The World English Bible (WEB) Part 7

30:40 Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the black in the flock of Laban: and he put his own droves apart, and didn't put them into Laban's flock. 30:41 It happened, whenever the stronger of the flock conceived, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the flock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods; 30:42 but when the flock were feeble, he didn't put them in. So the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's. 30:43 The man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

31:1 He heard the words of Laban's sons, saying, "Jacob has taken away all that was our father's. From that which was our father's, has he gotten all this wealth." 31:2 Jacob saw the expression on Laban's face, and, behold, it was not toward him as before. 31:3 Yahweh said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives, and I will be with you."

31:4 Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock, 31:5 and said to them, "I see the expression on your father's face, that it is not toward me as before; but the G.o.d of my father has been with me. 31:6 You know that I have served your father with all of my strength. 31:7 Your father has deceived me, and changed my wages ten times, but G.o.d didn't allow him to hurt me. 31:8 If he said this, 'The speckled will be your wages,' then all the flock bore speckled. If he said this, 'The streaked will be your wages,' then all the flock bore streaked. 31:9 Thus G.o.d has taken away your father's livestock, and given them to me. 31:10 It happened during mating season that I lifted up my eyes, and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats which leaped on the flock were streaked, speckled, and grizzled. 31:11 The angel of G.o.d said to me in the dream, 'Jacob,' and I said, 'Here I am.' 31:12 He said, 'Now lift up your eyes, and behold, all the male goats which leap on the flock are streaked, speckled, and grizzled, for I have seen all that Laban does to you. 31:13 I am the G.o.d of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you vowed a vow to me. Now arise, get out from this land, and return to the land of your birth.'"

31:14 Rachel and Leah answered him, "Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house? 31:15 Aren't we accounted by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and has also quite devoured our money. 31:16 For all the riches which G.o.d has taken away from our father, that is ours and our children's. Now then, whatever G.o.d has said to you, do."

31:17 Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives on the camels, 31:18 and he took away all his livestock, and all his possessions which he had gathered, including the livestock which he had gained in Paddan Aram, to go to Isaac his father, to the land of Canaan. 31:19 Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep: and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father's.

31:20 Jacob deceived Laban the Syrian, in that he didn't tell him that he was running away. 31:21 So he fled with all that he had. He rose up, pa.s.sed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead.

31:22 Laban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled. 31:23 He took his relatives with him, and pursued after him seven days' journey. He overtook him in the mountain of Gilead. 31:24 G.o.d came to Laban, the Syrian, in a dream of the night, and said to him, "Take heed to yourself that you don't speak to Jacob either good or bad."

31:25 Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain, and Laban with his relatives encamped in the mountain of Gilead. 31:26 Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done, that you have deceived me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword?

31:27 Why did you flee secretly, and deceive me, and didn't tell me, that I might have sent you away with mirth and with songs, with tambourine and with harp; 31:28 and didn't allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now have you done foolishly. 31:29 It is in the power of my hand to hurt you, but the G.o.d of your father spoke to me last night, saying, 'Take heed to yourself that you don't speak to Jacob either good or bad.' 31:30 Now, you want to be gone, because you greatly longed for your father's house, but why have you stolen my G.o.ds?"

31:31 Jacob answered Laban, "Because I was afraid, for I said, 'Lest you should take your daughters from me by force.' 31:32 Anyone you find your G.o.ds with shall not live. Before our relatives, discern what is yours with me, and take it." For Jacob didn't know that Rachel had stolen them.

31:33 Laban went into Jacob's tent, into Leah's tent, and into the tent of the two female servants; but he didn't find them. He went out of Leah's tent, and entered into Rachel's tent. 31:34 Now Rachel had taken the teraphim, put them in the camel's saddle, and sat on them. Laban felt about all the tent, but didn't find them. 31:35 She said to her father, "Don't let my lord be angry that I can't rise up before you; for the manner of women is on me." He searched, but didn't find the teraphim.

31:36 Jacob was angry, and argued with Laban. Jacob answered Laban, "What is my trespa.s.s? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued after me? 31:37 Now that you have felt around in all my stuff, what have you found of all your household stuff? Set it here before my relatives and your relatives, that they may judge between us two. 31:38 These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not cast their young, and I haven't eaten the rams of your flocks. 31:39 That which was torn of animals, I didn't bring to you. I bore its loss.

Of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.

31:40 This was my situation: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my eyes. 31:41 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. 31:42 Unless the G.o.d of my father, the G.o.d of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. G.o.d has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night."

31:43 Laban answered Jacob, "The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine: and what can I do this day to these my daughters, or to their children whom they have borne? 31:44 Now come, let us make a covenant, you and I; and let it be for a witness between me and you."

31:45 Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. 31:46 Jacob said to his relatives, "Gather stones." They took stones, and made a heap.

They ate there by the heap. 31:47 Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. 31:48 Laban said, "This heap is witness between me and you this day." Therefore it was named Galeed 31:49 and Mizpah, for he said, "Yahweh watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another. 31:50 If you afflict my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, no man is with us; behold, G.o.d is witness between me and you." 31:51 Laban said to Jacob, "See this heap, and see the pillar, which I have set between me and you. 31:52 May this heap be a witness, and the pillar be a witness, that I will not pa.s.s over this heap to you, and that you will not pa.s.s over this heap and this pillar to me, for harm. 31:53 The G.o.d of Abraham, and the G.o.d of Nahor, the G.o.d of their father, judge between us." Then Jacob swore by the fear of his father, Isaac. 31:54 Jacob offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread, and stayed all night in the mountain. 31:55 Early in the morning, Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Laban departed and returned to his place.

32:1 Jacob went on his way, and the angels of G.o.d met him. 32:2 When he saw them, Jacob said, "This is G.o.d's army." He called the name of that place Mahanaim.

32:3 Jacob sent messengers in front of him to Esau, his brother, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom. 32:4 He commanded them, saying, "This is what you shall tell my lord, Esau: 'This is what your servant, Jacob, says. I have lived as a foreigner with Laban, and stayed until now. 32:5 I have cattle, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.'" 32:6 The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, "We came to your brother Esau.

Not only that, but he comes to meet you, and four hundred men with him."

32:7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two companies; 32:8 and he said, "If Esau comes to the one company, and strikes it, then the company which is left will escape." 32:9 Jacob said, "G.o.d of my father Abraham, and G.o.d of my father Isaac, Yahweh, who said to me, 'Return to your country, and to your relatives, and I will do you good,' 32:10 I am not worthy of the least of all the loving kindnesses, and of all the truth, which you have shown to your servant; for with just my staff I pa.s.sed over this Jordan; and now I have become two companies. 32:11 Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he come and strike me, and the mothers with the children. 32:12 You said, 'I will surely do you good, and make your seed as the sand of the sea, which can't be numbered because there are so many.'"

32:13 He lodged there that night, and took from that which he had with him, a present for Esau, his brother: 32:14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 32:15 thirty milk camels and their colts, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten foals. 32:16 He delivered them into the hands of his servants, every herd by itself, and said to his servants, "Pa.s.s over before me, and put a s.p.a.ce between herd and herd." 32:17 He commanded the foremost, saying, "When Esau, my brother, meets you, and asks you, saying, 'Whose are you?

Where are you going? Whose are these before you?' 32:18 Then you shall say, 'They are your servant, Jacob's. It is a present sent to my lord, Esau. Behold, he also is behind us.'" 32:19 He commanded also the second, and the third, and all that followed the herds, saying, "This is how you shall speak to Esau, when you find him. 32:20 You shall say, 'Not only that, but behold, your servant, Jacob, is behind us.'" For, he said, "I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me."

32:21 So the present pa.s.sed over before him, and he himself lodged that night in the camp.

32:22 He rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two handmaids, and his eleven sons, and pa.s.sed over the ford of the Jabbok.

32:23 He took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over that which he had. 32:24 Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day. 32:25 When he saw that he didn't prevail against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was strained, as he wrestled. 32:26 The man said, "Let me go, for the day breaks."

Jacob said, "I won't let you go, unless you bless me."

32:27 He said to him, "What is your name?"

He said, "Jacob." 32:28 He said, "Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have fought with G.o.d and with men, and have prevailed."

32:29 Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name."

He said, "Why is it that you ask what my name is?" He blessed him there.

32:30 Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for, he said, "I have seen G.o.d face to face, and my life is preserved." 32:31 The sun rose on him as he pa.s.sed over Peniel, and he limped because of his thigh. 32:32 Therefore the children of Israel don't eat the sinew of the hip, which is on the hollow of the thigh, to this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew of the hip.

33:1 Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau was coming, and with him four hundred men. He divided the children between Leah, Rachel, and the two handmaids. 33:2 He put the handmaids and their children in front, Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph at the rear. 33:3 He himself pa.s.sed over in front of them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

33:4 Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck, kissed him, and they wept. 33:5 He lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, "Who are these with you?"

He said, "The children whom G.o.d has graciously given your servant." 33:6 Then the handmaids came near with their children, and they bowed themselves. 33:7 Leah also and her children came near, and bowed themselves. After them, Joseph came near with Rachel, and they bowed themselves.

33:8 Esau said, "What do you mean by all this company which I met?"

Jacob said, "To find favor in the sight of my lord."

33:9 Esau said, "I have enough, my brother; let that which you have be yours."

33:10 Jacob said, "Please, no, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present at my hand, because I have seen your face, as one sees the face of G.o.d, and you were pleased with me. 33:11 Please take the gift that I brought to you, because G.o.d has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough." He urged him, and he took it.

33:12 Esau said, "Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before you."

33:13 Jacob said to him, "My lord knows that the children are tender, and that the flocks and herds with me have their young, and if they overdrive them one day, all the flocks will die. 33:14 Please let my lord pa.s.s over before his servant, and I will lead on gently, according to the pace of the livestock that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord to Seir."

33:15 Esau said, "Let me now leave with you some of the folk who are with me."

He said, "Why? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord."

33:16 So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. 33:17 Jacob traveled to Succoth, built himself a house, and made shelters for his livestock.

Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.

33:18 Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan Aram; and encamped before the city.

33:19 He bought the parcel of ground where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for one hundred pieces of money. 33:20 He erected an altar there, and called it El Elohe Israel.

34:1 Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. 34:2 Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her. He took her, lay with her, and humbled her. 34:3 His soul joined to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young lady, and spoke kindly to the young lady. 34:4 Shechem spoke to his father, Hamor, saying, "Get me this young lady as a wife."

34:5 Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah, his daughter; and his sons were with his livestock in the field. Jacob held his peace until they came. 34:6 Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to talk with him. 34:7 The sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it. The men were grieved, and they were very angry, because he had done folly in Israel in lying with Jacob's daughter; a which thing ought not to be done. 34:8 Hamor talked with them, saying, "The soul of my son, Shechem, longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife. 34:9 Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. 34:10 You shall dwell with us, and the land will be before you. Live and trade in it, and get possessions in it."

34:11 Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, "Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you will tell me I will give. 34:12 Ask me a great amount for a dowry, and I will give whatever you ask of me, but give me the young lady as a wife."

34:13 The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with deceit, and spoke, because he had defiled Dinah their sister, 34:14 and said to them, "We can't do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncirc.u.mcised; for that is a reproach to us. 34:15 Only on this condition will we consent to you. If you will be as we are, that every male of you be circ.u.mcised; 34:16 then will we give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people. 34:17 But if you will not listen to us, to be circ.u.mcised, then we will take our sister, and we will be gone."

34:18 Their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor's son. 34:19 The young man didn't wait to do this thing, because he had delight in Jacob's daughter, and he was honored above all the house of his father.

34:20 Hamor and Shechem, his son, came to the gate of their city, and talked with the men of their city, saying, 34:21 "These men are peaceful with us. Therefore let them live in the land and trade in it. For behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our daughters. 34:22 Only on this condition will the men consent to us to live with us, to become one people, if every male among us is circ.u.mcised, as they are circ.u.mcised.

34:23 Won't their livestock and their possessions and all their animals be ours? Only let us give our consent to them, and they will dwell with us."

34:24 All who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor, and to Shechem his son; and every male was circ.u.mcised, all who went out of the gate of his city. 34:25 It happened on the third day, when they were sore, that two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each took his sword, came upon the unsuspecting city, and killed all the males. 34:26 They killed Hamor and Shechem, his son, with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went away. 34:27 Jacob's sons came on the dead, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. 34:28 They took their flocks, their herds, their donkeys, that which was in the city, that which was in the field, 34:29 and all their wealth. They took captive all their little ones and their wives, and took as plunder everything that was in the house. 34:30 Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number. They will gather themselves together against me and strike me, and I will be destroyed, I and my house."

34:31 They said, "Should he deal with our sister as with a prost.i.tute?"