Genesis 31:1-21

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Jacob Flees with Family and Flocks

31 Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, “Jacob has taken all that was our father’s; he has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father.” ² And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him as favorably as he did before. ³ Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your ancestors and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”^{(A) 4} So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was ⁵ and said to them, “I see that your father does not regard me as favorably as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me.^{(B) 6} You know that I have served your father with all my strength, ⁷ yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not permit him to harm me.^{(C) 8} If he said, ‘The speckled shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore speckled, and if he said, ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore striped.^{(D) 9} Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me.

¹⁰ “During the mating of the flock I once had a dream in which I looked up and saw that the male goats that leaped upon the flock were striped, speckled, and mottled. ¹¹ Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’^{(E) 12} And he said, ‘Look up and see that all the goats that leap on the flock are striped, speckled, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. ¹³ I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now leave this land at once and return to the land of your birth.’ ”^{(F) 14} Then Rachel and Leah answered him, “Is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father’s house?^{(G) 15} Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and he has been using up the money given for us. ¹⁶ All the property that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children; now then, do whatever God has said to you.”

¹⁷ So Jacob arose and set his children and his wives on camels, ¹⁸ and he drove away all his livestock, all the property that he had gained, the livestock in his possession that he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.

¹⁹ Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father’s household gods.^{(H) 20} And Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean, in that he did not tell him that he intended to flee. ²¹ So he fled with all that he had; starting out he crossed the Euphrates^[a] and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.^(I)