Flight from Laban, a limp at Peniel, and a return to Bethel.

Genesis 31

Jacob flees while Laban is shearing, Rachel steals the household gods, and the two men cut a watched covenant at Galeed after God warns Laban in a dream.

¹Jacob heard Laban’s sons’ words, saying, “Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s. He has obtained all this wealth from that which was our father’s.” ²Jacob saw the expression on Laban’s face, and, behold, it was not toward him as before. ³Yahweh said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”

⁴Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock, ⁵and said to them, “I see the expression on your father’s face, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me. ⁶You know that I have served your father with all of my strength. ⁷Your father has deceived me, and changed my wages ten times, but God didn’t allow him to hurt me. ⁸If he said, ‘The speckled will be your wages,’ then all the flock bore speckled. If he said, ‘The streaked will be your wages,’ then all the flock bore streaked. ⁹Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock, and given them to me. ¹⁰During mating season, I lifted up my eyes, and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats which leaped on the flock were streaked, speckled, and grizzled. ¹¹The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’ ¹²He said, ‘Now lift up your eyes, and behold, all the male goats which leap on the flock are streaked, speckled, and grizzled, for I have seen all that Laban does to you. ¹³I 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.’”

¹⁴Rachel and Leah answered him, “Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house? ¹⁵Aren’t we considered as foreigners by him? For he has sold us, and has also used up our money. ¹⁶For all the riches which God has taken away from our father are ours and our children’s. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.”

¹⁷Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives on the camels, ¹⁸and he took away all his livestock, and all his possessions which he had gathered, including the livestock which he had gained in Paddan Aram, to go to Isaac his father, to the land of Canaan. ¹⁹Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep; and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father’s.

²⁰Jacob deceived Laban the Syrian, in that he didn’t tell him that he was running away. ²¹So he fled with all that he had. He rose up, passed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead.

²²Laban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled. ²³He took his relatives with him, and pursued him seven days’ journey. He overtook him in the mountain of Gilead. ²⁴God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Be careful that you don’t speak to Jacob either good or bad.”

²⁵Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain, and Laban with his relatives encamped in the mountain of Gilead. ²⁶Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have deceived me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword? ²⁷Why 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; ²⁸and didn’t allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now you have done foolishly. ²⁹It is in the power of my hand to hurt you, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful that you don’t speak to Jacob either good or bad.’ ³⁰Now, you want to be gone, because you greatly longed for your father’s house, but why have you stolen my gods?”

³¹Jacob answered Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I said, ‘Lest you should take your daughters from me by force.’ ³²Anyone you find your gods with shall not live. Before our relatives, discern what is yours with me, and take it.” For Jacob didn’t know that Rachel had stolen them.

³³Laban went into Jacob’s tent, into Leah’s tent, and into the tent of the two female servants; but he didn’t find them. He went out of Leah’s tent, and entered into Rachel’s tent. ³⁴Now Rachel had taken the teraphim, put them in the camel’s saddle, and sat on them. Laban felt around all the tent, but didn’t find them. ³⁵She said to her father, “Don’t let my lord be angry that I can’t rise up before you; for I’m having my period.” He searched, but didn’t find the teraphim.

³⁶Jacob was angry, and argued with Laban. Jacob answered Laban, “What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me? ³⁷Now 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.

³⁸“These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not cast their young, and I haven’t eaten the rams of your flocks. ³⁹That which was torn of animals, I didn’t bring to you. I bore its loss. Of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. ⁴⁰This was my situation: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my eyes. ⁴¹These 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 have changed my wages ten times. ⁴²Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, 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.”

⁴³Laban answered Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine! What can I do today to these my daughters, or to their children whom they have borne? ⁴⁴Now come, let’s make a covenant, you and I. Let it be for a witness between me and you.”

⁴⁵Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. ⁴⁶Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” They took stones, and made a heap. They ate there by the heap. ⁴⁷Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. ⁴⁸Laban said, “This heap is witness between me and you today.” Therefore it was named Galeed ⁴⁹and Mizpah, for he said, “Yahweh watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another. ⁵⁰If you afflict my daughters, or if you take wives in addition to my daughters, no man is with us; behold, God is witness between me and you.” ⁵¹Laban said to Jacob, “See this heap, and see the pillar, which I have set between me and you. ⁵²May 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. ⁵³The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” Then Jacob swore by the fear of his father, Isaac. ⁵⁴Jacob offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread, and stayed all night in the mountain. ⁵⁵Early in the morning, Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Laban departed and returned to his place.

Genesis 32

Jacob sends gifts ahead to Esau, wrestles until dawn at the Jabbok, and leaves Peniel named Israel, blessed, and limping.

¹Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. ²When he saw them, Jacob said, “This is God’s army.” He called the name of that place Mahanaim.

³Jacob sent messengers in front of him to Esau, his brother, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom. ⁴He commanded them, saying, “This is what you shall tell my lord, Esau: ‘This is what your servant, Jacob, says. I have lived as a foreigner with Laban, and stayed until now. ⁵I have cattle, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. 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. He is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” ⁷Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed. He divided the people who were with him, along with the flocks, the herds, and the camels, into two companies. ⁸He said, “If Esau comes to the one company, and strikes it, then the company which is left will escape.” ⁹Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Yahweh, who said to me, ‘Return to your country, and to your relatives, and I will do you good,’ ¹⁰I am not worthy of the least of all the loving kindnesses, and of all the truth, which you have shown to your servant; for with just my staff I crossed over this Jordan; and now I have become two companies. ¹¹Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and strike me and the mothers with the children. ¹²You said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which can’t be counted because there are so many.’”

¹³He stayed there that night, and took from that which he had with him a present for Esau, his brother: ¹⁴two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, ¹⁵thirty milk camels and their colts, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten foals. ¹⁶He delivered them into the hands of his servants, every herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass over before me, and put a space between herd and herd.” ¹⁷He commanded the foremost, saying, “When Esau, my brother, meets you, and asks you, saying, ‘Whose are you? Where are you going? Whose are these before you?’ ¹⁸Then you shall say, ‘They are your servant, Jacob’s. It is a present sent to my lord, Esau. Behold, he also is behind us.’” ¹⁹He commanded also the second, and the third, and all that followed the herds, saying, “This is how you shall speak to Esau, when you find him. ²⁰You shall say, ‘Not only that, but behold, your servant, Jacob, is behind us.’” For, he said, “I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.”

²¹So the present passed over before him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp.

²²He rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of the Jabbok. ²³He took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over that which he had. ²⁴Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day. ²⁵When he saw that he didn’t prevail against him, the man touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was strained as he wrestled. ²⁶The man said, “Let me go, for the day breaks.”

Jacob said, “I won’t let you go unless you bless me.”

²⁷He said to him, “What is your name?”

He said, “Jacob”.

²⁸He said, “Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

²⁹Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.”

He said, “Why is it that you ask what my name is?” So he blessed him there.

³⁰Jacob called the name of the place Peniel; for he said, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” ³¹The sun rose on him as he passed over Peniel, and he limped because of his thigh. ³²Therefore the children of Israel don’t eat the sinew of the hip, which is on the hollow of the thigh, to this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip.

Genesis 33

Esau runs to meet Jacob, embraces him, and weeps, and Jacob settles at Succoth and then buys a piece of land near Shechem.

¹Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau was coming, and with him four hundred men. He divided the children between Leah, Rachel, and the two servants. ²He put the servants and their children in front, Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph at the rear. ³He himself passed over in front of them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

⁴Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck, kissed him, and they wept. ⁵He lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, “Who are these with you?”

He said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.” ⁶Then the servants came near with their children, and they bowed themselves. ⁷Leah also and her children came near, and bowed themselves. After them, Joseph came near with Rachel, and they bowed themselves.

⁸Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company which I met?”

Jacob said, “To find favor in the sight of my lord.”

⁹Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; let that which you have be yours.”

¹⁰Jacob said, “Please, no, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present at my hand, because I have seen your face, as one sees the face of God, and you were pleased with me. ¹¹Please take the gift that I brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.” He urged him, and he took it.

¹²Esau said, “Let’s take our journey, and let’s go, and I will go before you.”

¹³Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are tender, and that the flocks and herds with me have their young, and if they overdrive them one day, all the flocks will die. ¹⁴Please let my lord pass over before his servant, and I will lead on gently, according to the pace of the livestock that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord to Seir.”

¹⁵Esau said, “Let me now leave with you some of the people who are with me.”

He said, “Why? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.”

¹⁶So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. ¹⁷Jacob traveled to Succoth, built himself a house, and made shelters for his livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.

¹⁸Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan Aram; and encamped before the city. ¹⁹He bought the parcel of ground where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for one hundred pieces of money. ²⁰He erected an altar there, and called it El Elohe Israel.

Genesis 34

Shechem violates Dinah, her brothers answer a marriage offer with deceit and a massacre, and Jacob fears the land will gather against his small house.

¹Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. ²Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her. He took her, lay with her, and humbled her. ³His soul joined to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young lady, and spoke kindly to the young lady. ⁴Shechem spoke to his father, Hamor, saying, “Get me this young lady as a wife.”

⁵Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah, his daughter; and his sons were with his livestock in the field. Jacob held his peace until they came. ⁶Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to talk with him. ⁷The sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it. The men were grieved, and they were very angry, because he had done folly in Israel in lying with Jacob’s daughter, a thing that ought not to be done. ⁸Hamor talked with them, saying, “The soul of my son, Shechem, longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife. ⁹Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. ¹⁰You shall dwell with us, and the land will be before you. Live and trade in it, and get possessions in it.”

¹¹Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you will tell me I will give. ¹²Ask me a great amount for a dowry, and I will give whatever you ask of me, but give me the young lady as a wife.”

¹³The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with deceit when they spoke, because he had defiled Dinah their sister, ¹⁴and said to them, “We can’t do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised; for that is a reproach to us. ¹⁵Only on this condition will we consent to you. If you will be as we are, that every male of you be circumcised, ¹⁶then will we give our daughters to you; and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people. ¹⁷But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our sister, and we will be gone.”

¹⁸Their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor’s son. ¹⁹The young man didn’t wait to do this thing, because he had delight in Jacob’s daughter, and he was honored above all the house of his father. ²⁰Hamor and Shechem, his son, came to the gate of their city, and talked with the men of their city, saying, ²¹“These men are peaceful with us. Therefore let them live in the land and trade in it. For behold, the land is large enough for them. Let’s take their daughters to us for wives, and let’s give them our daughters. ²²Only on this condition will the men consent to us to live with us, to become one people, if every male among us is circumcised, as they are circumcised. ²³Won’t their livestock and their possessions and all their animals be ours? Only let’s give our consent to them, and they will dwell with us.”

²⁴All who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor, and to Shechem his son; and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city. ²⁵On the third day, when they were sore, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword, came upon the unsuspecting city, and killed all the males. ²⁶They killed Hamor and Shechem, his son, with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went away. ²⁷Jacob’s sons came on the dead, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. ²⁸They took their flocks, their herds, their donkeys, that which was in the city, that which was in the field, ²⁹and all their wealth. They took captive all their little ones and their wives, and took as plunder everything that was in the house. ³⁰Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number. They will gather themselves together against me and strike me, and I will be destroyed, I and my house.”

³¹They said, “Should he deal with our sister as with a prostitute?”

Genesis 35

God calls Jacob back to Bethel, Rachel dies bearing Benjamin, Reuben lies with Bilhah, and Isaac dies and is buried by Esau and Jacob together.

¹God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and live there. Make there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”

²Then Jacob said to his household, and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments. ³Let’s arise, and go up to Bethel. I will make there an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me on the way which I went.”

⁴They gave to Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the rings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. ⁵They traveled, and a terror of God was on the cities that were around them, and they didn’t pursue the sons of Jacob. ⁶So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. ⁷He built an altar there, and called the place El Beth El; because there God was revealed to him, when he fled from the face of his brother. ⁸Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak; and its name was called Allon Bacuth.

⁹God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan Aram, and blessed him. ¹⁰God said to him, “Your name is Jacob. Your name shall not be Jacob any more, but your name will be Israel.” He named him Israel. ¹¹God said to him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations will be from you, and kings will come out of your body. ¹²The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, and to your offspring after you I will give the land.”

¹³God went up from him in the place where he spoke with him. ¹⁴Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he spoke with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it, and poured oil on it. ¹⁵Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him “Bethel”.

¹⁶They traveled from Bethel. There was still some distance to come to Ephrath, and Rachel travailed. She had hard labor. ¹⁷When she was in hard labor, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for now you will have another son.”

¹⁸As her soul was departing (for she died), she named him Benoni, but his father named him Benjamin. ¹⁹Rachel died, and was buried on the way to Ephrath (also called Bethlehem). ²⁰Jacob set up a pillar on her grave. The same is the Pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day. ²¹Israel traveled, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Eder. ²²While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it.

Now the sons of Jacob were twelve. ²³The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob’s firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. ²⁴The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. ²⁵The sons of Bilhah (Rachel’s servant): Dan and Naphtali. ²⁶The sons of Zilpah (Leah’s servant): Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan Aram. ²⁷Jacob came to Isaac his father, to Mamre, to Kiriath Arba (which is Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac lived as foreigners.

²⁸The days of Isaac were one hundred eighty years. ²⁹Isaac gave up the spirit and died, and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. Esau and Jacob, his sons, buried him.