Genesis 31 — WBMS
31Verse 1After that, Jacob heard the words of the sons of Laban, that said, Jacob hath taken away all things that were our father’s, and of his chattel Jacob is made rich, and noble.Verse 2Also Jacob perceived the face of Laban, that it was not against him as yesterday, and the third day ago,Verse 3mostly for the Lord said to Jacob, Turn again into the land of thy fathers, and to thy generation, and I shall be with thee.Verse 4Jacob sent, and called Rachel and Leah into the field, where he kept [the] flocks,Verse 5and he said to them, I see the face of your father, that it is not against me as yesterday, and the third day ago; but God of my father was with me.Verse 6And ye know that with all my strengths I have served your father;Verse 7but and your father hath deceived me, and changed my meed ten times; and nevertheless God suffered not him to annoy me.Verse 8If he said any time, Diversely-coloured sheep shall be thy meed, all the sheep brought forth diversely-coloured lambs; forsooth when he said, on the contrary, Thou shalt take all the white for thy meed, all the flocks brought forth white beasts;Verse 9and God took away the substance of your father, and gave it to me.Verse 10For after that the time of con-ceiving of sheep came, I raised [up] mine eyes, and saw in sleep males diverse, and spotty, and of diverse colours, going up on females.Verse 11And the angel of the Lord said to me in sleep, Jacob! and I answered, I am ready.Verse 12Which said, Raise [up] thine eyes, and see all [the] males that be diverse, [and] besprinkled, and spotty, going [up] on [the] females; for I have seen all things which Laban hath done to thee;Verse 13I am God of Bethel, where thou anointedest a stone, and madest a vow to me. Now therefore rise thou, and go out of this land, and turn again into the land of thy birth.Verse 14And Rachel and Leah answered, Whether we have anything residue, or left, in the chattels, and heritage of our father?Verse 15Whether he areckoned not, or held, us as aliens, and sold us, and ate our price?Verse 16But God took away the riches of our father, and gave those [or them] to us, and to our sons; wherefore do thou all things which God hath commanded to thee.Verse 17Forsooth Jacob rose, and put his free children and wives on camels, and went forth;Verse 18and he took all his cattle, flocks, and whatever thing he had gotten in Mesopotamia, and went to Isaac, his father, into the land of Canaan.Verse 19In that time Laban went to shear sheep, and Rachel stole the idols of her father.Verse 20And Jacob would not acknowledge to the father of his wives, that he would flee;Verse 21and when he had gone, as well he as all things that were of his right, and when he had passed [over] the water, and he went against the hill of Gilead,Verse 22it was told to Laban, in the third day, that Jacob fled.Verse 23And Laban took his brethren [with him], and pursued him seven days, and [over] took him in the hill of Gilead.Verse 24And Laban saw in sleep the Lord saying to him, Beware that thou speak not anything sharply against Jacob.Verse 25And then Jacob had stretched forth the tabernacle in the hill; and when Laban had pursued Jacob with his brethren, Laban set a tent in the same hill of Gilead;Verse 26and he said to Jacob, Why hast thou done so, that the while I knew not, thou wouldest drive away my daughters as captives, either taken prisoners, by sword?Verse 27Why wouldest thou flee the while I knew not, neither wouldest show to me, that I should pursue [or follow] thee with joy, and songs, and tympans, and harps?Verse 28Thou sufferedest not that I should kiss my sons and daughters; thou hast wrought follily.Verse 29And now soothly mine hand may yield evil to thee, but the God of thy father said to me yesterday, Beware that thou speak not any hard thing with Jacob.Verse 30Suppose, if thou covetedest to go to thy kinsmen, and the house of thy father was in desire to thee, why hast thou stolen my gods?Verse 31Jacob answered, That I went forth while thou knewest not, I dreaded lest thou wouldest take away thy daughters from me violently;Verse 32soothly that thou reprovest me of theft, at whomever thou findest thy gods, be he slain before our brethren; seek thou, whatever thing of thine thou findest at me, and take it away. Jacob said these things, and knew not that Rachel had stolen the idols.Verse 33And so Laban entered into the tabernacles of Jacob, and of Leah, and of ever either menial, and he found not; and when Laban had entered into the tent of Rachel,Verse 34she hasted, and hid the idols under the strewings of the camel, and she sat above.Verse 35And she said to Laban, seeking throughout all the tent, and finding nothing, My lord, be not wroth that I may not rise before thee, for it befelled now to me by the custom of women; so the busyness of the seeker was scorned.Verse 36And Jacob swelled, and said with strife, For what cause of me, and for what sin of me, hast thou come so fiercely after me,Verse 37and hast sought through all the appurtenance of mine house? What hast thou found of all the chattel of thine household? Put thou here before my brethren and thy brethren, and deem they betwixt me and thee.Verse 38Was I not with thee therefore twenty years? Thy sheep and goats were not barren, I ate not the rams of thy flock,Verse 39neither I showed to thee anything taken of a beast; I yielded all [the] harm; whatever thing perished by theft, thou askedest of me;Verse 40I was anguished in day and night with heat and frost, and sleep fled from mine eyes;Verse 41so I served thee by twenty years in thine house, fourteen years for thy daughters, and six years for thy flocks; and thou changedest my meed ten times.Verse 42But if [the] God of my father Abraham, and the dread of Isaac had not helped me, peradventure now thou haddest left me naked; the Lord hath beheld my tormenting and the travail of mine hands, and reproved thee yesterday.Verse 43Laban answered to Jacob, The daughters, and the sons, and the flocks, and all things which thou seest, be mine; what may I do to my sons, and to the sons of my sons?Verse 44Therefore come thou, and make we bond of peace, that it be a witnessing betwixt me and thee.Verse 45And so Jacob took a stone, and raised it into a title, either a sign,Verse 46and said to his brethren, Bring ye stones; which gathered, and made an heap, and ate on it.Verse 47And Laban called it The heap of witness, and Jacob called it The heap of witnessing; ever either called it by the property of his language.Verse 48And Laban said, This heap shall be witness betwixt me and thee today, and therefore the name thereof was called Galeed, that is, The heap of witness.Verse 49And Laban added, The Lord behold, and deem betwixt us, when we shall go away from you;Verse 50if thou shalt torment my daughters, and if thou shalt bring in other wives on them, none is witness of our word, except God, which is present, and beholdeth.Verse 51And again Laban said to Jacob, Lo! this heap, and the stone, or the pillar, which I have raised betwixt me and thee,Verse 52shall be witnesses; soothly this heap, and the stone be into witnessing, forsooth if I shall pass it, and go to thee, either thou shalt pass it, and think to do evil to me.Verse 53God of Abraham, and God of Nahor, [the] God of the father of them, deem betwixt us. Therefore Jacob swore by the dread of his father Isaac;Verse 54and when slain sacrifices were offered in the hill, Jacob called his brethren to eat bread, and when they had eaten, they dwelled there.Verse 55Forsooth Laban rose by night, and kissed his sons, and daughters, and blessed them, and turned again into his place.