THE WORD OF ELOHIM

GENESIS

Chapter 31

     Now he heard the things that Laban’s sons were saying:  “Ya’akov has taken all that was our fathers and from that which was our fathers, he has built up all this wealth.”  Ya’akov also saw that Laban’s manner toward him was not as it had been in the past.  Then Yehovah said to Ya’akov, “Return to the land of your fathers, where you were born, and I will be with you.”  Ya’akov had Rachel and Leah called to the field, where his flock was, and said to them, “I see that your father’s manner toward me is not as it has been in the past.  But the Elohim of my father has been with me.  As you know, I have served your father with all my might; but your father has cheated me, changing my wages time and time again.  Elohim, however, would not let him do me harm.  If he said thus, ‘The speckled shall be your wages,’ then all the flocks would drop speckled young; and if he said thus, ‘The streaked shall be your wages,’ then all the flocks would drop streaked young, Elohim has taken away your father’s livestock and given it to me.  

     “Once, at the mating time of the flocks, I had a dream in which I saw that the he-goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled, and mottled.  And in the dream an angel of Elohim said to me, ‘Ya’akov!’ ‘Here,’ I answered.  And He said, ‘Note well that all the he-goats which are mating with the flock are streaked, speckled, and mottled; for I have noted all that Laban has been doing to you.  I am the Elohim of Bayt el', where you anointed a pillar, and where you made a vow to Me.  Now, arise, and leave this land and return to your native land.’”

     Then Rachel and Leah answered him, saying, “Have we still a share in the inheritance of our father’s house?  Surely, he regards us as outsiders, now that he has sold us and has used up our purchase price.  Truly, all the wealth that Elohim has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children.  Now then, do just as Elohim has told you.”

     Thereupon Ya’akov put his children and wives on camels; and he drove off all his livestock and all the wealth that he had amassed; the livestock in his possession that he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Yischaq, in the land of Kenaan.

     Meanwhile Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father’s household idols.  Ya’akov kept Laban the Arammi in the dark, not telling him that he was fleeing, and fled with all that he had.  Soon he was across the Perath and heading toward the hill country of Gilad.

     On the third day, Laban was told that Ya’akov had fled.  So he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him a distance of seven days, catching up with him in the hill country of Gilad.  But Elohim appeared to Laban the Arammi in a dream by night and said to him, “Beware of attempting anything with Ya’akov, good or bad.”

     Laban overtook Ya’akov.  Ya’akov had pitched his tent on the Height, and Laban with his kinsmen encamped in the hill country of Gilad.  And Laban said to Ya’akov, “What did you mean by keeping me in the dark and carrying off my daughters like captives of the sword?  Why did you flee in secrecy and mislead me and not tell me?  I would have sent you off with festive music, with timbrel, and lyre.  You did not even let me kiss my sons and daughters good bye!  It was a foolish thing for you to do.  I have it in my power to do you harm; but the Elohim of your father said to me last night, ‘Beware of attempting anything with Ya’akov, good or bad.’  Very well, you had to leave because you were longing for your father’s house; but why did you steal my gods?”

     Ya’akov answered Laban saying, “I was afraid because I thought you would take your daughters from me by force.  But anyone with whom you find your gods shall not remain alive!  In the presence of our kinsmen, point out what I have of yours and take it.”  Ya’akov, of course, did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

     So Laban went into Ya’akov’s tent and Leah’s tent and the tents of the two maidservants; but he did not find them.  Leaving Leah’s tent, he entered Rachel’s tent.  Rachel, meanwhile, had taken the idols and placed them in the camel cushion and sat on them; and Laban rummaged through the tent without finding them.  For she said to her father, “Let not my lord take it amiss that I cannot rise before you, for the period of women is upon me.”  Thus he searched, but could not find the household idols.

     Now Ya’akov became incensed and took up his grievance with Laban.  Ya’akov spoke up and said to Laban, “What is my crime, what is my guilt that you should pursue me?  You rummaged through all my things; what have you found of all your household objects?  Set it here, before my kinsmen and yours, and let them decide between us two.

     “These twenty years, I have spent in your service, your ewes and she-goats never miscarried, nor did I feast on rams from your flock.  That which was torn by beasts, I never brought to you; I myself made good the loss; you exacted it of me, whether snatched by day or snatched by night.  Often, scorching heat ravaged me by day and frost by night, and sleep fled from my eyes.  Of the twenty years that I spent in your household, I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flocks; and you changed my wages time and again.  Had not the Elohim of my father, the Elohim of Abraham and the Fear of Yischaq, been with me, you would have sent me away empty handed.  But Elohim took notice of my plight and the toil of my hands, and He gave judgment last night.”

     Then Laban spoke up and said to Ya’akov, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks; all that you see is mine.  Yet what can I do now about my daughters or the children they have borne?  Come then, let us make a pact, you and I, that there may be a witness between you and me.” Thereupon Ya’akov took a stone and set it up as a pillar.  And Ya’akov said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.”  So they took stones and made a mound; and they partook of a meal there by the mound.  Laban named it Yegar-sahadutha, but Ya’akov named it Gal-ed.  And Laban declared, “This mound is a witness between you and me this day.”  That is why it was named Gal-ed and [it was called] Mitspeh; because he said, “May Yehovah watch between you and me, when we are out of sight of each other.  If you ill treat my daughters or take other wives besides my daughters—though no one else be about; remember, Elohim, Himself, will be witness between you and me.”

     And Laban said to Ya’akov, “Here is this mound and here the pillar which I have set up between you and me:  This mound shall be witness and this pillar shall be witness that I am not to cross to you past this mound, and that you are not to cross to me past this mound and this pillar, with hostile intent.  May the Elohim of Abraham and the god of Nachor” —their ancestral deities—“judge between us.” And Ya’akov swore by the Fear of his father Yischaq.  Ya’akov then offered up a sacrifice on the Height, and invited his kinsmen to partake of the meal.  After the meal, they spent the night on the Height.

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