Study Desk

While Laban was gone to cut the wool from his sheep, Rachel stole the idols that belonged to him.

Jacob and his family left quickly, crossed the Euphrates River, and traveled toward the mountains of Gilead.

so he gathered his relatives and began to chase him. After seven days Laban found him in the mountains of Gilead.

So Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had made his camp in the mountains, so Laban and his relatives set up their camp in the mountains of Gilead.

So Laban looked in Jacob's tent, in Leah's tent, and in the tent where the two slave women stayed, but he did not find his idols. When he left Leah's tent, he went into Rachel's tent.

Rachel said to her father, "Father, don't be angry with me. I am not able to stand up before you because I am having my monthly period." So Laban looked through the camp, but he did not find his idols.

He told his relatives to gather rocks, so they took the rocks and piled them up; then they ate beside the pile.

Laban named that place in his language A Pile to Remind Us, and Jacob gave the place the same name in Hebrew.

Let the God of Abraham, who is the God of Nahor and the God of their ancestors, punish either of us if we break this agreement." So Jacob made a promise in the name of the God whom his father Isaac worshiped.

Then Jacob killed an animal and offered it as a sacrifice on the mountain, and he invited his relatives to share in the meal. After they finished eating, they spent the night on the mountain.

Early the next morning Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them, and then he left to return home.

When Jacob also went his way, the angels of God met him.

Jacob gave each separate flock of animals to one of his servants and said to them, "Go ahead of me and keep some space between each herd."

During the night Jacob rose and crossed the Jabbok River at the crossing, taking with him his two wives, his two slave girls, and his eleven sons.

He sent his family and everything he had across the river.

Then the sun rose as he was leaving that place, and Jacob was limping because of his leg.

Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming, and with him were four hundred men. So Jacob divided his children among Leah, Rachel, and the two slave girls.

Jacob himself went out in front of them and bowed down flat on the ground seven times as he was walking toward his brother.

But Esau ran to meet Jacob and put his arms around him and hugged him. Then Esau kissed him, and they both cried.

But Jacob went to Succoth, where he built a house for himself and shelters for his animals. That is why the place was named Succoth.