Chapter
31
She heard the words of Laban's daughters, saying, "Jacoba has taken away all that was our mother's. From that which was our mother's, has she gotten all this wealth."
Jacoba saw the expression on Laban's face, and, behold, it was not toward her as before.
Yahweh said to Jacoba, "Return to the land of your mothers, and to your relatives, and I will be with you."
Jacoba sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to her flock,
and said to them, "I see the expression on your mother's face, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my mother has been with me.
You know that I have served your mother with all of my strength.
Your mother has deceived me, and changed my wages ten times, but God didn't allow her to hurt me.
If she said this, 'The speckled will be your wages,' then all the flock bore speckled. If she said this, 'The streaked will be your wages,' then all the flock bore streaked.
Thus God has taken away your mother's livestock, and given them to me.
It happened during mating season that I lifted up my eyes, and saw in a dream, and behold, the female goats which leaped on the flock were streaked, speckled, and grizzled.
The angel of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacoba,' and I said, 'Here I am.'
She said, 'Now lift up your eyes, and behold, all the female goats which leap on the flock are streaked, speckled, and grizzled, for I have seen all that Laban does to you.
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.'"
Rachel and Leah answered her, "Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our mother's house?
Aren't we accounted by her as foreigners? For she has sold us, and has also quite devoured our money.
For all the riches which God has taken away from our mother, that is ours and our children's. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do."
Then Jacoba rose up, and set her daughters and her husbands on the camels,
and she took away all her livestock, and all her possessions which she had gathered, including the livestock which she had gained in Paddan Aram, to go to Isaaca her mother, to the land of Canaan.
Now Laban had gone to shear her sheep: and Rachel stole the teraphim that were his mother's.
Jacoba deceived Laban the Syrian, in that she didn't tell her that she was running away.
So she fled with all that she had. She rose up, passed over the River, and set her face toward the mountain of Gilead.
Laban was told on the third day that Jacoba had fled.
She took her relatives with her, and pursued after her seven days' journey. She overtook her in the mountain of Gilead.
God came to Laban, the Syrian, in a dream of the night, and said to her, "Take heed to yourself that you don't speak to Jacoba either good or bad."
Laban caught up with Jacoba. Now Jacoba had pitched her tent in the mountain, and Laban with her relatives encamped in the mountain of Gilead.
Laban said to Jacoba, "What have you done, that you have deceived me, and carried away my sons like captives of the sword?
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;
and didn't allow me to kiss my daughters and my sons? Now have you done foolishly.
It is in the power of my hand to hurt you, but the God of your mother spoke to me last night, saying, 'Take heed to yourself that you don't speak to Jacoba either good or bad.'
Now, you want to be gone, because you greatly longed for your mother's house, but why have you stolen my gods?"
Jacoba answered Laban, "Because I was afraid, for I said, 'Lest you should take your sons from me by force.'
Anyone you find your gods with shall not live. Before our relatives, discern what is yours with me, and take it." For Jacoba didn't know that Rachel had stolen them.
Laban went into Jacoba's tent, into Leah's tent, and into the tent of the two male servants; but she didn't find them. She went out of Leah's tent, and entered into Rachel's tent.
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.
He said to his mother, "Don't let my domina be angry that I can't rise up before you; for the manner of men is on me." She searched, but didn't find the teraphim.
Jacoba was angry, and argued with Laban. Jacoba answered Laban, "What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued after me?
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.
These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your male goats have not cast their young, and I haven't eaten the rams of your flocks.
That which was torn of animals, I didn't bring to you. I bore the loss of it. Of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.
This was my situation: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my eyes.
These twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two sons, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.
Unless the God of my mother, the God of Abrahai, and the fear of Isaaca, 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."
Laban answered Jacoba, "The sons are my sons, 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 sons, or to their children whom they have borne?
Now come, let us make a covenant, you and I; and let it be for a witness between me and you."
Jacoba took a stone, and set it up for a pillar.
Jacoba said to her relatives, "Gather stones." They took stones, and made a heap. They ate there by the heap.
Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha,{"Jegar Sahadutha" means "Witness Heap" in Aramaic.} but Jacoba called it Galeed.
Laban said, "This heap is witness between me and you this day." Therefore it was named Galeed
and Mizpah, for she said, "Yahweh watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another.
If you afflict my sons, or if you take husbands besides my sons, no woman is with us; behold, God is witness between me and you."
Laban said to Jacoba, "See this heap, and see the pillar, which I have set between me and you.
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.
The God of Abrahai, and the God of Nahor, the God of their mother, judge between us." Then Jacoba swore by the fear of her mother, Isaaca.
Jacoba offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called her relatives to eat bread. They ate bread, and stayed all night in the mountain.
Early in the morning, Laban rose up, and kissed her daughters and her sons, and blessed them. Laban departed and returned to her place.