And she called his name Joseph, saying, "Yahweh has added to me another son."

And it happened [that] as soon as Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, "Send me away that I may go to my place and my land.

Give [me] my wives and my children for which I have served you, and let me go. For you yourself know my service that I have rendered to you."

But Laban said to him, "Please, if I have found favor in your eyes, I have learned by divination that Yahweh has blessed me because of you."

And he said, "Name your wage to me and I will give [it]."

Then he said to him, "You yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock have been with me.

And he said, "What shall I give you?" And Jacob said, "Do not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed your flocks and keep [them].

Then Laban said, "Look! Very well. It shall be according to your word."

But that day he removed the streaked and spotted male goats and all the speckled and spotted female goats, all that [had] white on it, and every dark-colored ram, and {put them in the charge of his sons}.

And he set the branches that he had peeled in front of the flocks, in the troughs [and] in the water containers. And they were in heat when they came to drink.

And Yahweh said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your ancestors and to your family, and I will be with you."

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

and he said to them, "Look, I see the face of your father, that {it is not like it has been toward me in the past}. But the God of my father is with me.

and your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, but God has not allowed him to harm me.

God has taken away your father's livestock and given [them] to me.

Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacob,' and I said, 'Here I [am].'

And he said, 'Lift up your eyes and see--all the rams mounting the flock [are] streaked, speckled, and dappled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.

I [am] the God of Bethel where you anointed a stone pillar, where you made a vow to me. Now get up, go out from this land and return to the land of your birth.'"

Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, "[Is there] yet a portion for us, and an inheritance in the house of our father?

For all the wealth that God has taken away from our father, it belongs to us and to our sons. So now, all that God has said to you, do."

And he drove all his livestock and his possessions that he had acquired, the livestock of his possession that he had acquired in Paddan-Aram, in order to go to Isaac his father, to the land of Canaan.

Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole the idols that belonged to her father.

And Jacob {tricked} Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he [intended to] flee.

And on the third day it was told to Laban that Jacob had fled.

Then he took his kinsmen with him and pursued after him, a seven-day journey, and he caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.

And God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, "{Take care} that you not speak with Jacob, whether good or evil."

Then Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done that you {tricked me} and have carried off my daughters like captives of the sword?

Why did you hide [your intention] to flee and {trick me}, and did not tell me so that I would have sent you away with joy and song and tambourine and lyre?

And [why] did you not give me opportunity to kiss my grandsons and my daughters [goodbye]? Now you have behaved foolishly [by] doing [this].

{It is in my power} to do harm to you, but the God of your father spoke to me last night saying, '{Take care} from speaking with Jacob, whether good or evil.'

Then Jacob answered and said to Laban, "Because I [was] afraid, for I thought, 'Lest you take your daughters from me by force.'

Then Laban went into Jacob's tent and Leah's tent and the tent of the two female servants and did not find [his gods]. And he came out of Leah's tent and went into Rachel's tent.

And she said to her father, "Let there not be anger in the eyes of my lord, for I am not able to rise before you, for the way of women [is] with me. And he searched carefully and did not find the idols.

Then Jacob became angry and quarreled with Laban. Jacob answered and said to Laban, "What [is] my offense? What [is] my sin that you pursued after me?

For you have searched all my possessions and what did you find among all the possessions of my household? Set it before my kinsmen and your kinsmen that they may decide between the two of us!

I brought no mangled carcass to you--I bore its loss. From my hand you sought it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.

[There] I was, during the day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes.

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

Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, "The daughters [are] my daughters and the grandsons [are] my grandsons, and the flocks [are] my flocks, and all that you see, it [is] mine. Now, what can I do for these my daughters today, or for their children whom they have borne?

And Jacob said to his kinsmen, "Gather stones." And they took stones and made a pile of stones, and they ate there by the pile of stones.

And Laban said to Jacob, "See, this pile of stones, and see the pillar that I have set up between me and you.

This pile of stones [is] a witness, and the pillar [is] a witness, that I will not pass beyond this pile of stones to you, and that you will not pass beyond this pile of stones and this pillar to me intending harm.

And Jacob sacrificed a sacrifice on the hill, and he called his kinsmen to eat the meal. And they ate the meal and spent the night on the hill.

And Laban arose early in the morning and kissed his grandsons and his daughters, and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his homeland.

Then Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother, to the land of Seir, the territory of Edom.

And he instructed them, saying, "Thus you must say to my lord, to Esau, 'Thus says your servant Jacob, I have dwelled as an alien with Laban, and I have remained [there] until now.

And I have acquired cattle, male donkeys, flocks, and male and female slaves, and I have sent to tell my lord, to find favor in your eyes.'"

And the messengers returned to Jacob [and] said, "We came to your brother, to Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men [are] with him."

Then Jacob was very frightened and distressed. So he divided the people, flocks, cattle, and camels that [were] with him into two companies.

And he thought, "If Esau comes to one company and destroys it, the remaining company will be [able] to escape."

Then Jacob said, "O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, O Yahweh, who said to me, 'Return to your land and to your family, and I will deal well with you.'

{I am not worthy} of all the loyal love and all the faithfulness that you have shown your servant, for with [only] my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.

two hundred female goats, twenty male goats, two hundred ewes, twenty rams,

And he put [them] under the hand of his servants, {herd by herd}, and said to his servants, "Cross on ahead before me, and put some distance {between herds}.

And he instructed the foremost, saying, "When Esau my brother comes upon you and asks you, saying, 'Whose [are] you and where are you going? To whom do these [animals] belong ahead of you?'

Then you must say, 'To your servant, to Jacob. It [is] a gift sent to my lord, to Esau. Now behold, he [is] also [coming] after us.'"

And he also instructed the second [servant] and the third, and everyone [else] who [was] behind the herds, saying, "You must speak to Esau according to this word when you find him.

That night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.

Then he said to him, "What [is] your name?" And he said, "Jacob."

Then Jacob asked and said, "Please tell me your name." And he said, "Why do you ask this--for my name?" And he blessed him there.

Then Jacob called the name of the place Peniel [which means] "I have seen God face to face and my life was spared."

Therefore the {Israelites} do not eat the sinew of the sciatic nerve that [is] upon the socket of the hip unto this day, because he struck the socket of the thigh of Jacob at the sinew of the sciatic nerve.

And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked. And behold, Esau [was] coming and four hundred men [were] with him. And he divided the children among Leah and among Rachel, and among the two of his female servants.

And he himself passed on before them and bowed down to the ground seven times until he came to his brother.

But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell upon his neck and kissed him, and they wept.

And he said, "{What do you mean by} all this company that I have met?" Then he said, "To find favor in the eyes of my lord."

Please take my gift which has been brought to you, for God has dealt graciously with me, and because {I have enough}." And he urged him, so he took [it].

But he said to him, "My lord knows that the children [are] frail, and the flocks and the cattle [which are] nursing [are a concern] to me. Now [if] they drove them hard for a day all the flocks would die.

Let my lord pass on before his servant and I will move along slowly at the pace of the livestock that are ahead of me, and at the pace of the children until I come to my lord in Seir."

So Esau turned that day on his way to Seir.

But Jacob traveled on to Succoth, and he built for himself a house, and he made shelters for his livestock. Therefore he called the name of the place Succoth.

And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem which [is] in the land of Canaan, {on his way} from Paddan-Aram. And he camped before the city.

Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.

And his soul clung to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke {tenderly} to the girl.

So Shechem said to Hamor his father, saying, "Get this girl for me as a wife."

And Hamor, father of Shechem, went out to Jacob to speak with him.

And Hamor spoke with them saying, "Shechem my son {is in love with} your daughter. Please give her to him for a wife.

Then Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, "Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will do.

{Make the bride price and gift as high as you like}; I will give what you say to me. But give me the girl as a wife."

And they said to them, "We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to a man who [is] uncircumcised, for that [is] a disgrace for us.

Only on this [condition] will we give consent to you; if you will become like us--every male among you to be circumcised.

Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take for ourselves your daughters, and we will live with you and become one family.

But if you will not listen to us, to be circumcised, then we will take our daughters and we will go."

And the young man did not delay to do the thing, for he wanted the daughter of Jacob. Now he [was] the most honored of his father's house.

Then Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city, and they spoke to the men of their city, saying,

"These men [are] at peace with us. Let them dwell in the land and let them trade in it. Now, behold, the land is {broad enough for them}. Let us take their daughters as wives, and let us give our daughters to them.

Only on this [condition] will they give consent to us, to live with us [and] to become one family--when every male among us [is] circumcised as they are circumcised.

Will not their livestock and their property and all their animals [be] ours? Only let us give consent to them so they will live among us."

And all those who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and Shechem. Every male was circumcised, all those who went out of the gate of his city.

And it happened [that] on the third day, while they were in pain, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, each took his sword and came against the unsuspecting city and killed all the males.

Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have brought trouble on me, making me stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites! I [am] few in number! If they gather against me and attack me, I will be destroyed--I and my household!"

And God said to Jacob, "Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there, and make an altar to the God who appeared to you when you fled from before Esau your brother."

Then Jacob said to his household and to all who [were] with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods that [are] in your midst and purify yourselves and change your garments.

Then let us make ready and let us go up to Bethel, so that I can make an altar there to the God who answered me in the day of my trouble, and who has been with me on the way that I have gone."

So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that [were] in their hands, and the ornamental rings that [were] in their ears. And Jacob buried them under the oak which [was] near Shechem.

And Jacob came to Luz which [was] in the land of Canaan (that [is] Bethel), he and all the people that [were] with him.

And he built an altar there and called the place El-Bethel, for there God had appeared to him when he fled before his brother.

And God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-Aram, and he blessed him.

And God said to him, "Your name [is] Jacob. Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name." Then his name was called Israel.

And God said to him, "I [am] El-Shaddai. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and an assemblage of nations shall be from you, and kings shall go out from your loins.