Listening A1: Genesis Chapter 1 - Genesis 31

He heard Laban's sons say, "Jacob took everything that belonged to our father and got all the glory from it."

Jacob saw that Laban did not look at him like before.

God said to Jacob, "Go back to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you."

Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah to come to the field where his sheep were.

He said to them, "I see your father's face, and it is not friendly to me anymore, but the God of my father has been with me."

You know I worked for your father with all my strength.

Your father tricked me and changed my pay ten times, but God did not let him hurt me.

If he said, "The speckled sheep are your pay," then all the sheep had speckled babies; if he said, "The ringstreaked sheep are your pay," then all the sheep had ringstreaked babies.

So God took your father's animals and gave them to me.

One time when the sheep were having babies, I looked up and saw in a dream that the male goats that jumped on the sheep were ringstreaked, speckled, and grizzled.

The angel of God said to me in the dream, "Jacob." I said, "Here I am."

He said, "Look now: all the male goats that jump on the sheep are ringstreaked, speckled, and grizzled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you."

I am the God of Beth-el, where you put oil on a stone and made a promise to me. Now get up, leave this land, and go back to the land where you were born.

Rachel and Leah said, "Is there any part or house for us in our father's house? Are we not like strangers to him? He sold us and used our money."

All the money and things that God took from our father belong to us and our children, so do whatever God has told you.

Jacob got up and put his sons and wives on the camels.

He took all his animals and everything he had got in Paddan-aram to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.

Laban had gone to cut the wool from his sheep, and Rachel took her father's little gods.

Jacob left Laban the Syrian secretly, without telling him that he was leaving.

He left with everything he had, crossed the river, and went toward the mountains of Gilead.

On the third day, Laban heard that Jacob had gone away.

He took his brothers and ran after him for seven days.

He caught up with him in the mountains of Gilead.

God came to Laban in a dream at night and said, "Watch yourself; do not say good or bad things to Jacob."

Laban came to Jacob. Jacob had put his tent on the mountain, and Laban and his brothers camped on Mount Gilead.

Laban said, "What have you done? You left me secretly and took my daughters like people taken by a sword."

"Why did you leave quietly and not tell me, so I could have sent you away with joy and songs, with drums and harps, and give you a chance to kiss my sons and daughters? Now you have done something foolish."

"I can hurt you, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, 'Watch yourself and do not say good or bad to Jacob.'"

"Now, even if you had to go because you missed your father's house, why did you take my little gods?"

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

"Whoever finds your gods must not live. Look and see what is yours among my things, and take it."

Jacob did not know Rachel had taken them.

Laban went into Jacob's tent, Leah's tent, and the tents of the two maidservants, but he did not find them.

He went out of Leah's tent and went into Rachel's tent.

Rachel had put the little gods in the camel saddle and sat on them.

Laban looked around the whole tent but did not find them.

She said to her father, "Please do not be angry because I cannot get up. I am on my period."

He looked but did not find the little gods.

Jacob became angry and spoke to Laban, "What wrong did I do? Why did you chase me? You looked at all my things. What did you find of your own things? Put them here before our brothers, so they can decide between us."

"I have been with you for twenty years; your female sheep and goats did not lose their babies, and I did not eat the rams of your flocks."

"I did not bring you animals torn by beasts; I lost them. You asked for it from my hands, whether stolen by day or night."

"During the day the dry heat killed me, and at night the cold touched me, and I could not sleep."

"I stayed in your house for twenty years. I worked fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, yet you changed my pay ten times."

"If the God of my father, Abraham, and the One I respect from Isaac, had not been with me, you would have sent me away with nothing. God saw my hard work and told you off last night."

Laban said, "The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and everything you see is mine. What can I do now for my daughters or their children?"

"Let us make a promise, you and I, to be a sign between us."

Jacob took a stone and put it up as a pillar.

Jacob told his brothers to gather stones. They gathered stones and made a pile. They ate by the pile.

Laban named it Jegar-saha-dutha, but Jacob named it Galeed.

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

He also named it Mizpah, saying, "May God keep watch between us when we are apart."

"If you hurt my daughters or take other wives, no one is here with us; see, God is the witness between us."

Laban said to Jacob, "Look at this pile and this pillar I made between us."

"This pile is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not cross over it to hurt you, and you will not cross over it to hurt me."

"May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us."

Jacob promised by the One his father Isaac feared.

Jacob gave a sacrifice on the mountain and told his brothers to eat bread; they ate and stayed all night there.

Early in the morning Laban got up, kissed his sons and daughters, blessed them, and left to go back home.