸for he said, "If Esau comes to the one company and attacks it, then the company which is left will escape."

⁹Jacob said, "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, `Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will prosper you,' ¹⁰I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies. ¹¹"Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will come and attack me and the mothers with the children. ¹²"For You said, `I will surely prosper you and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be numbered.'"

¹³So he spent the night there. Then he selected from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau: ¹⁴two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, ¹⁵thirty milking camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. ¹⁶He delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, "Pass on before me, and put a space between droves." ¹⁷He commanded the one in front, saying, "When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, saying, `To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and to whom do these animals in front of you belong?' ¹⁸then you shall say, `These belong to your servant Jacob; it is a present sent to my lord Esau. And behold, he also is behind us.'" ¹⁹Then he commanded also the second and the third, and all those who followed the droves, saying, "After this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him; ²⁰and you shall say, `Behold, your servant Jacob also is behind us.'" For he said, "I will appease him with the present that goes before me. Then afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me." ²¹So the present passed on before him, while he himself spent that night in the camp.

²²Now he arose that same night and took his two wives and his two maids and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. ²³He took them and sent them across the stream. And he sent across whatever he had.

Jacob Wrestles

²⁴Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. ²⁵When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob's thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him. ²⁶Then he said, "Let me go, for the dawn is breaking." But he said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." ²⁷So he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." ²⁸He said, "Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed." ²⁹Then Jacob asked him and said, "Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And he blessed him there. ³⁰So Jacob named the place Peniel, for he said, "I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved." ³¹Now the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over Penuel, and he was limping on his thigh. ³²Therefore, to this day the sons of Israel do not eat the sinew of the hip which is on the socket of the thigh, because he touched the socket of Jacob's thigh in the sinew of the hip.