- Scripture
Genesis 31:4-55 NASV
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; however, God did not
allow him to hurt me. 8 If he spoke thus, ‘The speckled shall be your wages,’ then all the flock brought forth speckled; and if he spoke thus, ‘The
striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock brought forth striped. 9 Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me. 10
And it came about at the time when the flock were mating that I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats which were mating
were striped, speckled, and mottled. 11 Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’ 12 He said, ‘Lift
up now your eyes and see that all the male goats which are mating are striped, speckled, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. 13
I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you made a vow to Me; now arise, leave this land, and return to the land of your birth.'” 14
Rachel and Leah said to him, “Do we still have any portion or inheritance in our father’s house? 15 Are we not reckoned by him as foreigners? For he
has sold us, and has also entirely consumed our purchase price. 16 Surely all the wealth which God has taken away from our father belongs to us and
our children; now then, do whatever God has said to you.”17 Then Jacob arose and put his children and his wives upon camels; 18 and he drove away all
his livestock and all his property which he had gathered, his acquired livestock which he had gathered in Paddan-aram, to go to the land of Canaan
to his father Isaac. 19 When Laban had gone to shear his flock, then Rachel stole the household idols that were her father’s. 20 And Jacob deceived
Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing. 21 So he fled with all that he had; and he arose and crossed the Euphrates River, and set
his face toward the hill country of Gilead.Laban Pursues Jacob 22 When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled, 23 then he took his
kinsmen with him and pursued him a distance of seven days’ journey, and he overtook him in the hill country of Gilead. 24 God came to Laban the Aramean
in a dream of the night and said to him, “Be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.”25 Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had
pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen camped in the hill country of Gilead. 26 Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you
done by deceiving me and carrying away my daughters like captives of the sword?
27 Why did you flee secretly and deceive me, and did not tell me so that I might have sent you away with joy and with songs, with timbrel and with lyre;
28 and did not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now you have done foolishly. 29 It is in my power to do you harm, but the God of your father
spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to speak either good or bad to Jacob.’ 30Now you have indeed gone away because you longed greatly for
your father’s house; but why did you steal my gods?” 31 Then Jacob replied to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your
daughters from me by force. 32 The one with whom you find your gods shall not live; in the presence of our kinsmen point out what is yours among my
belongings and take it for yourself.” For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and
into the tent of the two maids, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent. 34 Now Rachel had taken the household
idols and put them in the camel’s saddle, and she sat on them. And Laban felt through all the tent but did not find them.35 She said to her father,
“Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the household idols.36
Then Jacob became angry and contended with Laban; and Jacob said to Laban, “What is my transgression? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me?
37 Though 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. 38 These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the
rams of your flocks. 39 That which was torn of beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it myself. You required it of my hand whether stolen
by day or stolen by night. 40 Thus I was: by day the heat consumed me and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. 41 These 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. 42
If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had not been for me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has
seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, so He rendered judgment last night.”The Covenant of Mizpah 43Then Laban replied to Jacob, “The daughters
are my daughters, and the children are my children, and 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? 44 So now come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and
me.” 45 Then Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. 46 Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a heap, and
they ate there by the heap. 47 Now Laban called it I.e. the heap of witness, in Aram Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it I.e. the heap of witness,
in Heb Galeed. 48 Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me this day.” Therefore it was named Galeed, 49 and Lit the Mizpah; i.e. the
watchtower Mizpah, for he said, “May the Lord watch between you and me when we are absent one from the other. 50 If you mistreat my daughters, or if
you take wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.” 51 Laban said to Jacob, “Behold this heap
and behold the pillar which I have set between you and me.
49 and Lit the Mizpah; i.e. the watchtowerMizpah, for he said, “May the Lord watch between you and me when we are absent one from the other. 50 If you
mistreat my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.” 51 Laban said
to Jacob, “Behold this heap and behold the pillar which I have set between you and me. 52 This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that
I will not pass by this heap to you for harm, and you will not pass by this heap and this pillar to me, for harm. 53 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. 54 Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain,
and called his kinsmen to the meal; and they ate the meal and spent the night on the mountain. 55 Early in the morning Laban arose, and kissed his
sons and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place.
Genesis 32:1-31 NASV
he named that place I.e. Two Camps, or Two CompaniesMahanaim. 3 Then Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the
country of Edom. 4 He also commanded them saying, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: ‘Thus says your servant Jacob, “I have sojourned with Laban,
and stayed until now; 5I have oxen and donkeys and flocks and male and female servants; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your
sight.”‘”6 The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and furthermore he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men
are with him.” 7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and the herds and the camels,
into two companies; 8 for he said, “If Esau comes to the one company and attacks it, then the company which is left will escape.” 9 Jacob said, “O
God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will prosper you,’
10 I am unworthy of all the loving kindness and of all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant; for with my staff only I crossed this
Jordan, and now I have become two companies. 11 Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will
come and attack me and the mothers with the children. 12 For You said, ‘I will surely prosper you and make your descendants as the sand of the sea,
which is too great to be numbered.'”13 So he spent the night there. Then he selected from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau: 14 two
hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty milking camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty
female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16 He delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on
before me, and put a space between droves.” 17He commanded the one in front, saying, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, saying, ‘To whom
do you belong, and where are you going, and to whom do these animals in front of you belong?’ 18 then you shall say, ‘These belong to your servant
Jacob; it is a present sent to my lord Esau. And behold, he also is behind us.'” 19 Then he commanded also the second and the third, and all those
who followed the droves, saying, “After this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him;
20 and you shall say, ‘Behold, your servant Jacob also is behind us.'” For he said, “I will appease him with the present that goes before me. Then afterward
I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.” 21 So the present passed on before him, while he himself spent that night in the camp.22 Now he arose
that same night and took his two wives and his two maids and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them
across the stream. And he sent across whatever he had.24 Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When he saw that
he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him. 26
Then he said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” But he said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 So he said to him, “What is your
name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but I.e. he who strives with God; or God strives Israel; for you have
striven with God and with men and have prevailed.”29 Then Jacob asked him and said, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask
my name?” And he blessed him there. 30 So Jacob named the place I.e. the face of God Peniel, for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life
has been preserved.”31 Now the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over Penuel, and he was limping on his thigh. 32 Therefore, to this day the sons
of Israel do not eat the sinew of the hip which is on the socket of the thigh, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip.
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