Israel

After Rachel had given birth to Yosef, Ya'akov said to Lavan, "Send me on my way, so that I can return to my own place, to my own country.

Lavan said, "What should I give you?""Nothing," answered Ya'akov, "just do this one thing for me: once more I will pasture your flock and take care of it.

and put three days' distance between himself and Ya'akov. Ya'akov fed the rest of Lavan's flocks.

Ya'akov took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white streaks on them by peeling off the bark.

Ya'akov divided the lambs and had the animals mate with the streaked and the brown in the flock of Lavan. He also kept his own livestock separate and did not have them mix with Lavan's flock.

Whenever the hardier animals came into heat, Ya'akov would set up the rods in the watering troughs; so that the animals would see them and conceive in front of them;

but he didn't set up the rods in front of the weaker animals. Thus the more feeble were Lavan's and the stronger Ya'akov's.

But then he heard what Lavan's sons were saying: "Ya'akov has taken away everything that our father once had. It's from what used to belong to our father that he has gotten so rich."

He also saw that Lavan regarded him differently than before.

ADONAI said to Ya'akov, "Return to the land of your ancestors, to your kinsmen; I will be with you."

So Ya'akov sent for Rachel and Le'ah and had them come to the field where his flock was.

Then, in the dream, the angel of God said to me, 'Ya'akov!' and I replied, 'Here I am.'

Then Ya'akov got up, put his sons and wives on the camels,

and Ya'akov outwitted Lavan the Arami by not telling him of his intended flight.

Not until the third day was Lavan told that Ya'akov had fled.

But God came to Lavan the Arami in a dream that night and said to him, "Be careful that you don't say anything to Ya'akov, either good or bad."

When Lavan caught up with Ya'akov, Ya'akov had set up camp in the hill-country; so Lavan and his kinsmen set up camp in the hill-country of Gil'ad.

Lavan said to Ya'akov, "What do you mean by deceiving me and carrying off my daughters as if they were captives taken in war?

I have it in my power to do you harm; but the God of your father spoke to me last night and said, 'Be careful that you don't say anything to Ya'akov, either good or bad.'

Ya'akov answered Lavan, "Because I was afraid. I said, 'Suppose you take your daughters away from me by force?'

But if you find your gods with someone, that person will not remain alive. So with our kinsmen to witness, if you spot anything that I have which belongs to you, take it back." Ya'akov did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

Lavan went into Ya'akov's tent, then into Le'ah's tent and into the tent of the two slave-girls; but he did not find them. He left Le'ah's tent and entered Rachel's tent.

Then Ya'akov became angry and started arguing with Lavan. "What have I done wrong?" he demanded. "What is my offense, that you have come after me in hot pursuit?

Lavan answered Ya'akov, "The daughters are mine, the children are mine, the flocks are mine, and everything you see is mine! But what can I do today about these daughters of mine or the children they have borne?

Ya'akov took a stone and set it upright as a standing-stone.