Genesis 31 - Simple English

1Jacob heard what Laban's sons were saying: "Jacob has taken away everything that belonged to our father. All this wealth of his came from what belonged to our father."

2Jacob also looked at Laban's face, and it was not friendly toward him as it had been before.

3The LORD said to Jacob, "Go back to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives. I will be with you."

4So Jacob sent word and called Rachel and Leah out to the field where his flock was.

5He said to them, "I see that your father's face is not friendly toward me as it was before. But the God of my father has been with me."

6You yourselves know that I have served your father with all my strength.

7Yet your father has cheated me. He has changed my wages ten times. But God did not allow him to harm me.

8If he said, 'The speckled ones will be your wages,' then all the flock gave birth to speckled young. And if he said, 'The striped ones will be your pay,' then all the flock gave birth to striped young.

9So God has taken away your father's animals and given them to me.

10At the time when the flock was breeding, I looked up and saw in a dream that the rams mating with the flock were striped, speckled and spotted.

11The angel of God spoke to me in the dream and said, 'Jacob.' I said, 'Here I am.'

12He said, 'Look up now and see: all the rams mating with the flock are striped, speckled and spotted. For I have seen everything that Laban is doing to you.

13"I am the God of Bethel, where you poured oil on the pillar, and where you made a vow to me. Now get up, leave this land, and go back to the land of your relatives.'"

14Rachel and Leah answered him, "Is there any share or inheritance left for us in our father's house?"

15Does he not treat us like strangers? He has sold us, and he has used up all the money paid for us.

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

17Then Jacob got up and put his sons and his wives on camels.

18He drove away all his livestock and all the goods he had gained, the livestock he had built up in Padanaram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.

19Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole the images that belonged to her father.

20Jacob slipped away without telling Laban the Syrian, for he did not tell him that he was leaving.

21So he fled with everything he had. He got up and crossed the river, and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.

22On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled.

23So he took his relatives with him and chased after him for seven days' journey, and he caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.

24But God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night and said to him, "Be careful that you say nothing to Jacob, either good or bad."

25Then Laban caught up with Jacob. Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban and his relatives camped in the hill country of Gilead.

26Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done? You slipped away without telling me, and you carried off my daughters like prisoners taken with the sword."

27Why did you run away in secret and steal away from me? Why did you not tell me, so that I could have sent you away with joy and songs, with tambourine and harp?

28You did not even let me kiss my grandsons and my daughters goodbye. You have acted foolishly in doing this.

29I have the power in my hand to harm you. But last night the God of your father spoke to me and said, 'Be careful that you say nothing to Jacob, either good or bad.'

30"And now you have gone off because you longed so much for your father's house. But why did you steal my gods?"

31Jacob answered Laban, "I was afraid. I said to myself, 'Perhaps you would take your daughters away from me by force.'"

32"But if you find your gods with anyone, that person shall not live. In front of our relatives, look for what is yours among my things and take it." For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

33So Laban went into Jacob's tent, and into Leah's tent, and into the tents of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. Then he came out of Leah's tent and went into Rachel's tent.

34Now Rachel had taken the images and put them inside the camel's saddle, and she was sitting on them. Laban searched all through the tent but found nothing.

35She said to her father, "Do not let my lord be angry that I cannot stand up in front of you. The way of women is upon me." So he searched, but did not find the images.

36Then Jacob was angry and argued with Laban. Jacob said to Laban, "What is my offence? What is my sin, that you have chased after me so fiercely?"

37You have searched all my belongings. What have you found of all your household goods? Put it here in front of my relatives and your relatives, and let them judge between the two of us.

38For twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not lost their young, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock.

39I did not bring you what wild animals had torn. I bore the loss myself. You made me pay for it, whether it was stolen by day or stolen by night.

40This was my life: by day the heat burned me, and the frost by night, and sleep fled from my eyes.

41For twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times.

42"If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away with nothing. God has seen my suffering and the work of my hands, and last night he rebuked you."

43Laban answered Jacob, "These daughters are my daughters, these children are my children, and these flocks are my flocks. Everything you see is mine. But what can I do today about these daughters of mine, or about the children they have borne?"

44"So come now, let us make a covenant, you and I. Let it be a witness between me and you."

45So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar.

46Jacob said to his relatives, "Gather stones." They took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap.

47Laban called it Jegarsahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.

48Laban said, "This heap is a witness between me and you today." That is why it was named Galeed,

49and also Mizpah, for he said, "May the LORD watch between me and you when we are apart from each other."

50"If you ill-treat my daughters, or if you take other wives besides my daughters, remember that no one is with us. See, God is a witness between me and you."

51Laban said to Jacob, "Look at this heap, and look at this pillar, which I have set up between me and you."

52This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not go past this heap to you, and that you will not go past this heap and this pillar to me, to do harm.

53"May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us." And Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac.

54Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread and stayed all night on the mountain.

55Early in the morning Laban got up and kissed his grandsons and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban left and went back home.