Genesis 31 · WEB
Jacob Flees from Laban
Listen — WEB narration 0:00 / 0:00 Narration: World English Bible (David Williams), public domain — AudioTreasure.
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Jacob heard the words of Laban's sons, saying, "Jacob has taken away all that was our father's. From that which was our father's, he has made all this wealth."
2Jacob saw that Laban's attitude toward him was not 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 your father's attitude toward me, that it is not as before; but the God of my father has been with me.
6You know that I have served your father with all 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 striped will be your wages,' then all the flock bore striped.
9Thus God has taken away your father's livestock, and given them to me.
10During breeding season, I lifted up my eyes, and saw in a dream that the male goats which leaped on the flock were striped, speckled, and spotted.
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 see: all the male goats which leap on the flock are striped, speckled, and spotted, for I have seen all that Laban does to you.
13I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you made a vow to me. Now arise, get out of this land, and return to the land of your birth.'"
14Rachel and Leah answered him, "Is there still any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house?
15Aren't we counted by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and has also quite devoured 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 it."
17Then Jacob arose, and put his children and his wives on the camels,
18and he took away all his livestock, and all his possessions which he had gathered — the livestock of his own getting, which he had gathered in Paddan Aram — to go to Isaac his father, in the land of Canaan.
19Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep; and Rachel stole the household idols that were her father's.
20Jacob stole away unawares to Laban the Syrian, in that he didn't tell him that he fled.
21So he fled with all that he had. He rose up, passed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead.
22Three days later, Laban was told 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, "Take heed to yourself 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 stolen away unawares to me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword?
27Why did you flee secretly, and steal away from me, and didn't tell me, that I might have sent you away with mirth and with songs, with tambourine and with harp?
28You have not allowed 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, 'Take heed to yourself that you don't speak to Jacob either good or bad.'
30Now you have surely gone, because you longed greatly for your father's house, but why have you stolen my gods?"
31Jacob answered Laban, "Because I was afraid, for I said, 'Lest you take your daughters from me by force.'
32With whoever you find your gods, let them 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 household idols, put them in the camel's saddle, and sat on them. Laban felt about 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 the manner of women is on me." He searched, but didn't find the household idols.
36Jacob was angry, and argued with Laban. Jacob answered Laban, "What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have so hotly pursued after 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.
38These 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 is how I was: 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; and what can I do today to these my daughters, or to their children whom they have borne?
44Now come, let us make a covenant, you and I; and 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 this day." Therefore it was named Galeed,
49and Mizpah, for he said, "May Yahweh watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another.
50If you afflict my daughters, or if you take wives besides 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 shall 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." 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, kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Laban departed and returned to his place.
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Summary
God commands Jacob to return home, and Jacob convinces Leah and Rachel to flee with him. Unknown to Jacob, Rachel steals her father's household idols. Laban pursues and catches Jacob, but God warns him not to harm Jacob. After a heated confrontation where Jacob defends his twenty years of faithful service, they make a covenant at Mizpah — a pillar of witness marking their separation. The Mizpah blessing ("may Yahweh watch between me and you when we are absent from one another") is made here.
Themes
- God's direction and protection of his people through difficult transitions
- The fruits of twenty years of patient service
- Human deception and its consequences in relationships
- God as the true witness and judge between people
- Covenant-making as a way of establishing boundaries and peace
Key verses
- Gen 31:3 — “Yahweh said to Jacob, 'Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives, and I will be with you.'”
- Gen 31:42 — “Unless 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.”
- Gen 31:49 — “May Yahweh watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another.”
Context & background
The household idols (teraphim) Rachel stole may have been connected to inheritance rights in the ancient Near East — whoever possessed them could claim the family inheritance. Jacob's passionate defense of his twenty years of service is one of his most honest and admirable speeches. The Mizpah ("watchtower") statement — so often used as a benediction in churches today — was actually a warning between two suspicious parties asking God to watch that neither violated the agreement. The covenant at Gilead marks the end of Jacob's twenty years with Laban and the beginning of his return home.
Cross-references
- Hebrews 13:8 — Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever — the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is unchanging
- Philippians 4:19 — God will supply all your needs, as he supplied Jacob's despite Laban's attempts to impoverish him
- Proverbs 3:5-6 — trust in Yahweh with all your heart, as Jacob learned to over twenty years
- Psalm 37:6 — God will make your righteousness shine as the dawn, echoing Jacob's vindication
- Romans 12:19 — vengeance belongs to God, not us — God handled Laban for Jacob