Genesis 31, Leaving Laban

Jacob has lived with Laban for twenty years.  It is time to leave.

Genesis 31:1-9, Time to leave

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 toward him was not what it had been.

Then the LORD said to Jacob, "Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you." 

So Jacob sent word to Rachel and Leah to come out to the fields where his flocks were. He said to them, "I see that your father's attitude toward me is not what it was before, but the God of my father has been with me. You know that I've worked for your father with all my strength, yet your father has cheated me by changing my wages ten times. However, God has not allowed him to harm me.

If he said, `The speckled ones will be your wages,' then all the flocks gave birth to speckled young; and if he said, `The streaked ones will be your wages,' then all the flocks bore streaked young. So God has taken away your father's livestock and has given them to me.

Jacob will return to the land of his father and brother.  

Jacob sees the speckled or streaked newborns as evidence of God's support for him.  He explains how this happened...

Genesis 31:10-13, Blessed by God
"In breeding season I once had a dream in which I looked up and saw that the male goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled or spotted. The angel of God said to me in the dream, `Jacob.' I answered, `Here I am.'  And he said, `Look up and see that all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled or spotted, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you.

I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to me. Now leave this land at once and go back to your native land.'"

According to Jacob, God has deliberately intervened in his prosperity.

Genesis 31:14-16,  Jacob's wives express their support

Then Rachel and Leah replied, "Do we still have any share in the inheritance of our father's estate? Does he not regard us as foreigners? Not only has he sold us, but he has used up what was paid for us. Surely all the wealth that God took away from our father belongs to us and our children. So do whatever God has told you."

Jacob's wives agree with Jacob, against their father.

Genesis 31:17-21, Jacob runs
Then Jacob put his children and his wives on camels, and he drove all his livestock ahead of him, along with all the goods he had accumulated in Paddan Aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.

When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father's household gods. Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him he was running away. So he fled with all he had, and crossing the River, he headed for the hill country of Gilead.

Despite God's blessing, Jacob feels the need to continue his deceptions, and to run from Laban.  Meanwhile, Laban's daughter Rachel, daughter of a deceiver and married to another one, steals her father's "household gods." (These are presumably small figurines representing gods that Laban worships.)

NIV footnotes: Paddan Aram is Northwest Mesopotamia.  The river mentioned here is the Euphrates River

Genesis 31:22-24, Laban chases Jacob 

On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled. Taking his relatives with him, he pursued Jacob for seven days and caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. Then God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, "Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad."

Laban pursues Jacob and eventually catches him.  But God gives instructions to Laban in a dream.

Genesis 31:25-29, Laban confronts Jacob

Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead when Laban overtook him, and Laban and his relatives camped there too.

Then Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done? You've deceived me, and you've carried off my daughters like captives in war. Why did you run off secretly and deceive me? Why didn't you tell me, so I could send you away with joy and singing to the music of tambourines and harps? You didn't even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters good-by. You have done a foolish thing.

"I have the power to harm you; but last night the God of your father said to me, `Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.' "

Laban's complaints have some merit.  But this is a deceiver talking to a deceiver.  One doubts if Laban would have really held a going-away party for Jacob.

Genesis 31:30-35, Laban and Rachel's gods

Now you have gone off because you longed to return to your father's house. But why did you steal my gods?"

Jacob answered Laban, "I was afraid, because I thought you would take your daughters away from me by force. But if you find anyone who has your gods, he shall not live. In the presence of our relatives, see for yourself whether there is anything of yours here with me; and if so, take it." 

Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the gods. So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the tent of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. After he came out of Leah's tent, he entered Rachel's tent. Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them inside her camel's saddle and was sitting on them. Laban searched through everything in the tent but found nothing.

Rachel said to her father, "Don't be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in your presence; I'm having my period." So he searched but could not find the household gods.

Jacob has made rash claims about his family's integrity. Rachel defends her unwillingness to move by claiming that she is in her menstrual period and so cannot move. Alter points out that Israelites reading this story would have appreciated the indignity (to the gods) represented by Rachel perched on top of them.

The existence of these gods (small idols?) is a mystery. Both Laban and Jacob make claims to having a personal god in Yahweh, the God of Abraham, but the polytheistic culture is all around them.

Genesis 31: 36-42, Jacob's response

Jacob was angry and took Laban to task. "What is my crime?" he asked Laban. "What sin have I committed that you hunt me down? Now that you have searched through all my goods, what have you found that belongs to your household? Put it here in front of your relatives and mine, and let them judge between the two of us.

"I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks. I did not bring you animals torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen by day or night. This was my situation: The heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes.

It was like this for the twenty years I was in your household. I worked for you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times.  If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you."

Jacob confronts Laban and Laban's deception.  Laban is in a very weak place, for Jacob is also correct here and God has given Laban a warning.  And -- this man, Jacob, is married to Laban's daughters and is father of his grandchildren!

Genesis 31: 43-47, Reconciled

Laban answered Jacob, "The women are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks. All you see is mine. Yet what can I do today about these daughters of mine, or about the children they have borne? Come now, let's make a covenant, you and I, and let it serve as a witness between us."

So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. He said to his relatives, "Gather some stones." So they took stones and piled them in a heap, and they ate there by the heap. Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed.

The two men are reconciled.  As was the culture of the day, one created a heap of stones as a memorial to mark the spot.  (Once again, Jacob associates actions with memorable stones.)

According to the NIV, the Aramaic "Jegar Sahadutha" means "witness heap", as does the Hebrew "Galeed."

Genesis 31: 48-55, Don't mistreat my daughters!
Laban said, "This heap is a witness between you and me today." That is why it was called Galeed. It was also called Mizpah, because he said, "May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other. If you mistreat my daughters or if you take any wives besides my daughters, even though no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me."

Laban also said to Jacob, "Here is this heap, and here is this pillar I have set up between you and me. This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not go past this heap to your side to harm you and that you will not go past this heap and pillar to my side to harm me. May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us." 

So Jacob took an oath in the name of the Fear of his father Isaac. He offered a sacrifice there in the hill country and invited his relatives to a meal. After they had eaten, they spent the night there. Early the next morning Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then he left and returned home.

The two men depart after making a treaty and separating their tribes by a boundary marker.  Among the instructions from Laban: "Don't mistreat my daughters" and "Don't marry anyone else"!

Laban calls on the God of the brothers Abraham and Nahor as his witness.  Laban is a grandson of Nahor; Jacob is a grandson of Abraham.

According to the NIV footnotes, "Mizpah" means "watchtower".