Genesis 31
Genesis 31:1 Jacob had heard the words 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 abundance.”
Genesis 31:2 Jacob also saw Laban’s face. He noticed nothing with him was like it was before.
Genesis 31:3 Then Yahveh told Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”
Genesis 31:4 So Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah, calling them into the field where his flock was
Genesis 31:5 and saying to them, “I see your father’s face, that nothing with me is like before. But the God of my father has been with me.
Genesis 31:6 You know that I have worked for your father with all my strength,
Genesis 31:7 but your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. Yet God did not allow him to harm me.
Genesis 31:8 If he said, ‘The spotted will be your wages,’ then all the flock gave birth to spotted; and if he said, ‘The striped will be your wages,’ then all the flock gave birth to striped.
Genesis 31:9 This is how God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me.
Genesis 31:10 In the breeding season of the flock I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream, noticing that the goats that had mated with the flock were striped, spotted, and mottled.
Genesis 31:11 And an agent from God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Notice me!’
Genesis 31:12 And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that have mated with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, because I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.
Genesis 31:13 I am the God of Bethel, where you have anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now get up, go out from this land and return to the land of your relatives.'”
Genesis 31:14 Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, “Is there yet any portion or inheritance to us in our father’s household?
Genesis 31:15 Are we not thought by him as foreigners? Because he has sold us, and he has also devoured our silver.
Genesis 31:16 All the wealth that God has plucked up from our father belongs to us and to our children. So, whatever God has said to you, do.”
Genesis 31:17 So Jacob got up and put his sons and his wives on camels.
Genesis 31:18 He sent all his livestock, all his property that he had gained, the livestock in his possession that he had acquired in Paddan-Aram, to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac.
Genesis 31:19 Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father’s teraphs.
Genesis 31:20 And Jacob tricked Laban the Aramean, by not telling him that he intended to go away.
Genesis 31:21 He fled with all that he had and crossed the Euphrates and set out in the direction of the hill country of Gilead.
Genesis 31:22 When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled,
Genesis 31:23 he took his relatives with him and chased him for seven days and followed close after him into the hill country of Gilead.
Genesis 31:24 But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Be careful or else you will say something to Jacob, either good or bad.”
Genesis 31:25 Then Laban overtook Jacob. And Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his relatives also pitched tents in the hill country of Gilead.
Genesis 31:26 And Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have stolen away my heart and carried away my daughters like captives with a sword?
Genesis 31:27 Why did you flee secretly and trick me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with laughter and songs, with tambourine and lyre?
Genesis 31:28 And why did you not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters goodbye? Now you have acted foolishly.
Genesis 31:29 It is in my power to do damage to you. But the God of your father spoke to me last night, and this is what he said, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’
Genesis 31:30 And now you have escaped because you longed greatly for your father’s house, but why did you steal my gods?”
Genesis 31:31 Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, since I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force.
Genesis 31:32 Anyone with whom you find your gods will not stay alive. In the presence of our relatives point out what I have that is yours and take it.” But Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
Genesis 31:33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two female slaves, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s.
Genesis 31:34 But Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel’s saddle and sat on them. Laban felt all about the tent but did not find them.
Genesis 31:35 And she said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, because the way of women is upon me.” So, he searched but did not find the teraphs.
Genesis 31:36 So Jacob became angry and berated Laban. Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have angrily chased me?
Genesis 31:37 Because you have felt through all my goods; what have you found of all your household items? Set it here before my brothers and your brothers, so that they may decide between us two.
Genesis 31:38 These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and the rams of your flocks I have not eaten.
Genesis 31:39 I did not bring to you what was torn by wild living things. I took the loss of it myself. From my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.
Genesis 31:40 I was like this: the heat consumed me by day, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes.
Genesis 31:41 These twenty years I have been with your household. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.
Genesis 31:42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, you would have already sent me away empty-handed. God saw my trouble and the labor of my hands and he rebuked you last night.”
Genesis 31:43 Then 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 for their children whom they have borne?
Genesis 31:44 Come now, let us swear to a covenant, between me and you. And let it be a witness between me and you.”
Genesis 31:45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a monument.
Genesis 31:46 And Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a pile, and they ate there by the pile.
Genesis 31:47 Laban named it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.
Genesis 31:48 Laban said, “This pile is a witness between me and you today.” That is why he named it Galeed,
Genesis 31:49 and Mizpah, because he said, “Yahveh is watching between me and you, because we are hidden, each man from his companion.
Genesis 31:50 If you oppress my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.”
Genesis 31:51 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Notice this pile and the monument, which I have set between me and you.
Genesis 31:52 This pile is a witness, and the monument is a witness, that I will not pass over this pile to you, and you will not pass over this pile and this monument to me, to do damage.
Genesis 31:53 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,
Genesis 31:54 and Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country and called his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread and spent the night in the hill country.
Genesis 31:55 Early in the morning Laban got up and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban left and returned home.
Genesis 31 quotes:
“We learn in Genesis 31:22 that Laban was told of Jacob’s escape on the third day after the patriarch and his entourage had set out from Haran. Although Laban must have been angry, God divinely restrained him from excessive retaliation by appearing to him in a dream (31:24).”
Flint, V. Paul. Strangers & Pilgrims: A Study of Genesis. 1st ed., Loizeaux Bros, 1988. p. 187.
“Laban’s heart was deceitful, not Jacob’s (Genesis 31:7). God is the One who took away the wealth of Laban (Genesis 31:8-9). Jacob’s methodology with breeding is God-directed, not some fanciful, wishful experiment of an ignorant farmer. God had given Jacob prophetic insight.”
Morris, Henry M. The Book of Beginnings: A Practical Guide to Understand and Teach Genesis. Institute for Creation Research, 2012. p. 176.
“With the opening of chapter 31 the atmosphere in Laban’s household had changed and there was a growing hostility towards Jacob because of his increased prosperity. “Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, ‘Jacob has taken everything our father owned and has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father’. And Jacob noticed that Laban’s attitude towards him was not what it had been” (Genesis 31:1—2). The signs were all there that the time had come for him to return to Canaan and this was confirmed for him by a direct word from the Lord. “Then the Lord said to Jacob, ‘Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you’” (Genesis 31:3). In the verses following we read that Jacob discusses the matter with Rachel and Leah and they agreed this was the right thing to do.”
Williams, Peter. From Eden to Egypt: Exploring the Genesis Themes. DayOne, 2001. p. 170.
Genesis 31 links:
a treaty at Mizpah
ACST 43- The Helpers
another camp
Jacob- Mizpah
making life decisions
sneaking away from your problems
Spring up, Oh Well
taking the moral high ground
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Tuesday, January 19, 2021
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