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Genesis 34:13-31
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13 But because Shechem had defiled their sister Dinah, Jacob’s sons answered him and his father Hamor deceitfully.
14 “We cannot do such a thing,” they said. “To give our sister to an uncircumcised man would be a disgrace to us.
15 We will consent to this on one condition, that you become circumcised like us—every one of your males.
16 Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves. We will dwell among you and become one people.
17 But if you will not agree to be circumcised, then we will take our sister and go.”
18 Their offer seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem.
19 The young man, who was the most respected of all his father’s household, did not hesitate to fulfill this request, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter.
20 So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city and addressed the men of their city:
21 “These men are at peace with us. Let them live and trade in our land; indeed, it is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters in marriage and give our daughters to them.
22 But only on this condition will the men agree to dwell with us and be one people: if all our men are circumcised as they are.
23 Will not their livestock, their possessions, and all their animals become ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will dwell among us.”
24 All the men who went out of the city gate listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male of the city was circumcised.
25 Three days later, while they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons (Dinah’s brothers Simeon and Levi) took their swords, went into the unsuspecting city, and slaughtered every male.
26 They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with their swords, took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went away.
27 Jacob’s other sons came upon the slaughter and looted the city, because their sister had been defiled.
28 They took their flocks and herds and donkeys, and everything else in the city or in the field.
29 They carried off all their possessions and women and children, and they plundered everything in their houses.
30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble upon me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people of this land. We are few in number; if they unite against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”
31 But they replied, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?” -
Genesis 34:1-12
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1 Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the daughters of the land.
2 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the region, saw her, he took her and lay with her by force.
3 And his soul was drawn to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young girl and spoke to her tenderly.
4 So Shechem told his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as a wife.”
5 Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah, but since his sons were with his livestock in the field, he remained silent about it until they returned.
6 Meanwhile, Shechem’s father Hamor came to speak with Jacob.
7 When Jacob’s sons heard what had happened, they returned from the field. They were filled with grief and fury, because Shechem had committed an outrage in Israel (*) by lying with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done.
8 But Hamor said to them, “My son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife.
9 Intermarry with us; give us your daughters, and take our daughters for yourselves.
10 You may settle among us, and the land will be open to you. Live here, move about freely, and acquire your own property.”
11 Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Grant me this favor, and I will give you whatever you ask.
12 Demand a high dowry and an expensive gift, and I will give you whatever you ask. Only give me the girl as my wife!” -
Genesis 33:1-20
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1 Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming toward him with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two maidservants.
2 He put the maidservants and their children in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph at the rear.
3 But Jacob himself went on ahead and bowed to the ground seven times as he approached his brother.
4 Esau, however, ran to him and embraced him, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. And they both wept.
5 When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he asked, “Who are these with you?” Jacob answered, “These are the children God has graciously given your servant.”
6 Then the maidservants and their children approached and bowed down.
7 Leah and her children also approached and bowed down, and then Joseph and Rachel approached and bowed down.
8 “What do you mean by sending this whole company to meet me?” asked Esau. “To find favor in your sight, my lord,” Jacob answered.
9 “I already have plenty, my brother,” Esau replied. “Keep what belongs to you.”
10 But Jacob insisted, “No, please! If I have found favor in your sight, then receive this gift from my hand. For indeed, I have seen your face, and it is like seeing the face of God, since you have received me favorably.
11 Please accept my gift that was brought to you, because God has been gracious to me and I have all I need.” So Jacob pressed him until he accepted.
12 Then Esau said, “Let us be on our way, and I will go ahead of you.”
13 But Jacob replied, “My lord knows that the children are frail, and I must care for sheep and cattle that are nursing their young. If they are driven hard for even a day, all the animals will die.
14 Please let my lord go ahead of his servant. I will continue on slowly, at a comfortable pace for the livestock and children, until I come to my lord at Seir.”
15 “Let me leave some of my people with you,” Esau said. But Jacob replied, “Why do that? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.”
16 So that day Esau started on his way back to Seir,
17 but Jacob went on to Succoth, where he built a house for himself and shelters for his livestock; that is why the place was called Succoth.
18 After Jacob had come from Paddan-aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan, and he camped just outside the city.
19 And the plot of ground where he pitched his tent, he purchased from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of silver.
20 There he set up an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel. -
Genesis 32:22-32
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22 During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
23 He took them and sent them across the stream, along with all his possessions.
24 So Jacob was left all alone, and there a man wrestled with him until daybreak.
25 When the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he struck the socket of Jacob’s hip and dislocated it as they wrestled.
26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27 “What is your name?” the man asked. “Jacob,” he replied.
28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men, and you have prevailed.”
29 And Jacob requested, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed Jacob there.
30 So Jacob named the place Peniel, saying, “Indeed, I have seen God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
31 The sun rose above him as he passed by Penuel, and he was limping because of his hip.
32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon which is at the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was struck near that tendon. -
Genesis 32:1-21
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1 Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
2 When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God.” So he named that place Mahanaim.
3 Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.
4 He instructed them, “You are to say to my master Esau, ‘Your servant Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban and have remained there until now.
5 I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, menservants, and maidservants. I have sent this message to inform my master, so that I may find favor in your sight.’”
6 When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you—he and four hundred men with him.”
7 In great fear and distress, Jacob divided his people into two camps, as well as the flocks and herds and camels.
8 He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one camp, then the other camp can escape.”
9 Then Jacob declared, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, the LORD who told me, ‘Go back to your country and to your kindred, and I will make you prosper,’
10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness You have shown Your servant. Indeed, with only my staff I came across the Jordan, but now I have become two camps.
11 Please deliver me from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid that he may come and attack me and the mothers and children with me.
12 But You have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, too numerous to count.’”
13 Jacob spent the night there, and from what he had brought with him, he selected a gift for his brother Esau:
14 200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams,
15 30 milk camels with their young, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys, and 10 male donkeys.
16 He entrusted them to his servants in separate herds and told them, “Go on ahead of me, and keep some distance between the herds.”
17 He instructed the one in the lead, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘To whom do you belong, where are you going, and whose animals are these before you?’
18 then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift, sent to my lord Esau. And behold, Jacob is behind us.’”
19 He also instructed the second, the third, and all those following behind the herds: “When you meet Esau, you are to say the same thing to him.
20 You are also to say, ‘Look, your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” For he thought, “I will appease Esau with the gift that is going before me. After that I can face him, and perhaps he will accept me.”
21 So Jacob’s gifts went on before him, while he spent the night in the camp. -
Genesis 31:43-55
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43 But Laban answered Jacob, “These daughters are my daughters, these sons are my sons, and these flocks are my flocks! Everything you see is mine! Yet what can I do today about these daughters of mine or the children they have borne?
44 Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it serve as a witness between you and me.”
45 So Jacob picked out a stone and set it up as a pillar,
46 and he said to his relatives, “Gather some stones.” So they took stones and made a mound, and there by the mound they ate.
47 Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed.
48 Then Laban declared, “This mound is a witness between you and me this day.” Therefore the place was called Galeed.
49 It was also called Mizpah, because Laban said, “May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are absent from each other.
50 If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives, although no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me.”
51 Laban also said to Jacob, “Here is the mound, and here is the pillar I have set up between you and me.
52 This mound is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not go past this mound to harm you, and you will not go past this mound and pillar to harm me.
53 May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac.
54 Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and invited his relatives to eat a meal. And after they had eaten, they spent the night on the mountain.
55 Early the next morning, Laban got up and kissed his grandchildren and daughters and blessed them. Then he left to return home. -
Genesis 31:22-42
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22 On the third day Laban was informed that Jacob had fled.
23 So he took his relatives with him, pursued Jacob for seven days, and overtook him in the hill country of Gilead.
24 But that night God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream and warned him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
25 Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead when Laban overtook him, and Laban and his relatives camped there as well.
26 Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You have deceived me and carried off my daughters like captives of war!
27 Why did you run away secretly and deceive me, without even telling me? I would have sent you away with joy and singing, with tambourines and harps.
28 But you did not even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye. Now you have done a foolish thing.
29 I have power to do you great harm, but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’
30 Now you have gone off because you long for your father’s house. But why have you stolen my gods?”
31 “I was afraid,” Jacob answered, “for I thought you would take your daughters from me by force.
32 If you find your gods with anyone here, he shall not live! In the presence of our relatives, see for yourself if anything is yours, and take it back.” For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the idols.
33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, then Leah’s tent, and then the tents of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent.
34 Now Rachel had taken Laban’s household idols, put them in the saddlebag of her camel, and was sitting on them. And Laban searched everything in the tent but found nothing.
35 Rachel said to her father, “Sir, do not be angry that I cannot stand up before you; for I am having my period.” So Laban searched, but could not find the household idols.
36 Then Jacob became incensed and challenged Laban. “What is my crime?” he said. “For what sin of mine have you so hotly pursued me?
37 You have searched all my goods! Have you found anything that belongs to you? Put it here before my brothers and yours, that they may judge between the two of us.
38 I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the rams of your flock.
39 I did not bring you anything torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for what was stolen by day or night.
40 As it was, the heat consumed me by day and the frost by night, and sleep fled from my eyes.
41 Thus for twenty years I have served in your household—fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks—and you have changed my wages ten times!
42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely by now you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, and last night He rendered judgment.” -
Genesis 31:1-21
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1 Now Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken away all that belonged to our father and built all this wealth at our father’s expense.”
2 And Jacob saw from the countenance of Laban that his attitude toward him had changed.
3 Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”
4 So Jacob sent word and called Rachel and Leah to the field where his flocks were,
5 and he told them, “I can see from your father’s countenance that his attitude toward me has changed; but the God of my father has been with me.
6 You know that I have served your father with all my strength.
7 And although he has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, God has not allowed him to harm me.
8 If he said, ‘The speckled will be your wages,’ then the whole flock bore speckled offspring. If he said, ‘The streaked will be your wages,’ then the whole flock bore streaked offspring.
9 Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me.
10 When the flocks were breeding, I saw in a dream that the streaked, spotted, and speckled males were mating with the females.
11 In that dream the angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ And I replied, ‘Here I am.’
12 ‘Look up,’ he said, ‘and see that all the males that are mating with the flock are streaked, spotted, or speckled; for I have seen all that Laban has done to you.
13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and made a solemn vow to Me. Now get up and leave this land at once, and return to your native land.’”
14 And Rachel and Leah replied, “Do we have any portion or inheritance left in our father’s house?
15 Are we not regarded by him as outsiders? Not only has he sold us, but he has certainly squandered what was paid for us.
16 Surely all the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. So do whatever God has told you.”
17 Then Jacob got up and put his children and his wives on camels,
18 and he drove all his livestock before him, along with all the possessions he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land in Canaan.
19 Now while Laban was out shearing his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.
20 Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was running away.
21 So he fled with all his possessions, crossed the Euphrates, and headed for the hill country of Gilead. -
Genesis 30:25-43
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25 Now after Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so I can return to my homeland.
26 Give me my wives and children for whom I have served you, that I may go on my way. You know how hard I have worked for you.”
27 But Laban replied, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you.”
28 And he added, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”
29 Then Jacob answered, “You know how I have served you and how your livestock have thrived under my care.
30 Indeed, you had very little before my arrival, but now your wealth has increased many times over. The LORD has blessed you wherever I set foot. But now, when may I also provide for my own household?”
31 “What can I give you?” Laban asked. “You do not need to give me anything,” Jacob replied. “If you do this one thing for me, I will keep on shepherding and keeping your flocks.
32 Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb, and every spotted or speckled goat. These will be my wages.
33 So my honesty will testify for me when you come to check on my wages in the future. If I have any goats that are not speckled or spotted, or any lambs that are not dark-colored, they will be considered stolen.”
34 “Agreed,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.”
35 That very day Laban removed all the streaked or spotted male goats and every speckled or spotted female goat—every one that had any white on it—and every dark-colored lamb, and he placed them under the care of his sons.
36 Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob was shepherding the rest of Laban’s flocks.
37 Jacob, however, took fresh branches of poplar, almond, and plane trees, and peeled the bark, exposing the white inner wood of the branches.
38 Then he set the peeled branches in the watering troughs in front of the flocks coming in to drink. So when the flocks were in heat and came to drink,
39 they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted.
40 Jacob set apart the young, but made the rest face the streaked dark-colored sheep in Laban’s flocks. Then he set his own stock apart and did not put them with Laban’s animals.
41 Whenever the stronger females of the flock were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs, in full view of the animals, so that they would breed in front of the branches.
42 But if the animals were weak, he did not set out the branches. So the weaker animals went to Laban and the stronger ones to Jacob.
43 Thus Jacob became exceedingly prosperous. He owned large flocks, maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys. -
Genesis 30:17-24
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17 And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore a fifth son to Jacob.
18 Then Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my maidservant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar.
19 Again Leah conceived and bore a sixth son to Jacob.
20 “God has given me a good gift,” she said. “This time my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” And she named him Zebulun.
21 After that, Leah gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.
22 Then God remembered Rachel. He listened to her and opened her womb,
23 and she conceived and gave birth to a son. “God has taken away my shame,” she said.
24 She named him Joseph, and said, “May the LORD add to me another son.”
