Genesis

Why did you flee secretly, and deceive me, and didn’t tell me, that I might have sent you away with mirth and with songs, with tambourine and with harp;

and didn’t allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now have you done foolishly.

It is in the power of my hand to hurt you, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, Take heed to yourself that you don’t speak to Jacob either good or bad.

Now, you want to be gone, because you sore longed after your father’s house, but why have you stolen my gods?

Jacob answered Laban, Because I was afraid, for I said, Lest you should take your daughters from me by force.

With whoever you find your gods, he shall not live. Before our relatives, discern what is yours with me, and take it. For Jacob didn’t know that Rachel had stolen them.

Laban went into Jacob’s tent, into Leah’s tent, and into the tent of the two maid-servants; but he didn’t find them. He went out of Leah’s tent, and entered into Rachel’s tent.

Now Rachel had taken the teraphim, put them in the camel’s saddle, and sat on them. Laban felt about all the tent, but didn’t find them.

She said to her father, Don’t let my lord be angry that I can’t rise up before you; for the manner of women is on me. He searched, but didn’t find the teraphim.

Jacob was angry, and argued with Laban. Jacob answered Laban, What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued after me?

Now that you have felt around in all my stuff, what have you found of all your household stuff? Set it here before my relatives and your relatives, that they may judge between us two.

These twenty years have I been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not cast their young, and I haven’t eaten the rams of your flocks.

That which was torn of animals, I didn’t bring to you. I bore the loss of it. Of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.

Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my eyes.

These twenty years have I been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.

Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night.

Laban answered Jacob, The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine: and what can I do this day to these my daughters, or to their children whom they have borne?

Now come, let us make a covenant, you and I; and let it be for a witness between me and you.

Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar.

Jacob said to his relatives, Gather stones. They took stones, and made a heap. They ate there by the heap.

Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.

Laban said, This heap is witness between me and you this day. Therefore it was named Galeed

and Mizpah, for he said, Yahweh watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another.

If you will afflict my daughters, and if you will take wives besides my daughters, no man is with us; behold, God is witness between me and you.

Laban said to Jacob, See this heap, and see the pillar, which I have set between me and you.

May this heap be a witness, and the pillar be a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and that you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, for harm.

The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor , the God of their father, judge between us. Then Jacob swore by the fear of his father, Isaac.

Jacob offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread, and stayed all night in the mountain.

Early in the morning, Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Laban departed and returned to his place.

Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.

When he saw them, Jacob said, This is God’s host. He called the name of that place Mahanaim.

Jacob sent messengers in front of him to Esau, his brother, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom.

He commanded them, saying, This is what you shall tell my lord, Esau: This is what your servant, Jacob, says. I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed until now.

I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, men-servants, and maid-servants. I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.

The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to your brother Esau. Not only that, but he comes to meet you, and four hundred men with him.

Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed: and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two companies;

and he said, If Esau comes to the one company, and strikes it, then the company which is left will escape.

Jacob said, God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Yahweh, who said to me, Return to your country, and to your relatives, and I will do you good.

I am not worthy of the least of all the lovingkindnesses, and of all the truth, which you have shown to your servant; for with just my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I have become two companies.

Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he come and strike me, and the mothers with the children.

You said, I will surely do you good, and make your seed as the sand of the sea, which can’t be numbered because there are so many.

He lodged there that night, and took from that which he had with him, a present for Esau, his brother:

two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,

thirty milk camels and their colts, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty she-donkeys and ten foals.

He delivered them into the hands of his servants, every herd by itself, and said to his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space between herd and herd.

He commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau, my brother, meets you, and asks you, saying, Whose are you? Where are you going? Whose are these before you?

Then you shall say, They are your servant, Jacob’s. It is a present sent to my lord, Esau. Behold, he also is behind us.

He commanded also the second, and the third, and all that followed the herds, saying, This is how you shall speak to Esau, when you find him.

You shall say, Not only that, but behold, your servant, Jacob, is behind us. For, he said, I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.

So the present passed over before him: and he himself lodged that night in the camp.

He rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two handmaids, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford of the Jabbok.

He took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over that which he had.

Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day.

When he saw that he didn’t prevail against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was strained, as he wrestled.

The man said, Let me go, for the day breaks. Jacob said, I won’t let you go, unless you bless me.

He said to him, What is your name? He said, Jacob.

He said, Your name will no longer be called ’Jacob,’ but, ’Israel,’ for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed.

Jacob asked him, Please tell me your name. He said, Why is it that you ask what my name is? He blessed him there.

Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for, he said, I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

The sun rose on him as he passed over Peniel, and he limped because of his thigh.

Therefore the children of Israel don’t eat the sinew of the hip, which is on the hollow of the thigh, to this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip.

Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau was coming, and with him four hundred men. He divided the children between Leah, Rachel, and to the two handmaids.

He put the handmaids and their children in front, Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph at the rear.

He himself passed over in front of them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck, kissed him, and they wept.

He lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, Who are these with you? He said, The children whom God has graciously given your servant.

Then the handmaids came near with their children, and they bowed themselves.

Leah also and her children came near, and bowed themselves. After them, Joseph came near with Rachel, and they bowed themselves.

Esau said, What do you mean by all this company which I met? Jacob said, To find favor in the sight of my lord.

Esau said, I have enough, my brother; let that which you have be yours.

Jacob said, Please, no, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present at my hand, because I have seen your face, as one sees the face of God, and you were pleased with me.

Please take the gift that I brought to you; because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough. He urged him, and he took it.

Esau said, Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before you.

Jacob said to him, My lord knows that the children are tender, and that the flocks and herds with me have their young, and if they overdrive them one day, all the flocks will die.

Please let my lord pass over before his servant: and I will lead on gently, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord to Seir.

Esau said, Let me now leave with you some of the folk who are with me. He said, Why? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.

So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir.

Jacob journeyed to Succoth, built himself a house, and made shelters for his cattle. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.

Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan , when he came from Paddan Aram; and encamped before the city.

He bought the parcel of ground, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for one hundred pieces of money.

He erected an altar there, and called it El Elohe Israel.

Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.

Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her. He took her, lay with her, and humbled her.

His soul joined to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young lady, and spoke kindly to the young lady.

Shechem spoke to his father, Hamor, saying, Get me this young lady as a wife.

Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah, his daughter; and his sons were with his cattle in the field. Jacob held his peace until they came.

Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to talk with him.

The sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it. The men were grieved, and they were very angry, because he had done folly in Israel in lying with Jacob’s daughter; which thing ought not to be done.

Hamor talked with them, saying, The soul of my son, Shechem, longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife.

Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves.

You shall dwell with us: and the land will be before you. Live and trade in it, and get possessions in it.

Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you will tell me I will give.

Ask me a great amount for a dowry, and I will give whatever you ask of me, but give me the young lady as a wife.

The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with deceit, and spoke, because he had defiled Dinah their sister,

and said to them, We can’t do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised; for that is a reproach to us.

Only on this condition will we consent to you. If you will be as we are, that every male of you be circumcised;

then will we give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people.

But if you will not listen to us, to be circumcised, then we will take our sister, and we will be gone.

Their words pleased Hamor, and Shechem, Hamor’s son.

The young man didn’t wait to do this thing, because he had delight in Jacob’s daughter, and he was honored above all the house of his father.