Study Desk

So the flocks mated and conceived by the branches, and the flocks gave birth to streaked, speckled, and spotted offspring.

Furthermore, whenever the stronger [animals] of the flocks were breeding, Jacob would place the branches in the sight of the flock in the watering troughs, so that they would mate and conceive among the branches;

but when the flock was sickly, he did not put the branches there; so the sicker [animals] were Laban's and the stronger Jacob's.

So Jacob became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks [of sheep and goats], and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to his flock in the field,

So he fled with everything that he had, and got up and crossed the river [Euphrates], and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead [east of the Jordan River].

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

"Why did you run away secretly and deceive me and not tell me, so that [otherwise] I might have sent you away with joy and with songs, with [music on the] tambourine and lyre?

So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and the tent of the two maids, but he did not find them. Then he came out of Leah's tent and entered Rachel's tent.

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.

"Although you have searched through all my possessions, what have you found of your household goods? Put it here before my relatives and your relatives, so that they may decide [who has done right] between the two of us.

"If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and [the Feared One] of Isaac, had not been with me, most certainly you would have sent me away now empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and humiliation and the [exhausting] labor of my hands, so He rendered judgment and rebuked you last night."

"So come now, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it serve as a witness between you and me."

So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a [memorial] pillar.

When Jacob saw them, he said, "This is God's camp." So he named that place Mahanaim (double camps).

I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants; and I have sent [this message] to tell my lord, so that I may find grace and kindness in your sight."'"

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

And so Jacob commanded the second and the third as well, and all that followed the herds, saying, "This is what you shall say to Esau when you meet him;

So the gift [of the herds of livestock] went on ahead of him, and he himself spent that night back in the camp.

So Jacob was left alone, and a Man [came and] wrestled with him until daybreak.