Chapter 31
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And Laban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled.
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He took his brothers with him and pursued him a distance of seven days and caught up with him on the mountain of Gilead.
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God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, "Guard yourself lest you speak with Jacob from good to evil."
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And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent on the mountain, and Laban pitched his tents with his brothers on the mountain of Gilead.
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Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done, that you have stolen my heart and driven my daughters like captives of the sword?"
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Why did you hide to flee and steal me away and not tell me so I would send you away with joy and songs, with tambourine and lyre?
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And you did not let me kiss my sons and my daughters goodbye; now you have acted foolishly.
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It is in the power of God that my hand should do you evil, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, "Guard yourself from speaking with Jacob, either good or evil."
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And now you have gone, you have gone, for you have desired—you have desired—the house of Abijah. Why have you stolen my God?
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Jacob answered Laban, "Because I was afraid. I said, 'Lest you should steal your daughters from me.'"
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With whomever you find your gods, he shall not live before our brothers. Recognize for yourself what is with me, and take it for yourself. And Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
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And Laban went into the tent of Jacob, and into the tent of Leah, and into the tent of the two maidservants, but he did not find them. And he went out from the tent of Leah and went into the tent of Rachel.
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Rachel took the household gods, put them in the camel's saddlebags, and sat on them. Laban searched the entire tent but did not find them.
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She said to her father, "Let it not be hot in the eyes of my lord, for I am not able to rise before you, for the way of women is upon me." And he searched but did not find the teraphim.
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And Jacob grew angry, and he contended with Laban. And Jacob answered and said to Laban, "What is my transgression? What is my sin, that you have pursued me?"
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For you have felt through all my utensils—what have you found from all the utensils of your house? Put them here before my brothers and your brothers, and let them judge between the two of us.
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These twenty years I have been with you, your ewes and your she-goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock.
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If it was torn in pieces, I did not bring it to you; I bore the loss: from my hand you required it. My theft by day, and my theft by night.
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By day I was consumed by heat and by frost at night, and my sleep fled from my eyes.
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For twenty years I served you in your house—fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your sheep and flock—and you changed my reward ten times.
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Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, you would have sent me away empty. My affliction and the labor of my hands—God saw and argued last night.
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And Laban answered and said to Jacob, "The daughters are my daughters, the sons are my sons, the flock is my flock, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do today to these daughters of mine, or to their sons whom they have borne?"
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And now come, let us cut a covenant, I and you, and it will be a witness between me and you.
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And Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar.
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And Jacob said to his brothers, "Gather stones." And they took stones and made a mound, and they ate there by the mound.
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And Laban called it Yegar-Sahaduta, and Jacob called it Gilead.
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Laban said, "This mound is a witness between me and you today." Therefore he called its name Gilead.
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And the Watchtower, which he said, "May the LORD watch between me and you when we are hidden from each other."
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If you afflict my daughters, or if you take wives over my daughters, there is no man with us. God has seen it between me and you.
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And Laban said to Jacob, "Behold, this mound, and behold, the pillar that I have set up between me and you."
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This mound is a witness, and this pillar is a witness: if I do not cross over to you this mound, and if you do not cross over to me this mound and this pillar, for harm.
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The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, let them judge between us—the God of their father. And Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac.
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And Jacob sacrificed a sacrifice on the mountain, and he called his brothers to eat bread. And they ate bread and spent the night on the mountain.