Genesis 31
Open in the reader1Now Heel-Grabber heard that White’s sons were saying, “Heel-Grabber has taken away all that belonged to our father and built all this wealth at our father’s expense.”
2And Heel-Grabber saw from the countenance of White that his attitude toward him had changed.
3Then He-Who-Is said to Heel-Grabber, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”
4So Heel-Grabber sent word and called Ewe and Weary-One to the field where his flocks were,
5and 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.
6You know that I have served your father with all my strength.
7And although he has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, God has not allowed him to harm me.
8If 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.
9Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me.
10When the flocks were breeding, I saw in a dream that the streaked, spotted, and speckled males were mating with the females.
11In that dream the messenger of God said to me, ‘Heel-Grabber!’ 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 White has done to you.
13I am the God of House-of-God, where you anointed the pillar and made a solemn vow to Me. Now get up, leave this land at once, and return to your native land.’”
14And Ewe and Weary-One replied, “Do we have any portion or inheritance left in our father’s house?
15Are we not regarded by him as outsiders? Not only has he sold us, but he has certainly squandered what was paid for us.
16Surely 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.”
17Then Heel-Grabber got up and put his children and his wives on camels,
18and he drove all his livestock before him, along with all the possessions he had acquired in Plain-aram, to go to his father He-Laughs in the land in Humbled.
19Now while White was out shearing his sheep, Ewe stole her father’s household idols.
20Moreover, Heel-Grabber deceived White the Highland-One by not telling him that he was running away.
21So he fled with all his possessions, crossed the Euphrates, and headed for the hill country of Heap-of-Witness.
22On the third day White was informed that Heel-Grabber had fled.
23So he took his relatives with him, pursued Heel-Grabber for seven days, and overtook him in the hill country of Heap-of-Witness.
24But that night God came to White the Highland-One in a dream and warned him, “Be careful not to say anything to Heel-Grabber, either good or bad.”
25Now Heel-Grabber had pitched his tent in the hill country of Heap-of-Witness when White overtook him, and White and his relatives camped there as well.
26Then White said to Heel-Grabber, “What have you done? You have deceived me and carried off my daughters like captives of war!
27Why 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.
28But you did not even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye. Now you have done a foolish thing.
29I 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 Heel-Grabber, either good or bad.’
30Now you have gone off because you long for your father’s house. But why have you stolen my gods?”
31“I was afraid,” Heel-Grabber answered, “for I thought you would take your daughters from me by force.
32If 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 Heel-Grabber did not know that Ewe had stolen the idols.
33So White went into Heel-Grabber’s tent, then Weary-One’s tent, and then the tents of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. Then he left Weary-One’s tent and entered Ewe’s tent.
34Now Ewe had taken White’s household idols, put them in the saddlebag of her camel, and was sitting on them. And White searched everything in the tent but found nothing.
35Ewe said to her father, “Sir, do not be angry that I cannot stand up before you; for I am having my period.” So White searched but could not find the household idols.
36Then Heel-Grabber became incensed and challenged White. “What is my crime?” he said. “For what sin of mine have you so hotly pursued me?
37You 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.
38I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the rams of your flock.
39I 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.
40As it was, the heat consumed me by day and the frost by night, and sleep fled from my eyes.
41Thus 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!
42If the God of my father, the God of Father-of-a-Multitude and the Fear of He-Laughs, 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.”
43But White answered Heel-Grabber, “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?
44Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it serve as a witness between you and me.”
45So Heel-Grabber picked out a stone and set it up as a pillar,
46and he said to his relatives, “Gather some stones.” So they took stones and made a mound, and there by the mound they ate.
47White called it Heap-of-Witness, and Heel-Grabber called it Heap-of-Witness.
48Then White declared, “This mound is a witness between you and me this day.” Therefore the place was called Heap-of-Witness.
49It was also called Watchtower, because White said, “May He-Who-Is keep watch between you and me when we are absent from each other.
50If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives, although no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me.”
51White also said to Heel-Grabber, “Here is the mound, and here is the pillar I have set up between you and me.
52This 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.
53May the God of Father-of-a-Multitude and the God of Snorter, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Heel-Grabber swore by the Fear of his father He-Laughs.
54Then Heel-Grabber 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.