NLT One Year Bible - Flipbook - Page 56
J A N U A R Y
1 5
52
preserving them forever from this
lying generation,
8 even though the wicked strut about,
and evil is praised throughout
the land.
12:TITLE Hebrew according to the sheminith.
PROVERBS 3:13-15
Joyful is the person who finds wisdom,
the one who gains understanding. For
wisdom is more profitable than silver,
and her wages are better than gold.
Wisdom is more precious than rubies;
nothing you desire can compare with
her.
J A N U A R Y
1 5
JANUARY
15
GENESIS 31:17–32:12
So Jacob put his wives and children on
camels, 18 and he drove all his livestock
in front of him. He packed all the belongings he had acquired in Paddanaram and set out for the land of Canaan,
where his father, Isaac, lived. 19At the
time they left, Laban was some distance
away, shearing his sheep. Rachel stole
her father’s household idols and took
them with her. 20 Jacob outwitted Laban
the Aramean, for they set out secretly
and never told Laban they were leaving.
21So Jacob took all his possessions with
him and crossed the Euphrates River,*
heading for the hill country of Gilead.
22 Three days later, Laban was told
that Jacob had fled. 23 So he gathered a
group of his relatives and set out in hot
pursuit. He caught up with Jacob seven
days later in the hill country of Gilead.
24But the previous night God had appeared to Laban the Aramean in a
dream and told him, “I’m warning you—
leave Jacob alone!”
25Laban caught up with Jacob as he
was camped in the hill country of Gil-
ead, and he set up his camp not far from
Jacob’s. 26“What do you mean by deceiving me like this?” Laban demanded.
“How dare you drag my daughters away
like prisoners of war? 27 Why did you
slip away secretly? Why did you deceive
me? And why didn’t you say you wanted
to leave? I would have given you a farewell feast, with singing and music, accompanied by tambourines and harps.
28Why didn’t you let me kiss my daughters and grandchildren and tell them
good-bye? You have acted very foolishly! 29 I could destroy you, but the God
of your father appeared to me last night
and warned me, ‘Leave Jacob alone!’ 30I
can understand your feeling that you
must go, and your intense longing for
your father’s home. But why have you
stolen my gods?”
31 “I rushed away because I was
afraid,” Jacob answered. “I thought you
would take your daughters from me by
force. 32But as for your gods, see if you
can find them, and let the person who
has taken them die! And if you find anything else that belongs to you, identify it
before all these relatives of ours, and I
will give it back!” But Jacob did not
know that Rachel had stolen the household idols.
33Laban went first into Jacob’s tent to
search there, then into Leah’s, and then
the tents of the two servant wives—but
he found nothing. Finally, he went into
Rachel’s tent. 34But Rachel had taken
the household idols and hidden them
in her camel saddle, and now she was
sitting on them. When Laban had thoroughly searched her tent without finding them, 35 she said to her father,
“Please, sir, forgive me if I don’t get up
for you. I’m having my monthly period.”
So Laban continued his search, but he
could not find the household idols.
36Then Jacob became very angry, and
he challenged Laban. “What’s my
crime?” he demanded. “What have I
done wrong to make you chase after me
as though I were a criminal? 37 You have
rummaged through everything I own.
Now show me what you found that be-
