Genesis 31

• 1. But Jacob soon learned that Laban's sons were beginning to grumble. "Jacob has robbed our father!" they said. "All his wealth has been gained at our father's expense."
• 2. And Jacob began to notice a considerable cooling in Laban's attitude toward him.
• 3. Then the LORD said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your father and grandfather and to your relatives there, and I will be with you."
• 4. Jacob called Rachel and Leah out to the field where he was watching the flocks,
• 5. so he could talk things over with them. "Your father has turned against me and is not treating me like he used to," he told them. "But the God of my father has been with me.
• 6. You know how hard I have worked for your father,
• 7. but he has tricked me, breaking his wage agreement with me again and again. But God has not allowed him to do me any harm.
• 8. For if he said the speckled animals were mine, the whole flock began to produce speckled lambs. And when he changed his mind and said I could have the streaked ones, then all the lambs were born streaked.
• 9. In this way, God has made me wealthy at your father's expense.
• 10. During the mating season, I had a dream and saw that the male goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled, and spotted.
• 11. Then in my dream, the angel of God said to me, `Jacob!' And I replied, `Yes, I'm listening!'
• 12. The angel said, `Look, and you will see that only the streaked, speckled, and spotted males are mating with the females of your flock. For I have seen all that Laban has done to you.
• 13. I am the God you met at Bethel, the place where you anointed the pillar of stone and made a vow to serve me. Now leave this country and return to the land you came from.'"
• 14. Rachel and Leah said, "That's fine with us! There's nothing for us here--none of our father's wealth will come to us anyway.
• 15. He has reduced our rights to those of foreign women. He sold us, and what he received for us has disappeared.
• 16. The riches God has given you from our father are legally ours and our children's to begin with. So go ahead and do whatever God has told you."
• 17. So Jacob put his wives and children on camels.
• 18. He drove the flocks in front of him--all the livestock he had acquired at Paddan-aram--and set out on his journey to the land of Canaan, where his father, Isaac, lived.
• 19. At the time they left, Laban was some distance away, shearing his sheep. Rachel stole her father's household gods and took them with her.
• 20. They set out secretly and never told Laban they were leaving.
• 21. Jacob took all his possessions with him and crossed the Euphrates River, heading for the territory of Gilead.
• 22. Laban didn't learn of their flight for three days.
• 23. But when he did, he gathered a group of his relatives and set out in hot pursuit. He caught up with them seven days later in the hill country of Gilead.
• 24. But the previous night God had appeared to Laban in a dream. "Be careful about what you say to Jacob!" he was told.
• 25. So when Laban caught up with Jacob as he was camped in the hill country of Gilead, he set up his camp not far from Jacob's.
• 26. "What do you mean by sneaking off like this?" Laban demanded. "Are my daughters prisoners, the plunder of war, that you have stolen them away like this?
• 27. Why did you slip away secretly? I would have given you a farewell party, with joyful singing accompanied by tambourines and harps.
• 28. Why didn't you let me kiss my daughters and grandchildren and tell them good-bye? You have acted very foolishly!
• 29. I could destroy you, but the God of your father appeared to me last night and told me, `Be careful about what you say to Jacob!'
• 30. I know you feel you must go, and you long intensely for your childhood home, but why have you stolen my household gods?"
• 31. "I rushed away because I was afraid," Jacob answered. "I said to myself, `He'll take his daughters from me by force.'
• 32. But as for your household gods, let the person who has taken them die! If you find anything that belongs to you, I swear before all these relatives of ours, I will give it back without question." But Jacob didn't know that Rachel had taken them.
• 33. Laban went first into Jacob's tent to search there, then into Leah's, and then he searched the tents of the two concubines, but he didn't find the gods. Finally, he went into Rachel's tent.
• 34. Rachel had taken the household gods and had stuffed them into her camel saddle, and now she was sitting on them. So although Laban searched all the tents, he couldn't find them.
• 35. "Forgive my not getting up, Father," Rachel explained. "I'm having my monthly period." So despite his thorough search, Laban didn't find them.
• 36. Then Jacob became very angry. "What did you find?" he demanded of Laban. "What is my crime? You have chased me as though I were a criminal.
• 37. You have searched through everything I own. Now show me what you have found that belongs to you! Set it out here in front of us, before our relatives, for all to see. Let them decide who is the real owner!
• 38. "Twenty years I have been with you, and all that time I cared for your sheep and goats so they produced healthy offspring. In all those years I never touched a single ram of yours for food.
• 39. If any were attacked and killed by wild animals, did I show them to you and ask you to reduce the count of your flock? No, I took the loss! You made me pay for every animal stolen from the flocks, whether the loss was my fault or not.
• 40. I worked for you through the scorching heat of the day and through cold and sleepless nights.
• 41. Yes, twenty years--fourteen of them earning your two daughters, and six years to get the flock. And you have reduced my wages ten times!
• 42. In fact, except for the grace of God--the God of my grandfather Abraham, the awe-inspiring God of my father, Isaac--you would have sent me off without a penny to my name. But God has seen your cruelty and my hard work. That is why he appeared to you last night and vindicated me."
• 43. Then Laban replied to Jacob, "These women are my daughters, and these children are my grandchildren, and these flocks and all that you have--all are mine. But what can I do now to my own daughters and grandchildren?
• 44. Come now, and we will make a peace treaty, you and I, and we will live by its terms."
• 45. So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a monument.
• 46. He also told his men to gather stones and pile them up in a heap. Jacob and Laban then sat down beside the pile of stones to share a meal.
• 47. They named it "Witness Pile," which is Jegar-sahadutha in Laban's language and Galeed in Jacob's.
• 48. "This pile of stones will stand as a witness to remind us of our agreement," Laban said.
• 49. This place was also called Mizpah, for Laban said, "May the LORD keep watch between us to make sure that we keep this treaty when we are out of each other's sight.
• 50. I won't know about it if you are harsh to my daughters or if you take other wives, but God will see it.
• 51. This heap of stones and this pillar
• 52. stand between us as a witness of our vows. I will not cross this line to harm you, and you will not cross it to harm me.
• 53. I call on the God of our ancestors--the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of my grandfather Nahor--to punish either one of us who harms the other." So Jacob took an oath before the awesome God of his father, Isaac, to respect the boundary line.
• 54. Then Jacob presented a sacrifice to God and invited everyone to a feast. Afterward they spent the night there in the hills.
• 55. Laban got up early the next morning, and he kissed his daughters and grandchildren and blessed them. Then he returned home.

Genesis 32

• 1. As Jacob and his household started on their way again, angels of God came to meet him.
• 2. When Jacob saw them, he exclaimed, "This is God's camp!" So he named the place Mahanaim.
• 3. Jacob now sent messengers to his brother, Esau, in Edom, the land of Seir.
• 4. He told them, "Give this message to my master Esau: `Humble greetings from your servant Jacob! I have been living with Uncle Laban until recently,
• 5. and now I own oxen, donkeys, sheep, goats, and many servants, both men and women. I have sent these messengers to inform you of my coming, hoping that you will be friendly to us.'"
• 6. The messengers returned with the news that Esau was on his way to meet Jacob--with an army of four hundred men!
• 7. Jacob was terrified at the news. He divided his household, along with the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps.
• 8. He thought, "If Esau attacks one group, perhaps the other can escape."
• 9. Then Jacob prayed, "O God of my grandfather Abraham and my father, Isaac--O LORD, you told me to return to my land and to my relatives, and you promised to treat me kindly.
• 10. I am not worthy of all the faithfulness and unfailing love you have shown to me, your servant. When I left home, I owned nothing except a walking stick, and now my household fills two camps!
• 11. O LORD, please rescue me from my brother, Esau. I am afraid that he is coming to kill me, along with my wives and children.
• 12. But you promised to treat me kindly and to multiply my descendants until they become as numerous as the sands along the seashore--too many to count."
• 13. Jacob stayed where he was for the night and prepared a present for Esau:
• 14. two hundred female goats, twenty male goats, two hundred ewes, twenty rams,
• 15. thirty female camels with their young, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty female donkeys, and ten male donkeys.
• 16. He told his servants to lead them on ahead, each group of animals by itself, separated by a distance in between.
• 17. He gave these instructions to the men leading the first group: "When you meet Esau, he will ask, `Where are you going? Whose servants are you? Whose animals are these?'
• 18. You should reply, `These belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present for his master Esau! He is coming right behind us.'"
• 19. Jacob gave the same instructions to each of the herdsmen and told them, "You are all to say the same thing to Esau when you see him.
• 20. And be sure to say, `Your servant Jacob is right behind us.'" Jacob's plan was to appease Esau with the presents before meeting him face to face. "Perhaps," Jacob hoped, "he will be friendly to us."
• 21. So the presents were sent on ahead, and Jacob spent that night in the camp.
• 22. But during the night Jacob got up and sent his two wives, two concubines, and eleven sons across the Jabbok River.
• 23. After they were on the other side, he sent over all his possessions.
• 24. This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until dawn.
• 25. When the man saw that he couldn't win the match, he struck Jacob's hip and knocked it out of joint at the socket.
• 26. Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is dawn." But Jacob panted, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."
• 27. "What is your name?" the man asked. He replied, "Jacob."
• 28. "Your name will no longer be Jacob," the man told him. "It is now Israel, because you have struggled with both God and men and have won."
• 29. "What is your name?" Jacob asked him. "Why do you ask?" the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there.
• 30. Jacob named the place Peniel--"face of God"--for he said, "I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared."
• 31. The sun rose as he left Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.
• 32. That is why even today the people of Israel don't eat meat from near the hip, in memory of what happened that night.

Genesis 33

• 1. Then, in the distance, Jacob saw Esau coming with his four hundred men.
• 2. Jacob now arranged his family into a column, with his two concubines and their children at the front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last.
• 3. Then Jacob went on ahead. As he approached his brother, he bowed low seven times before him.
• 4. Then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him affectionately and kissed him. Both of them were in tears.
• 5. Then Esau looked at the women and children and asked, "Who are these people with you?These are the children God has graciously given to me," Jacob replied.
• 6. Then the concubines came forward with their children and bowed low before him.
• 7. Next Leah came with her children, and they bowed down. Finally, Rachel and Joseph came and made their bows.
• 8. "And what were all the flocks and herds I met as I came?" Esau asked. Jacob replied, "They are gifts, my lord, to ensure your goodwill."
• 9. "Brother, I have plenty," Esau answered. "Keep what you have."
• 10. "No, please accept them," Jacob said, "for what a relief it is to see your friendly smile. It is like seeing the smile of God!
• 11. Please take my gifts, for God has been very generous to me. I have more than enough." Jacob continued to insist, so Esau finally accepted them.
• 12. "Well, let's be going," Esau said. "I will stay with you and lead the way."
• 13. But Jacob replied, "You can see, my lord, that some of the children are very young, and the flocks and herds have their young, too. If they are driven too hard, they may die.
• 14. So go on ahead of us. We will follow at our own pace and meet you at Seir."
• 15. "Well," Esau said, "at least let me leave some of my men to guide and protect you.There is no reason for you to be so kind to me," Jacob insisted.
• 16. So Esau started back to Seir that same day.
• 17. Meanwhile, Jacob and his household traveled on to Succoth. There he built himself a house and made shelters for his flocks and herds. That is why the place was named Succoth.
• 18. Then they arrived safely at Shechem, in Canaan, and they set up camp just outside the town.
• 19. Jacob bought the land he camped on from the family of Hamor, Shechem's father, for a hundred pieces of silver.
• 20. And there he built an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.

New Living Translation: 11 of 324 days.