Chapter Overview
This chapter sucks. Here’s a one sentence summary: Jacob runs away, Laban catches up, and they agree to go their separate ways peacefully.
Additional Thoughts
Why is this chapter so long? It really doesn’t need to exist at all. Not only does it contradict how long Jacob has been working from the last chapters, it gives no real reason for anything that happens in this chapter to happen at all.
Rather than being wonderfully cohesive, Genesis is a mess.
Chapter 31: Jacob Leaves
- And he heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, Jacob hath taken away all that was our father’s; and of that which was our father’s hath he gotten all this glory.
- And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban, and, behold, it was not toward him as before.
- And the Lord said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee.
- And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field unto his flock,
- And said unto them, I see your father’s countenance, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father hath been with me.
- And ye know that with all my power I have served your father.
- And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me.
- If he said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages; then all the cattle bare speckled: and if he said thus, The ringstraked shall be thy hire; then bare all the cattle ringstraked.
- Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me.
- And it came to pass at the time that the cattle conceived, that I lifted up mine eyes, and saw in a dream, and, behold, the rams which leaped upon the cattle were ringstraked, speckled, and grisled.
- And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob: And I said, Here am I.
- And he said, Lift up now thine eyes, and see, all the rams which leap upon the cattle are ringstraked, speckled, and grisled: for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.
- I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.
- And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house?
- Are we not counted of him strangers? for he hath sold us, and hath quite devoured also our money.
- For all the riches which God hath taken from our father, that is ours, and our children’s: now then, whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do.
- Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives upon camels;
- And he carried away all his cattle, and all his goods which he had gotten, the cattle of his getting, which he had gotten in Padanaram, for to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan.
- And Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father’s.
- And Jacob stole away unawares to Laban the Syrian, in that he told him not that he fled.
- So he fled with all that he had; and he rose up, and passed over the river, and set his face toward the mount Gilead.
- And it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob was fled.
- And he took his brethren with him, and pursued after him seven days’ journey; and they overtook him in the mount Gilead.
- And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night, and said unto him, Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.
- Then Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mount: and Laban with his brethren pitched in the mount of Gilead.
- And Laban said to Jacob, What hast thou done, that thou hast stolen away unawares to me, and carried away my daughters, as captives taken with the sword?
- Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me; and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth, and with songs, with tabret, and with harp?
- And hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters? thou hast now done foolishly in so doing.
- It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.
- And now, though thou wouldest needs be gone, because thou sore longedst after thy father’s house, yet wherefore hast thou stolen my gods?
- And Jacob answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid: for I said, Peradventure thou wouldest take by force thy daughters from me.
- With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let him not live: before our brethren discern thou what is thine with me, and take it to thee. For Jacob knew not that Rachel had stolen them.
- And Laban went into Jacob’s tent, and into Leah’s tent, and into the two maidservants’ tents; but he found them not. Then went he out of Leah’s tent, and entered into Rachel’s tent.
- Now Rachel had taken the images, and put them in the camel’s furniture, and sat upon them. And Laban searched all the tent, but found them not.
- And she said to her father, Let it not displease my lord that I cannot rise up before thee; for the custom of women is upon me. And he searched but found not the images.
- And Jacob was wroth, and chode with Laban: and Jacob answered and said to Laban, What is my trespass? what is my sin, that thou hast so hotly pursued after me?
- Whereas thou hast searched all my stuff, what hast thou found of all thy household stuff? set it here before my brethren and thy brethren, that they may judge betwixt us both.
- This twenty years have I been with thee; thy ewes and thy she goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten.
- That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day, or stolen by night.
- Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes.
- Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle: and thou hast changed my wages ten times.
- Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight.
- And Laban answered and said unto Jacob, These daughters are my daughters, and these children are my children, and these cattle are my cattle, and all that thou seest is mine: and what can I do this day unto these my daughters, or unto their children which they have born?
- Now therefore come thou, let us make a covenant, I and thou; and let it be for a witness between me and thee.
- And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar.
- And Jacob said unto his brethren, Gather stones; and they took stones, and made an heap: and they did eat there upon the heap.
- And Laban called it Jegarsahadutha: but Jacob called it Galeed.
- And Laban said, This heap is a witness between me and thee this day. Therefore was the name of it called Galeed;
- And Mizpah; for he said, The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another.
- If thou shalt afflict my daughters, or if thou shalt take other wives beside my daughters, no man is with us; see, God is witness betwixt me and thee.
- And Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold this pillar, which I have cast betwixt me and thee:
- This heap be witness, and this pillar be witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me, for harm.
- The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge betwixt us. And Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac.
- Then Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount, and called his brethren to eat bread: and they did eat bread, and tarried all night in the mount.
- And early in the morning Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them: and Laban departed, and returned unto his place.
- Presumably Jacob is the one hearing this… the verse is somewhat unclear about all of this.
- I can’t imagine why. Breaking an agreement will do that.
- Just in case you weren’t certain who was the protagonist in this particular tall tale. Not a very good one though.
- Sounds like a perfect place for a meeting: The middle of a field.
- And you can’t come up with any reasons why you might be causing some trouble here?
- Yes, but you did decide to negotiate to shorten this.
- Technically, you never agreed to any wages. The fact that Laban considered it at all shows that he’s a nice guy.
- Perhaps he saw through your attempted pagan ritual to get all of a certain patterned to be born so you could take everything? Rather than blaming him for your idiocy, why not finish off your servitude?
- No. You are going to take away cattle and leave with your agreement unfulfilled.
- Oh look, a vision! I’ve never heard of a vision being used to justify doing stupid things before. Hopefully you were able to catch the sarcasm in that sentence, there was a lot of it.
- Once again, just in case you weren’t sure who you were supposed to be rooting for.
- Sounds like Jacob is really hamming it up for this vision.
- Man, god really likes to tell people to move to other lands, doesn’t he? Also, if Jacob returns now, won’t Esau still be wanting to kill him? We can’t forget that plot hook, can we?
- They’re planning on leaving, so they want to take more things from Laban than just the flock?
- Yes, he sold you to Jacob. Not cool. This just goes to show that the bible is not a good source of morals. Selling women is ok
- AKA: You know that god fellow you just mentioned? It sounds like it’s his fault that we don’t have anything that we can inherit from our father.
- Sounds like he’s worried he’ll be stopped if he doesn’t leave at once.
- Presumably this doesn’t literally mean he carried all his cattle. That does make for an amusing mental image though…
- This verse comes out of left field and tries to sell itself off as a valid plot point or something.
- Jacob literally steals a bunch of cattle ans such and then runs away. I wouldn’t tell anyone about that either.
- AKA: I gotta head towards this mountain if I’m supposed to be safe.
- Why did anyone wait this long? Is it hard to tell that a bunch of cattle are missing?
- Because we gotta fit the number 7 in here somewhere. Presumably they catch up because they don’t have cattle with them.
- Note how Laban is referred to now: “The Syrian”. It sounds like the writers didn’t like Syrians much, and they’re trying to vilify them, and Laban, now.
- Everyone is at the mountain now apparently and just pitching tents everywhere.
- Good question. Why would Jacob, who was negotiating for a shorter servitude time, want to leave in the night secretly? I can’t think of any reason.
- This doesn’t seem like a probable thing to happen based off of last chapter where Laban had to be convinced to pay Jacob.
- It never mentioned anywhere that Jacob took anyone except his wives with. What sons does Laban mean here?
- Oh right, just in case that you weren’t sure if Jacob was still the protagonist. That god thing is certainly a handy narrative plot device.
- Overall, this guy is being pretty reasonable about this all. I bet he’ll just give it all anyways, just like the kings and Pharaohs before him.
- One, maybe, but both? You were given one for your work already.
- That seems a bit harsh.
- Presumably this is everyone traveling with Jacob too.
- Oh clever you.
- That’s not suspicious at all.
- Suddenly Jacob gets angry… after being terrified that Laban wouldn’t let him go.
- Technically, all the stuff there is Laban’s. This glosses over the fact that Jacob literally stole all this stuff from Laban. All Laban wanted was his pictures.
- This verse is false if we are to believe the previous chapter.
- He really should have. It wasn’t his flock or herd.
- AKA: I worked long and hard.
- Nope. Jacob showed up, pledged 7 years of his life away, got the wrong woman, pledged another 7 years, and left early. Did this author even read chapter 30?
- AKA: I can take a bunch of your stuff because god is on my side. Stealing is morally correct if you’re stealing because god told you to, kids!
- This sounds like Laban is taking all this pretty reasonably. Having someone tell me they stole a bunch of stuff and it’s theirs now because god said so would result in an immediate phone call to the police. Or a mental institution.
- No! Don’t do it, Laban! This is just a terrible idea!
- Presumably a large stone.
- What “brethren”? There should only be his wives and children there.
- What is with this naming every little inconsequential thing obsession?
- I’m pretty sure a heap of rocks is not an admissible witness in a court of law. Don’t quote me on that one though.
- Presumably this is supposed to mean something and be symbolic.
- What about the servant women this guy already had many children with?
- Are they seriously about to repeat things?
- Perhaps instead of making empty words over a random stone pillar, they should make them over a decent meal?
- Jacob doesn’t swear by god though… Is he an agnostic after everything he’s just been through?
- What else will you do all night?
- There is no reason for this entire chapter. The authors clearly couldn’t keep their story straight. I’ve improvised entire tabletop game campaigns with a better plot and less confusion in them than Genesis so far.