Genesis 31 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Jacob heard that Laban's sons were saying, "Jacob has taken everything our father owned. All this wealth of his came from what belonged to our father."

And Jacob noticed that Laban's attitude toward him had completely changed — it wasn't like before.

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

So Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah and had them come out to the field where his flocks were.

He said to them, "I can see that your father's attitude toward me has completely changed — it's not like it was before. But the Elohim of my father has been with me."

You both know that I've worked for your father with everything I had.

But your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times over. Yet Elohim hasn't let him actually harm me.

Whenever he said, "The speckled ones will be your wages," all the flocks would produce speckled offspring. And whenever he said, "The striped ones will be your wages," all the flocks would produce striped offspring.

Elohim has taken your father's livestock and given them to me.

During mating season, I had a dream and looked up — the male goats mounting the flock were striped, speckled, and spotted.

The angel of Elohim said to me in the dream, "Jacob!" And I said, "I'm here."

He said, "Look up and see — all the male goats mounting the flock are striped, speckled, and spotted, because I have seen everything Laban has been doing to you."

"I am the Elohim of Bethel, where you poured oil on a stone pillar and made a solemn promise to me. Now get up, leave this land, and go back to the land where you were born."

Rachel and Leah answered him, "Do we still have any share or inheritance in our father's household?"

"Doesn't he treat us like outsiders? He sold us and then used up every bit of the money paid for us."

"All the wealth that Elohim has taken from our father really belongs to us and our children. So do whatever Elohim has told you to do."

So Jacob got up and put his children and wives on camels.

He drove all his livestock ahead of him, along with everything he had accumulated — all the property he had gained in Paddan-aram — heading for his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.

While Laban had gone off to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father's household idols.

Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him he was leaving.

He fled with everything he had. He crossed the Euphrates River and headed toward the hill country of Gilead.

Three days later, Laban was told that Jacob had fled.

So he gathered his relatives and chased after Jacob for seven days until he caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.

But Elohim came to Laban the Aramean in a dream that night and told him, "Be very careful — don't say anything to Jacob, whether good or bad."

When Laban caught up with Jacob, Jacob had set up his tent in the hill country. Laban and his relatives camped there in the hill country of Gilead too.

Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done? You've deceived me and carried off my daughters like prisoners of war!"

"Why did you sneak away and deceive me? Why didn't you tell me? I would have sent you off with a celebration — with songs, tambourines, and lyres."

"You didn't even let me kiss my grandchildren and daughters goodbye. What you've done is foolish."

"I have the power to do you real harm, but last night the Elohim of your father said to me, 'Be very careful — don't say anything to Jacob, whether good or bad.'"

"Fine — you left because you desperately missed your father's home. But why did you steal my gods?"

Jacob answered Laban, "I was afraid. I thought you would take your daughters from me by force."

"But as for your gods — if you find them with anyone here, that person will not live. In front of our relatives, look through everything I have. If anything is yours, take it." Jacob didn't know that Rachel had stolen them.

So Laban went into Jacob's tent, then Leah's tent, then the tent of the two female servants, but he found nothing. Then he went into Rachel's tent.

Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them inside a camel saddle and was sitting on them. Laban searched the entire tent but found nothing.

She said to her father, "Don't be angry, my lord, that I can't stand up for you. I'm having my period." So he searched but didn't find the household idols.

Then Jacob got angry and confronted Laban. "What have I done wrong?" Jacob demanded. "What is my offense that you've hunted me down like this?"

"You've searched through all my things — what have you found that belongs to your household? Set it out here in front of my relatives and yours, and let them judge between the two of us."

"I've been with you for twenty years now. Your ewes and female goats never lost their young. I never ate the rams from your flock."

"I never brought you an animal torn apart by wild beasts — I absorbed that loss myself. You demanded payment from me for every animal stolen, whether taken during the day or at night."

"This is how it was for me: the heat consumed me during the day and the frost at night, and sleep fled from my eyes."

"That's how my twenty years in your household went. I worked fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times."

"If the Elohim of my father — the Elohim of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac — hadn't been on my side, you would have sent me away with nothing. But Elohim saw my hardship and the work of my hands, and he rendered his verdict last night."

Laban answered Jacob, "The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks. Everything you see is mine. But what can I do today about my own daughters or the children they've borne?"

"So come, let's make a covenant — you and me — and let it serve as a witness between us."

So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar.

Then Jacob told his relatives, "Gather stones." So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap.

Laban called it Yegar Sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed.

Laban said, "This heap is a witness between you and me today." That's why it was called Galeed —

— and also Mizpah, because Laban said, "May Yahweh keep watch between you and me when we're out of each other's sight."

"If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives besides my daughters — even though no one else is watching — remember, Elohim is a witness between you and me."