Genesis 31

DOUAI-RHEIMS	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
1 But after that he heard the words of the sons of Laban, saying: Jacob hath taken away all that was our father's, and being enriched by his substance is become great:	1 Jacob learned that Laban's sons were saying, "Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father, and he has accumulated all this wealth of his by using our father's property."
2 And perceiving also that Laban's countenance was not towards him as yesterday and the other day,	2 Jacob perceived, too, that Laban's attitude toward him was not what it had previously been.
3 Especially the Lord saying to him: Return into the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred, and I will be with thee.	3 Then the LORD said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your fathers, where you were born, and I will be with you."
4 He sent, and called Rachel and Lia into the field, where he fed the flocks,	4 So Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah to meet him where he was in the field with his flock.
5 And said to them: I see your father's countenance is not towards me as yesterday and the other day: but the God of my father hath been with me.	5 There he said to them: "I have noticed that your father's attitude toward me is not as it was in the past; but the God of my father has been with me.
6 And you know that I have served your father to the utmost of my power.	6 You well know what effort I put into serving your father;
7 Yea, your father also hath overreached me, and hath changes my wages ten times: and yet God hath not suffered him to hurt me.	7 yet your father cheated me and changed my wages time after time. God, however, did not let him do me any harm.
8 If at any time he said: The speckled shall be thy wages: all the sheep brought forth speckled: but when he said on the contrary: Thou shalt take all the white ones for thy wages: all the flocks brought forth white ones.	8 Whenever your father said, 'The speckled animals shall be your wages,' the entire flock would bear speckled young; whenever he said, 'The streaked animals shall be your wages,' the entire flock would bear streaked young.
9 And God hath taken your father's substance, and given it to me.	9 Thus God reclaimed your father's livestock and gave it to me.
10 For after that time came of the ewes conceiving, I lifted up my eyes, and saw in my sleep that the males which leaped upon the females were of diverse colors, and spotted, and speckled.	10 Once, in the breeding season, I had a dream in which I saw mating he-goats that were streaked, speckled and mottled.
11 And the angel of God said to me in my sleep: Jacob? And I answered: Here I am.	11 In the dream God's messenger called to me, 'Jacob!' 'Here!' I replied.
12 And he said: Lift up thy eyes, and see that all the males leaping upon the females, are of divers colors, spotted, and speckled. For I have seen all that Laban hath done to thee.	12 Then he said: 'Note well. All the he-goats in the flock, as they mate, are streaked, speckled and mottled, for I have seen all the things that Laban has been doing to you.
13 I am the God of Bethel, where thou didst anoint the stone, and make a vow to me. Now therefore arise, and go out of this land, and return into thy native country.	13 I am the God who appeared to you in Bethel, where you anointed a memorial stone and made a vow to me. Up, then! Leave this land and return to the land of your birth.'"
14 And Rachel and Lia answered: Have we anything left among the goods and inheritance of our father's house?	14 Rachel and Leah answered him: "Have we still an heir's portion in our father's house?
15 Hath he not counted us as strangers and sold us, and eaten up the price of us?	15 Are we not regarded by him as outsiders? He not only sold us; he has even used up the money that he got for us!
16 But God hath taken our father's riches, and delivered them to us, and to our children: wherefore do all that God hath commanded thee.	16 All the wealth that God reclaimed from our father really belongs to us and our children. Therefore, do just as God has told you."
17 Then Jacob rose up, and having set his children and wives upon camels, went his way.	17 Jacob proceeded to put his children and wives on camels,
18 And he took all his substance, and flocks, and whatsoever he had gotten in Mesopotamia, and went forward to Isaac his father to the land of Chanaan.	18 and he drove off with all his livestock and all the property he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.
19 At that time Laban was gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole away her father's idols.	19 Now Laban had gone away to shear his sheep, and Rachel had meanwhile appropriated her father's household idols.
20 And Jacob would not confess to his father in law that he was flying away.	20 Jacob had hoodwinked Laban the Aramean by not telling him of his intended flight.
21 And when he was gone, together with all that belonged to him, and having passed the river, was going on towards mount Galaad,	21 Thus he made his escape with all that he had. Once he was across the Euphrates, he headed for the highlands of Gilead.
22 It was told Laban on the third day that Jacob fled.	22 On the third day, word came to Laban that Jacob had fled.
23 And he took his brethren with him, and pursued after him seven days; and overtook him in the mount of Galaad.	23 Taking his kinsmen with him, he pursued him for seven days until he caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.
24 And he saw in a dream God saying to him: Take heed thou speak not any thing harshly against Jacob.	24 But that night God appeared to Laban the Aramean in a dream and warned him, "Take care not to threaten Jacob with any harm!"
25 Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain: and when he with his brethren had overtaken him, he pitched his tent in the same mount of Galaad.	25 When Laban overtook Jacob, Jacob's tents were pitched in the highlands; Laban also pitched his tents there, on Mount Gilead.
26 And he said to Jacob: Why hast thou done thus, to carry away, without my knowledge, my daughters, as captives taken with the sword.	26 "What do you mean," Laban demanded of Jacob, "by hoodwinking me and carrying off my daughters like war captives?
27 Why wouldst thou run away privately and not acquaint me, that I might have brought thee on the way with joy, and with songs, and with timbrels, and with harps?	27 Why did you dupe me by stealing away secretly? You should have told me, and I would have sent you off with merry singing to the sound of tambourines and harps.
28 Thou hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and daughters: thou hast done foolishly: and now, indeed,	28 You did not even allow me a parting kiss to my daughters and grandchildren! What you have now done is a senseless thing.
29 It is in my power to return thee evil: but the God of your father said to me yesterday: Take heed thou speak not any things harshly against Jacob.	29 I have it in my power to harm all of you; but last night the God of your father said to me, 'Take care not to threaten Jacob with any harm!'
30 Suppose thou didst desire to go to thy friends, and hadst a longing after thy father's house: why hast thou stolen away my gods?	30 Granted that you had to leave because you were desperately homesick for your father's house, why did you steal my gods?"
31 Jacob answered: That I departed unknown to thee, it was for fear lest thou wouldst take away thy daughters by force.	31 "I was frightened," Jacob replied to Laban, "at the thought that you might take your daughters away from me by force.
32 But whereas thou chargest me with theft: with whomsoever thou shalt find thy gods, let him be slain before our brethren. Search, and if thou find any of thy things with me, take them away. Now when he said this, he knew not that Rachel had stolen the idols.	32 But as for your gods, the one you find them with shall not remain alive! If, with my kinsmen looking on, you identify anything here as belonging to you, take it." Jacob, of course, had no idea that Rachel had stolen the idols.
33 So Laban went into the tent of Jacob, and of Lia, and of both the handmaids, and found them not. And when he was entered into Rachel's tent,	33 Laban then went in and searched Jacob's tent and Leah's tent, as well as the tents of the two maidservants; but he did not find the idols. Leaving Leah's tent, he went into Rachel's.
34 She in haste hid the idols under the camel's furniture, and sat upon them: and when he had searched all the tent, and found nothing,	34 Now Rachel had taken the idols, put them inside a camel cushion, and seated herself upon them. When Laban had rummaged through the rest of her tent without finding them,
35 She said: Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise up before thee, because it has now happened to me, according to the custom of women, So his careful search was in vain.	35 Rachel said to her father, "Let not my lord feel offended that I cannot rise in your presence; a woman's period is upon me." So, despite his search, he did not find his idols.
36 And jacob being angry, said in a chiding manner: For what fault of mine, and for what offense on my part hast thou so hotly pursued me,	36 Jacob, now enraged, upbraided Laban. "What crime or offense have I committed," he demanded, "that you should hound me so fiercely?
37 And searched all my household stuff? What hast thou found of all the substance of thy house? lay it here before my brethren, and thy brethren, and let them judge between me and thee.	37 Now that you have ransacked all my things, have you found a single object taken from your belongings? If so, produce it here before your kinsmen and mine, and let them decide between us two.
38 Have I therefore been with thee twenty years? thy ewes and goats were not barren, the rams of thy flocks I did not eat:	38 "In the twenty years that I was under you, no ewe or she-goat of yours ever miscarried, and I have never feasted on a ram of your flock.
39 Neither did I show thee that which the beast had torn, I made good all the damage: whatsoever was lost by theft, thou didst exact it of me:	39 I never brought you an animal torn by wild beasts; I made good the loss myself. You held me responsible for anything stolen by day or night.
40 Day and night was I parched with heat, and with frost, and sleep departed from my eyes.	40 How often the scorching heat ravaged me by day, and the frost by night, while sleep fled from my eyes!
41 And in this manner have I served thee in thy house twenty years, fourteen for thy daughters, and six for thy flocks: thou hast changed also my wages ten times.	41 Of the twenty years that I have now spent in your household, I slaved fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, while you changed my wages time after time.
42 Unless the God of my father Abraham, and the fear of Isaac had stood by me, peradventure now thou hadst sent me away naked: God beheld my affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesterday.	42 If my ancestral God, the God of Abraham and the Awesome One of Isaac, had not been on my side, you would now have sent me away empty-handed. But God saw my plight and the fruits of my toil, and last night he gave judgment."
43 Laban answered him: The daughters are mine and the children, and thy flocks, and all things that thou seest are mine: what can I do to my children, and grandchildren?	43 Laban replied to Jacob: "The women are mine, their children are mine, and the flocks are mine; everything you see belongs to me. But since these women are my daughters, I will now do something for them and for the children they have borne.
44 Come therefore, let us enter into a league: that it may be for a testimony between me and thee.	44 Come, then, we will make a pact, you and I; the LORD shall be a witness between us."
45 And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a title:	45 Then Jacob took a stone and set it up as a memorial stone.
46 And he said to his brethren: Bring hither stones. And they gathering stones together, made a heap, and they ate upon it.	46 Jacob said to his kinsmen, "Gather some stones." So they got some stones and made a mound; and they had a meal there at the mound.
47 And Laban called it The witness heap: and Jacob, The hillock of testimony: each of them according to the propriety of his language.	47 Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob named it Galeed.
48 And Laban said: This heap shall be a witness between me and thee this day, and therefore the name thereof was called Galaad, that is, The witness heap.	48 "This mound," said Laban, "shall be a witness from now on between you and me." That is why it was named Galeed--
49 The Lord behold and judge between us when we shall be gone one from the other.	49 and also Mizpah, for he said: "May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are out of each other's sight.
50 If thou afflict my daughters, and if thou bring in other wives over them: none is witness of our speech but God, who is present and beholdeth.	50 If you mistreat my daughters, or take other wives besides my daughters, remember that even though no one else is about, God will be witness between you and me."
51 And he said again to Jacob: Behold, this heap, and the stone which I have set up between me and thee,	51 Laban said further to Jacob: "Here is this mound, and here is the memorial stone that I have set up between you and me.
52 Shall be a witness: this heap, I say, and the stone, be they for a testimony, if either I shall pass beyond it going towards thee, or thou shalt pass beyond it, thinking harm to me.	52 This mound shall be witness, and this memorial stone shall be witness, that, with hostile intent, neither may I pass beyond this mound into your territory, nor may you pass beyond it into mine.
53 The God of Abraham, and the God of Nachor, the God of their father, judge between us. And jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac.	53 May the God of Abraham and the god of Nahor (their ancestral deities) maintain justice between us!" Jacob took the oath by the Awesome One of Isaac.
54 And after he had offered sacrifices in the mountain, he called his brethren to eat bread. And when they had eaten, they lodged there:	54 He then offered a sacrifice on the mountain and invited his kinsmen to share in the meal. When they had eaten, they passed the night on the mountain.
55 But laban arose in the night, and kissed his sons, and daughters, and blessed them: and returned to his place.