Study Desk

"Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know the work which I have done for you."

But Laban said to him, "If I have found favor in your sight, stay with me; for I have learned [from the omens in divination and by experience] that the LORD has blessed me because of you."

"For you had little before I came and it has increased and multiplied abundantly, and the LORD has favored you with blessings wherever I turned. But now, when shall I provide for my own household?"

Laban asked, "What shall I give you?" Jacob replied, "You shall not give me anything. But if you will do this one thing for me [which I now propose], I will again pasture and keep your flock:

"So my honesty will be evident for me later, when you come [for an accounting] concerning my wages. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and dark among the young lambs, if found with me, shall be considered stolen."

"He said, 'Look up and see, all the rams which are mating [with the flock] are streaked, speckled, and spotted; for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you.

Rachel and Leah answered him, "Is there still any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house?

"Are we not counted by him as foreigners? For he sold us [to you in marriage], and has also entirely used up our purchase price.

So he took his relatives with him and pursued him for seven days, and they overtook him in the hill country of Gilead.

"Now [I suppose] you felt you must go because you were homesick for your father's house and family; but why did you steal my [household] gods?"

Jacob answered Laban, "[I left secretly] because I was afraid, for I thought you would take your daughters away from me by force.

"The one with whom you find your gods shall not live; in the presence of our relatives [search my possessions and] point out whatever you find that belongs to you and take it." For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the idols.

So Rachel said to her father, "Do not be displeased, my lord, that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is on me and I am unwell." He searched [further] but did not find the household idols.

"These twenty years I have been in your house; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for [my share of] your flocks, and you have changed my wages ten times.

and Mizpah (watchtower), for Laban said, "May the LORD watch between you and me when we are absent from one another.

"Save me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will come and attack me and the mothers with the children.

So Jacob spent the night there. Then he selected a present for his brother Esau from the livestock he had acquired:

and you shall say, 'Look, your servant Jacob is behind us.'" For he said [to himself], "I will try to appease him with the gift that is going ahead of me. Then afterward I will see him; perhaps he will accept and forgive me."

Then He said, "Let Me go, for day is breaking." But Jacob said, "I will not let You go unless You declare a blessing on me."

And He said, "Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed."