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.

Then he fled with all that he had, and arose and crossed the Euphrates and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.

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."

And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban and his kinsmen pitched [their tents] in the hill country of Gilead.

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].

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

[But] with whomever you find your gods, he shall not live. In the presence of your kinsmen [now] identify what [is] with me [that is] yours and take it." Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

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.

Now Rachel had taken the idols and put them in the saddle bag of the camel and sat on them. And Jacob searched the whole tent thoroughly but did not find them.

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!

These twenty years I [was] with you; your ewes and your female goats did not miscarry, and the rams of your flocks I did not eat.

[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.

If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac had not been with me, indeed now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my misery and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night."

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?

So now, come, let us {make} a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between me and you."

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

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 called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.

Then Laban said, "This pile of stones [is] a witness between me and you today." Therefore its name is called Galeed,

and Mizpah, because he said, "Yahweh watch between me and you when {we are out of sight of each other}.

If you mistreat my daughters, and if you take wives besides my daughters, [when] there is no man with us, see--God [is] a witness between me and you."

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.

May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father judge between us." Then Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac.

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.

And Jacob went on his way, and angels of God met him.

And when he saw them, Jacob said, "This [is] the camp of God!" And he called the name of that place Mahanaim.

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.

Please rescue me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and attack mother and children [alike].

Now you yourself said, 'I will surely deal well with you and make your offspring as the sand of the sea that cannot be counted for abundance.'"

And he lodged there that night. Then he took {from what he had with him} a gift for Esau his brother:

thirty milk camels with their young, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty female donkeys, and ten male donkeys.

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?'

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.

And moreover, you shall say, 'Look, your servant Jacob [is] behind us.'" For he thought, "{Let me appease him} with the gift going before me, and afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will {show me favor}."

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

And he took them and sent them across the stream. Then he sent across all his possessions.

And Jacob remained alone, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the dawn.

And when he saw that he could not prevail against him, he struck his hip socket, so that Jacob's hip socket was sprained as he wrestled with him.

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

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

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."

Then the sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, and he was limping because of his hip.

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 put the female slaves and their children first, then Leah and her children next, then Rachel with Joseph last.

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.

Then Esau lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children and said, "Who [are] these with you?" And he said, "The children whom God has graciously given your servant."

Then the female servants drew near, they and their children, and they bowed down.

Then Leah and her children drew near and bowed down, and afterward Joseph and Rachel drew near and they bowed down.

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."

And Jacob said, "No, please, if I have found favor in your eyes, you must take my gift from my hand, for then I have seen your face [which is] like seeing the face of God, and you have received me.

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].

Then he said, "Let us journey and go [on], and I will go ahead of you."

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."

And Esau said, "Let me leave some of my people with you." But he said, "{What need is there}? Let me find favor in the eyes of my lord."

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.

And he bought a piece of land where he pitched his tent for one hundred pieces of money from the hand of the sons of Hamor, father of Shechem.

And there he erected an altar and called it "El Elohe Israel."

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

And Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her. And he took her and lay with her and raped her.

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

And Jacob heard that Dinah his daughter had been defiled, but his sons were with his flocks in the field. And Jacob kept silent until they came.

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

And the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard [it]. And the men were distressed and very angry because he had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by having sexual relations with the daughter of Jacob--{something that} should not be done.

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

Make marriages with us. Give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves.

You shall dwell with us and the land shall be before you; settle and trade in it, and acquire [property] in it."

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."

Then the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor speaking deceitfully, because he had defiled Dinah their sister.

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.

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 their words were good in the eyes of Hamor and in the eyes of Shechem, the son of Hamor.

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."