Passage: Genesis 31, 32, 33 (RSV)


Genesis 31


1Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, "Jacob has taken all that was our father's; and from what was our father's he has gained all this wealth."
2And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before.
3Then the LORD said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you."
4So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was,
5and said to them, "I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me.
6You know that I have served your father with all my strength;
7yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not permit him to harm me.
8If he said, `The spotted shall be your wages,' then all the flock bore spotted; and if he said, `The striped shall be your wages,' then all the flock bore striped.
9Thus God has taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me.
10In the mating season of the flock I lifted up my eyes, and saw in a dream that the he-goats which leaped upon the flock were striped, spotted, and mottled.
11Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, `Jacob,' and I said, `Here I am!'
12And he said, `Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that leap upon the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.
13I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go forth from this land, and return to the land of your birth.'"
14Then Rachel and Leah answered him, "Is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father's house?
15Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and he has been using up the money given for us.
16All the property which God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children; now then, whatever God has said to you, do."
17So Jacob arose, and set his sons and his wives on camels;
18and he drove away all his cattle, all his livestock which he had gained, the cattle in his possession which he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac.
19Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father's household gods.
20And Jacob outwitted Laban the Aramean, in that he did not tell him that he intended to flee.
21He fled with all that he had, and arose and crossed the Euphra'tes, and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.
22When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled,
23he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for seven days and followed close after him into the hill country of Gilead.
24But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night, and said to him, "Take heed that you say not a word to Jacob, either good or bad."
25And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen encamped in the hill country of Gilead.
26And Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done, that you have cheated me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword?
27Why did you flee secretly, and cheat me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with mirth and songs, with tambourine and lyre?
28And why did you not permit me to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? Now you have done foolishly.
29It is in my power to do you harm; but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, `Take heed that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.'
30And now you have gone away because you longed greatly for your father's house, but why did you steal my gods?"
31Jacob answered Laban, "Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force.
32Any one with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our kinsmen point out what I have that is yours, and take it." Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
33So Laban went into Jacob's tent, and into Leah's tent, and into the tent of the two maidservants, but he did not find them. And he went out of Leah's tent, and entered Rachel's.
34Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel's saddle, and sat upon them. Laban felt all about the tent, but did not find them.
35And she said to her father, "Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me." So he searched, but did not find the household gods.
36Then Jacob became angry, and upbraided Laban; Jacob said to Laban, "What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me?
37Although you have felt through all my goods, what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, that they may decide between us two.
38These 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 flocks.
39That which was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it myself; of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.
40Thus I was; by day the heat consumed me, and the cold 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.
42If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night."
43Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, "The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to these my daughters, or to their children whom they have borne?
44Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I; and let it be a witness between you and me."
45So Jacob took a stone, and set it up as a pillar.
46And Jacob said to his kinsmen, "Gather stones," and they took stones, and made a heap; and they ate there by the heap.
47Laban called it Je'gar-sahadu'tha: but Jacob called it Galeed.
48Laban said, "This heap is a witness between you and me today." Therefore he named it Galeed,
49and the pillar Mizpah, for he said, "The LORD watch between you and me, when we are absent one from the other.
50If you ill-treat my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us, remember, God is witness between you and me."
51Then Laban said to Jacob, "See this heap and the pillar, which I have set between you and me.
52This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and 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." So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac,
54and Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his kinsmen to eat bread; and they ate bread and tarried all night on the mountain.
55Early in the morning Laban arose, and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them; then he departed and returned home.

Genesis 32


1Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him;
2and when Jacob saw them he said, "This is God's army!" So he called the name of that place Mahana'im.
3And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Se'ir, the country of Edom,
4instructing them, "Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, `I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed until now;
5and I have oxen, asses, flocks, menservants, and maidservants; and I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.'"
6And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, "We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men with him."
7Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two companies,
8thinking, "If Esau comes to the one company and destroys it, then the company which is left will escape."
9And Jacob said, "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD who didst say to me, `Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will do you good,'
10I am not worthy of the least of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness which thou hast shown to thy servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan; and now I have become two companies.
11Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and slay us all, the mothers with the children.
12But thou didst say, `I will do you good, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.'"
13So he lodged there that night, and took from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau,
14two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,
15thirty milch camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty she-asses and ten he-asses.
16These he delivered into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, "Pass on before me, and put a space between drove and drove."
17He instructed the foremost, "When Esau my brother meets you, and asks you, `To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these before you?'
18then you shall say, `They belong to your servant Jacob; they are a present sent to my lord Esau; and moreover he is behind us.'"
19He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, "You shall say the same thing to Esau when you meet him,
20and you shall say, `Moreover your servant Jacob is behind us.'" For he thought, "I may appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterwards I shall see his face; perhaps he will accept me."
21So the present passed on before him; and he himself lodged that night in the camp.
22The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
23He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had.
24And Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.
25When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and Jacob's thigh was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.
26Then he said, "Let me go, for the day is breaking." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me."
27And he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob."
28Then he said, "Your name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed."
29Then Jacob asked him, "Tell me, I pray, your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And there he blessed him.
30So Jacob called the name of the place Peni'el, saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved."
31The sun rose upon him as he passed Penu'el, limping because of his thigh.
32Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the sinew of the hip which is upon the hollow of the thigh, because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh on the sinew of the hip.

Genesis 33


1And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two maids.
2And he put the maids with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all.
3He himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.
4But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.
5And when Esau raised his eyes and saw the women and children, he said, "Who are these with you?" Jacob said, "The children whom God has graciously given your servant."
6Then the maids drew near, they and their children, and bowed down;
7Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down; and last Joseph and Rachel drew near, and they bowed down.
8Esau said, "What do you mean by all this company which I met?" Jacob answered, "To find favor in the sight of my lord."
9But Esau said, "I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself."
10Jacob said, "No, I pray you, if I have found favor in your sight, then accept my present from my hand; for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God, with such favor have you received me.
11Accept, I pray you, my gift that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough." Thus he urged him, and he took it.
12Then Esau said, "Let us journey on our way, and I will go before you."
13But Jacob said to him, "My lord knows that the children are frail, and that the flocks and herds giving suck are a care to me; and if they are overdriven for one day, all the flocks will die.
14Let my lord pass on before his servant, and I will lead on slowly, according to the pace of the cattle which are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Se'ir."
15So Esau said, "Let me leave with you some of the men who are with me." But he said, "What need is there? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord."
16So Esau returned that day on his way to Se'ir.
17But Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built himself a house, and made booths for his cattle; therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.
18And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan-aram; and he camped before the city.
19And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, he bought for a hundred pieces of money the piece of land on which he had pitched his tent.
20There he erected an altar and called it El-El'ohe-Israel.



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