Genesis 31
31
CHAPTER 31
1After that, Jacob heard the words of the sons of Laban, that said, Jacob hath taken away all things that were our father’s, and of his chattel Jacob is made rich, and noble.
2Also Jacob perceived the face of Laban, that it was not against him as yesterday, and the third day ago,
3mostly for the Lord said to Jacob, Turn again into the land of thy fathers, and to thy generation, and I shall be with thee.
4Jacob sent, and called Rachel and Leah into the field, where he kept [the] flocks,
5and he said to them, I see the face of your father, that it is not against me as yesterday, and the third day ago; but God of my father was with me.
6And ye know that with all my strengths I have served your father;
7but and your father hath deceived me, and changed my meed ten times; and nevertheless God suffered not him to annoy me.
8If he said any time, Diversely-coloured sheep shall be thy meed, all the sheep brought forth diversely-coloured lambs; forsooth when he said, on the contrary, Thou shalt take all the white for thy meed, all the flocks brought forth white beasts;
9and God took away the substance of your father, and gave it to me.
10For after that the time of con-ceiving of sheep came, I raised [up] mine eyes, and saw in sleep males diverse, and spotty, and of diverse colours, going up on females.
11And the angel of the Lord said to me in sleep, Jacob! and I answered, I am ready.
12Which said, Raise [up] thine eyes, and see all [the] males that be diverse, [and] besprinkled, and spotty, going [up] on [the] females; for I have seen all things which Laban hath done to thee;
13I am God of Bethel, where thou anointedest a stone, and madest a vow to me. Now therefore rise thou, and go out of this land, and turn again into the land of thy birth.
14And Rachel and Leah answered, Whether we have anything residue, or left, in the chattels, and heritage of our father?
15Whether he areckoned not, or held, us as aliens, and sold us, and ate our price?
16But God took away the riches of our father, and gave those [or them] to us, and to our sons; wherefore do thou all things which God hath commanded to thee.
17Forsooth Jacob rose, and put his free children and wives on camels, and went forth;
18and he took all his cattle, flocks, and whatever thing he had gotten in Mesopotamia, and went to Isaac, his father, into the land of Canaan.
19In that time Laban went to shear sheep, and Rachel stole the idols of her father.
20And Jacob would not acknowledge to the father of his wives, that he would flee;
21and when he had gone, as well he as all things that were of his right, and when he had passed [over] the water, and he went against the hill of Gilead,
22it was told to Laban, in the third day, that Jacob fled.
23And Laban took his brethren [with him], and pursued him seven days, and [over] took him in the hill of Gilead.
24And Laban saw in sleep the Lord saying to him, Beware that thou speak not anything sharply against Jacob.
25And then Jacob had stretched forth the tabernacle in the hill; and when Laban had pursued Jacob with his brethren, Laban set a tent in the same hill of Gilead;
26and he said to Jacob, Why hast thou done so, that the while I knew not, thou wouldest drive away my daughters as captives, either taken prisoners, by sword?
27Why wouldest thou flee the while I knew not, neither wouldest show to me, that I should pursue [or follow] thee with joy, and songs, and tympans, and harps?
28Thou sufferedest not that I should kiss my sons and daughters; thou hast wrought follily.
29And now soothly mine hand may yield evil to thee, but the God of thy father said to me yesterday, Beware that thou speak not any hard thing with Jacob.
30Suppose, if thou covetedest to go to thy kinsmen, and the house of thy father was in desire to thee, why hast thou stolen my gods?
31Jacob answered, That I went forth while thou knewest not, I dreaded lest thou wouldest take away thy daughters from me violently;
32soothly that thou reprovest me of theft, at whomever thou findest thy gods, be he slain before our brethren; seek thou, whatever thing of thine thou findest at me, and take it away. Jacob said these things, and knew not that Rachel had stolen the idols.
33And so Laban entered into the tabernacles of Jacob, and of Leah, and of ever either menial, and he found not; and when Laban had entered into the tent of Rachel,
34she hasted, and hid the idols under the strewings of the camel, and she sat above.
35And she said to Laban, seeking throughout all the tent, and finding nothing, My lord, be not wroth that I may not rise before thee, for it befelled now to me by the custom of women; so the busyness of the seeker was scorned.
36And Jacob swelled, and said with strife, For what cause of me, and for what sin of me, hast thou come so fiercely after me,
37and hast sought through all the appurtenance of mine house? What hast thou found of all the chattel of thine household? Put thou here before my brethren and thy brethren, and deem they betwixt me and thee.
38Was I not with thee therefore twenty years? Thy sheep and goats were not barren, I ate not the rams of thy flock,
39neither I showed to thee anything taken of a beast; I yielded all [the] harm; whatever thing perished by theft, thou askedest of me;
40I was anguished in day and night with heat and frost, and sleep fled from mine eyes;
41so I served thee by twenty years in thine house, fourteen years for thy daughters, and six years for thy flocks; and thou changedest my meed ten times.
42But if [the] God of my father Abraham, and the dread of Isaac had not helped me, peradventure now thou haddest left me naked; the Lord hath beheld my tormenting and the travail of mine hands, and reproved thee yesterday.
43Laban answered to Jacob, The daughters, and the sons, and the flocks, and all things which thou seest, be mine; what may I do to my sons, and to the sons of my sons?
44Therefore come thou, and make we bond of peace, that it be a witnessing betwixt me and thee.
45And so Jacob took a stone, and raised it into a title, either a sign,
46and said to his brethren, Bring ye stones; which gathered, and made an heap, and ate on it.
47And Laban called it The heap of witness, and Jacob called it The heap of witnessing; ever either called it by the property of his language.
48And Laban said, This heap shall be witness betwixt me and thee today, and therefore the name thereof was called Galeed, that is, The heap of witness.
49And Laban added, The Lord behold, and deem betwixt us, when we shall go away from you;
50if thou shalt torment my daughters, and if thou shalt bring in other wives on them, none is witness of our word, except God, which is present, and beholdeth.
51And again Laban said to Jacob, Lo! this heap, and the stone, or the pillar, which I have raised betwixt me and thee,
52shall be witnesses; soothly this heap, and the stone be into witnessing, forsooth if I shall pass it, and go to thee, either thou shalt pass it, and think to do evil to me.
53God of Abraham, and God of Nahor, [the] God of the father of them, deem betwixt us. Therefore Jacob swore by the dread of his father Isaac;
54and when slain sacrifices were offered in the hill, Jacob called his brethren to eat bread, and when they had eaten, they dwelled there.
55Forsooth Laban rose by night, and kissed his sons, and daughters, and blessed them, and turned again into his place.
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Genesis 31: WBMS
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Wycliffe’s Bible with Modern Spelling ©2017
Wycliffe’s Apocrypha ©2013, 2015
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Wycliffe’s New Testament ©2001, 2011
Wycliffe’s Old Testament ©2001, 2010
Genesis 31
31
Jacob Leaves Secretly for Canaan
1Now #31:1 Lit heJacob heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s, and from what belonged to our father he has made all this #31:1 Lit glorywealth.” 2And Jacob saw the #31:2 Lit faceattitude of Laban, and behold, it was not friendly toward him as it had been before. 3Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.” 4So Jacob sent word and called Rachel and Leah to his flock in the field, 5and said to them, “I see your father’s #31:5 Lit faceattitude, that it is not friendly toward me as it was before, but the God of my father has been with me. 6You know that I have served your father with all my strength. 7Yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times; however, God did not allow him to do me harm. 8If he said this: ‘The speckled shall be your wages,’ then all the flock delivered speckled; and if he said this: ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock delivered striped. 9So God has taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me. 10And it came about at the time when the flock was breeding that I raised my eyes and saw in a dream—and behold—the male goats that were #31:10 Lit leaping upon the flockmating were striped, speckled, or mottled. 11Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob’; and I said, ‘Here I am.’ 12He said, ‘Now raise your eyes and see that all the male goats that are #31:12 Lit leaping upon the flockmating are striped, speckled, or mottled; for I have seen everything that Laban has been doing to you. 13I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a memorial stone, where you made a vow to Me; now arise, #31:13 Lit Go out fromleave this land, and return to the land of your birth.’ ” 14Rachel and Leah said to him, “Do we still have any share or inheritance in our father’s house? 15Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and has also #31:15 I.e., enjoyed the benefit ofentirely consumed our #31:15 Lit moneypurchase price. 16Surely all the wealth which God has taken away from our father belongs to us and our children; now then, do whatever God has told you.”
17Then Jacob stood up and put his children and his wives on camels; 18and he drove away all his livestock and all his property which he had acquired, the livestock he possessed which he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac. 19Laban had gone to shear his flock, and Rachel stole the #31:19 Heb teraphimhousehold idols that were her father’s. 20And Jacob #31:20 Lit stole the heart ofdeceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing. 21So he fled with all that he had; and he got up and crossed the Euphrates River, and set #31:21 Lit his faceout for the hill country of Gilead.
Laban Pursues Jacob
22When Laban was informed on the third day that Jacob had fled, 23he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him a distance of seven days’ journey, and he overtook him in the hill country of Gilead. 24However, God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream of the night and said to him, “#31:24 Lit Take heed to yourselfBe careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.”
25And 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. 26Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done #31:26 Lit and you have stolen my heartby deceiving me and carrying away my daughters like captives of the sword? 27Why did you flee secretly and #31:27 Lit steal medeceive me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with joy and with songs, with tambourine and with lyre; 28and did not allow me to kiss my #31:28 Lit sonsgrandchildren and my daughters? Now you have done foolishly. 29It is in #31:29 Lit the power of my handmy power to do you harm, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘#31:29 Lit Take heed to yourselfBe 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?” 31Then Jacob replied to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force. 32The one with whom you find your gods shall not live; in the presence of our relatives #31:32 Lit recognizepoint out what is yours #31:32 Lit with meamong my belongings and take it for yourself.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
33So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, and into Leah’s tent, and into the tent of the two slave women, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent. 34Now Rachel had taken the #31:34 Heb teraphimhousehold idols and put them in the camel’s saddlebag, and she sat on them. So Laban searched through all the tent, but did not find them. 35And she said to her father, “May my lord not be angry that I cannot stand in your presence, because the #31:35 I.e., menstruationway of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the #31:35 Heb teraphimhousehold idols.
36Then Jacob became angry and argued with Laban; and Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me? 37Though you have searched through all my property, what have you found of all your household property? Set it here in front of my relatives and your relatives, so that they may decide between the two of us. 38For 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. 39I did not even bring to you that which was torn by wild animals; I took the loss myself. You demanded it of my hand whether stolen by day or stolen by night. 40This is how I was: by day the #31:40 Or droughtheat consumed me and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. 41For 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. 42If 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 labor of my hands, so He rendered judgment last night.”
The Covenant of Mizpah
43Then Laban replied to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the #31:43 Lit sonschildren are my #31:43 Lit sonsgrandchildren, the flocks are my flocks, and everything that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to these daughters of mine or to their children to whom they have given birth? 44So now come, let’s make a covenant, #31:44 Lit I and youyou and I, and it shall be a witness between #31:44 Lit me and youyou and me.” 45Then Jacob took a stone and set it up as a memorial stone. 46Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. 47Now Laban called it #31:47 I.e., the heap of witness, in AramJegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it #31:47 I.e., the heap of witness, in HebGaleed. 48Laban said, “This heap is a witness between #31:48 Lit me and youyou and me this day.” Therefore it was named Galeed, 49and #31:49 Lit the Mizpah; i.e., the watchtowerMizpah, for he said, “May the Lord keep watch between #31:49 Lit me and youyou and me when we are #31:49 Lit hiddenabsent one from the other. 50If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, God is witness between #31:50 Lit me and youyou and me.” 51Laban also said to Jacob, “Behold this heap and behold the memorial stone which I have set between #31:51 Lit me and youyou and me. 52This heap is a witness, and the memorial stone 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 memorial stone to me, for harm. 53The 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. 54Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and called his relatives to #31:54 Lit eat breadthe meal; and they ate #31:54 Lit breadthe meal and spent the night on the mountain. 55#31:55 Ch 32:1 in HebThen early in the morning Laban got up, and kissed his #31:55 Lit sonsgrandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place.
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