Leaving Laban

Jacob heard what Laban’s sons were saying about him. They accused him of taking what belonged to their father and building his wealth at their father’s expense. Jacob also saw a change in Laban’s face. His attitude toward Jacob was no longer what it had been.

Then the LORD told Jacob to return. “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.” Jacob sent word for Rachel and Leah to come to the field where his flocks were. There he laid out his account of their father’s dealings with him.

He began with the change he could see in Laban’s countenance, and said that the God of his father had been with him. The sisters knew how he had worked. “You know that I have served your father with all my strength.” His complaint concerned the wages for that service.

“And although he has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, God has not allowed him to harm me.” Jacob described the changing terms. When Laban said the speckled animals would be his wages, the flock bore speckled offspring. When Laban named the streaked animals instead, the flock bore streaked offspring.

Jacob told the sisters that God had taken their father’s livestock and given them to him. He also described a dream during the breeding of the flocks, in which the mating males were streaked, spotted, and speckled. In the dream, the angel of God called his name, and Jacob answered.

The message directed him to look at the animals and said that all Laban had done to him had been seen. Jacob reported that God identified Himself as the God of Bethel, where Jacob had anointed a pillar and made a vow. The instruction was to get up, leave this land at once, and return to his native land. He had called the sisters to hear both the grievance and the command to go.

Rachel and Leah answered together. “Do we have any portion or inheritance left in our father’s house?” The account gives neither sister a separate reply. The women who had argued over a husband and a son’s mandrakes now spoke in agreement about their father.

“Are we not regarded by him as outsiders? Not only has he sold us, but he has certainly squandered what was paid for us.” They described themselves as daughters with no portion left at home. The marriages for which Jacob had served were, in their answer, sales whose payment their father had spent.

They said that the wealth God had taken from their father belonged to them and their children. Their answer ended with permission to act: “So do whatever God has told you.” Neither sister asked Jacob to remain. Both placed their future, and their children’s, with the departure.

Jacob got up and put his children and wives on camels. He drove his livestock before him and took the possessions he had acquired in Paddan-aram. He was going to his father Isaac in Canaan. The household that had grown under Laban’s arrangements was leaving Laban’s land.

Laban was away shearing his sheep, and while he was gone, Rachel stole his household idols. Jacob did not tell Laban that he was running away. He fled with all his possessions, crossed the Euphrates, and headed toward the hill country of Gilead. Leah went with the family; Rachel carried something from their father’s house that he had not given her.