DaySpring Hope & Encouragement Bible - Flipbook - Page 61
43
G enesis 31
at Bethel,* the place where you anointed the pillar of stone and made your
vow to me. Now get ready and leave this country and return to the land of
your birth.’”
14 Rachel and Leah responded, “That’s fine with us! We won’t inherit any
of our father’s wealth anyway. 15 He has reduced our rights to those of foreign
women. And after he sold us, he wasted the money you paid him for us. 16 All
the wealth God has given you from our father legally belongs to us and our
children. So go ahead and do whatever God has told you.”
17 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
Paddan-aram and set out for the land of Canaan, where his father, Isaac,
lived. 19 At 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. 21 So Jacob took all his possessions with him
and crossed the Euphrates River,* heading for the hill country of Gilead.
Laban Pursues Jacob
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. 24 But the previous night God
had appeared to Laban the Aramean in a dream and told him, “I’m warning
you—leave Jacob alone!”
25 Laban caught up with Jacob as he was camped in the hill country of
Gilead, 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. 28 Why 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!’ 30 I 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. 32 But 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.
33 Laban 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. 34 But Rachel had taken the household idols and hidden them in her camel saddle, and now she was sitting on them. When La
ban 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.
31:13 As in Greek version and an Aramaic Targum; Hebrew reads the God of Bethel.
31:21 Hebrew the river.
