Study Desk

Jacob removed these lambs, but he made the rest of the flock face the streaked and completely dark-colored animals in Laban's flock. So he made separate flocks for himself and did not mix them with Laban's flocks.

So Jacob sent a message for Rachel and Leah to come to the field where his flocks were.

You know that I've worked for your father as hard as I could,

Then he said, ‘Observe that all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled, or spotted, for I have observed all that Laban has done to you.

Hasn't he treated us like foreigners? He not only sold us, but completely wasted the money paid for us!

He left with all he owned. He quickly crossed the Euphrates River and headed for the hill country of Gilead.

So he took his relatives with him and pursued Jacob for seven days. He caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.

Now I understand that you have gone away because you longed desperately for your father's house. Yet why did you steal my gods?"

"I have been with you for the past twenty years. Your ewes and female goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks.

Animals torn by wild beasts I never brought to you; I always absorbed the loss myself. You always made me pay for every missing animal, whether it was taken by day or at night.

This was my lot for twenty years in your house: I worked like a slave for you—fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, but you changed my wages ten times!

Rescue me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, as well as the mothers with their children.

Then the man said, "Let me go, for the dawn is breaking." "I will not let you go," Jacob replied, "unless you bless me."

Please take my present that was brought to you, for God has been generous to me and I have all I need." When Jacob urged him, he took it.

But Jacob said to him, "My lord knows that the children are young, and that I have to look after the sheep and cattle that are nursing their young. If they are driven too hard for even a single day, all the animals will die.

But Jacob traveled to Succoth where he built himself a house and made shelters for his livestock. That is why the place was called Succoth.

Then he purchased the portion of the field where he had pitched his tent; he bought it from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, for a hundred pieces of money.

Intermarry with us. Let us marry your daughters, and take our daughters as wives for yourselves.

They said to them, "We cannot give our sister to a man who is not circumcised, for it would be a disgrace to us.

Then we will give you our daughters to marry, and we will take your daughters as wives for ourselves, and we will live among you and become one people.