2. He also saw that Laban was no longer as friendly as he had been earlier.
3. Then the Lord said to him, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives. I will be with you.”
4. So Jacob sent word to Rachel and Leah to meet him in the field where his flocks were.
5. He said to them, “I have noticed that your father is not as friendly towards me as he used to be; but my father's God has been with me.
6. You both know that I have worked for your father with all my strength.
7. Yet he has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God did not let him harm me.
8. Whenever Laban said, ‘The speckled goats shall be your wages,’ all the flocks produced speckled young. When he said, ‘The striped goats shall be your wages,’ all the flocks produced striped young.
9. God has taken flocks away from your father and given them to me.
17-18. So Jacob got ready to go back to his father in the land of Canaan. He put his children and his wives on the camels, and drove all his flocks ahead of him, with everything that he had acquired in Mesopotamia.
19. Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and during his absence Rachel stole the household gods that belonged to her father.
20. Jacob deceived Laban by not letting him know that he was leaving.
21. He took everything he owned and left in a hurry. He crossed the River Euphrates and started for the hill country of Gilead.
22. Three days later Laban was told that Jacob had fled.
23. He took his men with him and pursued Jacob for seven days until he caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.
24. In a dream that night God came to Laban and said to him, “Be careful not to threaten Jacob in any way.”
25. Jacob had set up his camp on a mountain, and Laban set up his camp with his relatives in the hill country of Gilead.
26. Laban said to Jacob, “Why did you deceive me and carry off my daughters like women captured in war?
27. Why did you deceive me and slip away without telling me? If you had told me, I would have sent you on your way with rejoicing and singing to the music of tambourines and harps.
28. You did not even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye. That was a foolish thing to do!
29. I have the power to do you harm, but last night the God of your father warned me not to threaten you in any way.
30. I know that you left because you were so anxious to get back home, but why did you steal my household gods?”
31. Jacob answered, “I was afraid, because I thought that you might take your daughters away from me.
32. But if you find that anyone here has your gods, he will be put to death. Here, with our men as witnesses, look for anything that belongs to you and take what is yours.” Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen Laban's gods.
33. Laban went and searched Jacob's tent; then he went into Leah's tent, and the tent of the two slave women, but he did not find his gods. Then he went into Rachel's tent.
34. Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in a camel's saddlebag and was sitting on them. Laban searched through the whole tent, but did not find them.
35. Rachel said to her father, “Do not be angry with me, sir, but I am not able to stand up in your presence; I am having my monthly period.” Laban searched but did not find his household gods.
36. Then Jacob lost his temper. “What crime have I committed?” he asked angrily. “What law have I broken that gives you the right to hunt me down?