1 Jacob heard what Laban's sons were saying: "Jacob has taken everything our father owned, and out of what belonged to our father he has built up all this wealth."
2 Jacob also noticed that Laban's face was not toward him as it had been before.
3 Then the LORD said to Jacob, "Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you."
4 So Jacob sent word and had Rachel and Leah come out to the field where his flock was.
5 He said to them, "I can see from your father's face that he is not toward me as he was before. But the God of my father has been with me.
6 You yourselves know that I have worked for your father with all my strength,
7 and yet your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times. But God did not let him do me harm.
8 Whenever he said, 'The speckled ones will be your wages,' the whole flock gave birth to speckled young; and whenever he said, 'The streaked ones will be your wages,' the whole flock gave birth to streaked young.
9 So God has taken your father's livestock away and given it to me.
10 Once, at the season when the flock was mating, I looked up and saw in a dream that the male goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled, and mottled.
11 The angel of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacob!' and I said, 'Here I am.'
12 He said, 'Look up and see: all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled, and mottled, because I have seen everything Laban has been doing to you.
13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now get up, leave this land, and go back to the land of your birth.'"
14 Rachel and Leah answered him, "Do we still have any share or inheritance in our father's house?
15 Does he not treat us as foreigners? He sold us, and on top of that he has eaten up our silver as well.
16 All the wealth that God has taken away from our father is ours and our children's anyway. So now, do whatever God has told you."
17 Jacob got up and put his children and his wives on the camels,
18 and he drove off all his livestock and all the goods he had gathered, the livestock he had acquired and owned in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.
19 Laban had gone off to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole the household gods that belonged to her father.
20 And Jacob stole away unknown to Laban the Aramean, for he did not tell him he was running away.
21 He fled with all he had. He set out, crossed the River, and headed for the hill country of Gilead.
22 On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled.
23 Taking his relatives with him, he chased after him for seven days and caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.
24 But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream that night and said to him, "Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad."
25 Laban caught up with Jacob. Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban and his relatives pitched theirs in the hill country of Gilead.
26 Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done? You have deceived me and carried off my daughters like prisoners taken by the sword.
27 Why did you run away in secret and steal away from me without telling me? I would have sent you off with rejoicing and songs, with tambourine and lyre.
28 You did not even let me kiss my sons and my daughters goodbye. You have acted foolishly.
29 I have it in my power to do you harm, but last night the God of your father said to me, 'Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.'
30 Now you have gone off because you were longing so much for your father's house. But why did you steal my gods?"
31 Jacob answered Laban, "I was afraid, for I thought you might take your daughters away from me by force.
32 As for your gods, whoever is found with them will not live. Here in front of our relatives, see for yourself whether anything of yours is with me, and take it." Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
33 Laban went into Jacob's tent, into Leah's tent, and into the tent of the two servant women, but he did not find them. Then he came out of Leah's tent and went into Rachel's tent.
34 Rachel had taken the household gods, put them inside the camel's saddle, and was sitting on them. Laban searched the whole tent with his hands but did not find them.
35 She said to her father, "Do not be angry, my lord, that I cannot get up in your presence, for the manner of women is upon me." So he searched but did not find the household gods.
36 Then Jacob grew angry and quarreled with Laban. "What is my crime?" Jacob said to Laban. "What is my sin, that you have come chasing after me so hotly?
37 You have gone through all my belongings with your hands. What have you found that belongs to your household? Put it here in front of my relatives and yours, and let them judge between the two of us.
38 For twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats never lost their young, and I never ate the rams of your flock.
39 I did not bring you any animal torn by wild beasts; I made up the loss myself. You demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen, by day or by night.
40 This is how it was with me: the heat wore me down by day and the cold by night, and sleep fled from my eyes.
41 These twenty years I have spent in your household. I worked 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 with me, you would certainly have sent me away empty-handed by now. But God saw my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he gave his verdict."
43 Laban answered Jacob, "These daughters are my daughters, these children are my children, these flocks are my flocks; everything you see is mine. Yet what can I do today about these daughters of mine, or about the children they have borne?
44 So come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it serve as a witness between us."
45 Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar.
46 Then Jacob told his relatives, "Collect some stones." They took stones and piled them in a heap, and they ate there beside the heap.
47 Laban named it Jegar-sahadutha, and Jacob named it Galeed.
48 Laban said, "This heap is a witness between you and me today." That is why it was named Galeed,
49 and also Mizpah, because he said, "May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are out of each other's sight.
50 If you ill-treat my daughters, or if you take other wives besides my daughters, even though no one else is with us, remember that God is witness between you and me."
51 Laban went on to say to Jacob, "Here is this heap, and here is the pillar I have set up between you and me.
52 This heap is a witness and the pillar is a witness that I will not go past this heap to you, and you will not go past this heap and this pillar to me, to do harm.
53 May 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 Jacob offered a sacrifice there on the mountain and invited his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread, and they spent the night on the mountain.
55 Early the next morning Laban got up, kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Then Laban set off and went back home.