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Genesis 31:22-55 — Laban Pursues Jacob

Gen.31.22-55

²²On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had run away. ²³So he took his kinsmen with him, pursued him for seven days, and caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. ²⁴But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, whether good or bad.” ²⁵Laban caught up with Jacob. Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen pitched camp in the hill country of Gilead. ²⁶Then Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done? You have deceived me and driven off my daughters like captives taken by the sword. ²⁷Why did you slip away secretly and deceive me, and not tell me? I would have sent you away with joy and songs, with tambourines and lyres. ²⁸And you did not let me kiss my children and my daughters. Now you have acted foolishly. ²⁹I have it in my power to harm you, but last night the God of your father said to me, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, whether good or bad.” ³⁰And now, though you have gone because you longed deeply for your father's house, why did you steal my gods?" ³¹Jacob answered Laban, "Because I was afraid, for I said, 'You might take your daughters from me by force.' ³²If you find your gods with anyone, he shall not live. Before our kinsmen, identify what of yours is with me and take it for yourself." Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them. ³³So Laban went into Jacob's tent, then Leah's tent, and the tent of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. Then he came out of Leah's tent and entered Rachel's tent. ³⁴Now Rachel had taken the household gods, put them in the camel's saddle basket, and was sitting on them. Laban felt through the whole tent, but did not find them. ³⁵She said to her father, “Let my lord not be angry that I cannot rise before you, for I am having my period .” So he searched, but did not find the household gods. ³⁶Then Jacob became angry and took up his complaint against Laban. Jacob answered Laban, "What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me? ³⁷You have searched through all my belongings; what have you found of all the goods of your house? Set it here before my kinsmen and yours, and let them decide between the two of us. ³⁸These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock. ³⁹What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss myself . You demanded it from me, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. ⁴⁰This was how it was for me: by day the heat consumed me, and by night the frost, and 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 changed my wages ten times. ⁴²If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely you would have sent me away empty-handed by now. God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, and last night he gave judgment." ⁴³Laban answered Jacob, "The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flock is my flock, and all that you see is mine. Yet what can I do today for these daughters of mine, or for the children they have borne? ⁴⁴So now, come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between me and you." ⁴⁵Then Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. ⁴⁶And Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a heap, and there they ate by the heap. ⁴⁷Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed. ⁴⁸Then Laban said, “This heap is a witness between me and you today.” Therefore its name was called Galeed. ⁴⁹It was also called Mizpah , because he said, "May the LORD keep watch between me and you when we are out of one another's sight. ⁵⁰If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, though no one is with us, see, God is witness between me and you." ⁵¹Laban also said to Jacob, "Look at this heap, and look at the pillar that I have set between me and you. ⁵²This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass beyond this heap to you, and you will not pass beyond this heap and this pillar to me, for harm. ⁵³May the God of Abraham and the god of Nahor, the god of their father, judge between us." So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac. ⁵⁴Then Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country and called his kinsmen to eat bread. They ate bread and spent the night in the hill country. ⁵⁵Early the next morning Laban rose, kissed his children and his daughters, and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place.

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4/11/2026

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