CEB Common English Bible with Apocrypha - eBook [ePub]. Common English Bible

CEB Common English Bible with Apocrypha - eBook [ePub]

hard as I could. ⁷But your father cheated me and changed my payment ten times. Yet God didn't let him harm me. ⁸If he said, 'The speckled ones will be your payment,' the whole flock gave birth to speckled young. And if he said, 'The striped ones will be your payment,' the whole flock gave birth to striped young. ⁹God took away your father's livestock and gave them to me. ¹⁰When the flocks were mating, I looked up and saw in a dream that the male goats that mounted the flock were striped, speckled, and spotted. ¹¹In the dream, God's messenger said to me, 'Jacob!' and I said, 'I'm here.'¹²He said, 'Look up and watch all the striped, speckled, and spotted male goats mounting the flock. I've seen everything that Laban is doing to you. ¹³I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a sacred pillar and where you made a solemn promise to me. Now, get up and leave this country 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 household?¹⁵Doesn't he think of us as foreigners since he sold us and has even used up the payment he received for us?¹⁶All of the wealth God took from our father belongs to us and our children. Now, do everything God told you to do."

¹⁷So Jacob got up, put his sons and wives on the camels, ¹⁸and set out with all of his livestock and all of his possessions that he had acquiredⁱ in Paddan-aram in order to return to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan. ¹⁹Now, while Laban was out shearing his sheep, Rachel stole the household's divine images that belonged to her father. ²⁰Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not sending word to him that he was leaving. ²¹So Jacob and his entire household left. He got up, crossed the river, and set out directly for the mountains of Gilead.

²²Three days later, Laban found out that Jacob had gone, ²³so Laban took his brothers with him, chased Jacob for seven days, and caught up with him in the mountains of Gilead. ²⁴That night, God appeared to Laban the Aramean in a dream and said, "Be careful and don't say anything hastily to Jacob one way or the other."

²⁵Laban reached Jacob after Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountains. So Laban and his brothers also pitched theirs in the mountains of Gilead. ²⁶Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done? You have deceived me and taken off with my daughters as if they were prisoners of war. ²⁷Why did you leave secretly, deceiving me, and not letting me know? I would've sent you off with a celebration, with songs and tambourines and harps. ²⁸You didn't even let me kiss my sons and my daughters good-bye. Now you've acted like a fool,²⁹and I have the power to punish you. However, your father's God told me yesterday, 'Be careful and don't say anything hastily to Jacob one way or the other.'³⁰You've rushed off now because you missed your father's household so much, but why did you steal my gods?"

³¹Jacob responded to Laban, "I was afraid and convinced myself that you would take your daughters away from me. ³²Whomever you find with your divine images won't live. Identify whatever I have that is yours, in front of your brothers, and take it." Jacob didn't know that Rachel had stolen them. ³³Laban went into Jacob's tent, Leah's tent, and her two servants' tent and didn't find them.

So he left Leah's tent and went into Rachel's. ³⁴Now Rachel had taken the divine images and put them into the camel's saddlebag and sat on them. Laban felt around in the whole tent but couldn't find them. ³⁵Rachel said to her father, "Sir, don't be angry with me because I can't get up for you; I'm having my period." He searched but couldn't find the divine images.

³⁶Jacob was angry and complained to Laban, "What have I done wrong and what's my crime that you've tracked me down like this?³⁷You've now felt through all of my baggage, and what have you found from your household's belongings? Put it in front of our relatives, and let them decide between us. ³⁸For these twenty years I've been with you, your female sheep and goats haven't miscarried, and I haven't eaten your flock's rams. ³⁹When animals were killed, I didn't bring them to you but took the loss myself. You demanded compensation from me for any animals poached during the day or night. ⁴⁰The dry heat consumed me during the day, and the frost at night; I couldn't sleep. ⁴¹I've now spent twenty years in your household. I worked for fourteen years for your two daughters and for six years for your flock, and you changed my pay ten times. ⁴²If the God of my father--the God of Abraham and the awesome one of Isaac--hadn't been with me, you'd have no doubt sent me away without anything. God saw my harsh treatment and my hard work and reprimanded you yesterday."

Jacob and Laban's treaty

⁴³Laban responded and told Jacob, "The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks. Everything you see is mine. But what can I do now about my daughters and about their sons?⁴⁴Come, let's make a treaty, you and me, and let something be our witness."^j

⁴⁵So Jacob took a stone, set it up as a sacred pillar, ⁴⁶and said to his relatives, "Gather stones." So they took stones, made a mound, and ate there near the mound. ⁴⁷Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha,^k but Jacob called it Galeed.^l

⁴⁸Laban said, "This mound is our witness today," and, therefore, he too named it Galeed. ⁴⁹He also named it Mizpah,^m because he said, "The LORD will observe both of us when we are separated from each other. ⁵⁰If you treat my daughters badly and if you marry other women, though we aren't there, know that God observed our witness."

⁵¹Laban said to Jacob, "Here is this mound and here is the sacred pillar that I've set up for us. ⁵²This mound and the sacred pillar are witnesses that I won't travel beyond this mound and that you won't travel beyond this mound and this pillar to do harm. ⁵³The God of Abraham and the God of Nahorⁿ will keep order between us." So Jacob gave his word in the name of the awesome one of his father Isaac. ⁵⁴Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and invited his relatives to a meal. They ate together and spent the night on the mountain. ⁵⁵^o Laban got up early in the morning, kissed his sons and daughters, blessed them, and left to go back to his own place.

Jacob prepares to meet Esau

Genesis 32Jacob went on his way, and God's messengers approached him. ²When Jacob saw them, he said, "This is God's camp," and he named that sacred place Mahanaim.^p ³Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau, toward the land of Seir, the open country of Edom. ⁴He gave them these orders: "Say this to my master Esau. This is the message of your servant Jacob: 'I've lived as an immigrant with Laban, where I've stayed till now. ⁵I own cattle, donkeys, flocks, men servants, and women servants. I'm sending this message to my master now to ask that he^q be kind.'"

⁶The messengers returned to Jacob and said, "We went out to your brother Esau, and he's coming to meet you with four hundred men."

⁷Jacob was terrified and felt trapped, so he divided the people with him, and the flocks, cattle, and camels, into two camps. ⁸He thought, If Esau meets the first camp and attacks it, at least one camp will be left to escape.

⁹Jacob said, "LORD, God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, who said to me, 'Go back to your country and your relatives, and I'll make sure things go well for you,'¹⁰I don't deserve how loyal and truthful you've been to your servant. I went away across the Jordan with just my staff, but now I've become two camps. ¹¹Save me from my brother Esau! I'm afraid he will come and kill me, the mothers, and their children. ¹²You were the one who told me, 'I will make sure things go well for you, and I will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, so many you won't be able to count them.'"

¹³Jacob spent that night there. From what he had acquired, he set aside a gift for his brother Esau: ¹⁴two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, ¹⁵thirty nursing camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. ¹⁶He separated these herds and gave them to his servants. He said to them, "Go ahead of me and

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