World English Bible · The patriarchs
Genesis 31
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heard sons' words, saying, " has taken away all that was . He has obtained all this wealth from that which was ." saw the expression on , and, behold, it was not toward him as before. said to , "Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives, and I will be with you." 4 sent and called and to the field to his flock, and said to them, "I see the expression on your , that it is not toward me as before; but the of has been with me. You know that I have your with all of my strength. Your has deceived me, and changed my wages ten times, but didn't allow him to hurt me. If he said, 'The speckled will be your wages,' then all the flock bore speckled. If he said, 'The streaked will be your wages,' then all the flock bore streaked. Thus has taken away your livestock, and given them to me. During mating season, I lifted up my eyes, and saw in a , and behold, the male goats which leaped on the flock were streaked, speckled, and grizzled. said to me in the , ',' and I said, 'Here I am.' 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 does to you. I am the of , where you a pillar, where you a to me. Now arise, get out from this land, and return to the land of your birth.'" and answered him, "Is there yet any or for us in house? Aren't we considered as by him? For he has sold us, and has also used up our money. For all the riches which has taken away from are ours and our children's. Now then, whatever has said to you, do." Then rose up, and set his sons and his wives on the camels, and he took away all his livestock, and all his possessions which he had gathered, including the livestock which he had gained in , to go to his , to the land of . Now had gone to shear his sheep; and stole the teraphim that were her . 20 deceived the , in that he didn't tell him that he was running away. So he fled with all that he had. He rose up, passed over , and set toward the mountain of . was told on the third day that had fled. He took his relatives with him, and pursued him seven days' journey. He overtook him in the mountain of . came to the in a of the night, and said to him, "Be careful that you don't speak to either good or bad." caught up with . Now had pitched his tent in the mountain, and with his relatives encamped in the mountain of . said to , "What have you done, that you have deceived me, and my daughters like of ? 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; and didn't allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now you have done foolishly. It is in the of my hand to hurt you, but the of your spoke to me last night, saying, 'Be careful that you don't speak to either good or bad.' Now, you want to be gone, because you greatly longed for your house, but why have you stolen my gods?" answered , "Because I was afraid, for I said, 'Lest you should take your daughters from me by force.' Anyone you find your gods with shall not live. Before our relatives, discern what is yours with me, and take it." For didn't know that had stolen them. went into tent, into tent, and into the tent of the two female servants; but he didn't find them. He went out of tent, and entered into tent. Now had taken the teraphim, put them in the camel's saddle, and sat on them. felt around all the tent, but didn't find them. She said to her , "Don't let my be angry that I can't rise up before you; for I'm having my period." He searched, but didn't find the teraphim. was angry, and argued with . answered , "What is my trespass? What is my , that you have hotly pursued me? 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. "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. 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. This was my situation: in the day the consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my eyes. These twenty years I have been in your house. I you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. Unless the of , the of , and the fear of , had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night." 43 answered , "The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine! What can I do today to these my daughters, or to their children whom they have borne? Now come, let's make a , you and I. Let it be for a between me and you." took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. said to his relatives, "Gather stones." They took stones, and made a heap. They ate there by the heap. called it Jegar Sahadutha, but called it Galeed. said, "This heap is between me and you today." Therefore it was named Galeed and , for he said, " watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another. If you afflict my daughters, or if you take wives in addition to my daughters, no man is with us; behold, is between me and you." 51 said to , "See this heap, and see , which I have set between me and you. May this heap be a , and be a , that I will not pass over this heap to you, and that you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, for harm. The of , and the of , the of their , judge between us." Then by the fear of his , . offered a in the mountain, and called his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread, and stayed all night in the mountain. Early in the morning, rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and them. departed and returned to his place.
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The patriarchs, 2000 BC to 1600 BC ›
Abraham's family as herdsmen among settled Canaanite city-states, in a world where Egypt and Mesopotamia are the great powers and Canaan is the corridor between them.
- Mesopotamia
- Abraham's own century is Hammurabi's. The great empire of Ur has already fallen, and Babylon rises under a king who published a law code on a stone pillar for everyone to see. Reading Genesis alongside Hammurabi's laws is illuminating in both directions: some provisions are strikingly similar, and the places where Israel's later law diverges are the places worth stopping at.
- Egypt
- The Middle Kingdom, wealthy, bureaucratic, and organised around the Nile flood. Egyptian tomb paintings from this period show Semitic traders arriving with donkeys and striped cloaks, which is more or less the picture Genesis gives of a family going down to Egypt in a famine. Toward the end of the era the Hyksos, rulers of Semitic origin, take the delta.
- Anatolia and the Aegean
- Assyrian merchants run a long-distance trading colony at Kanesh in Anatolia, leaving thousands of clay letters about copper, tin, and debt. On Crete the Minoan palaces are at their height, with plumbing, frescoes, and a script nobody has yet read.
- Further afield
- The Indus Valley cities are in decline after centuries of grid-planned streets and drains. In China the Erlitou culture is building the first palace complexes. Stonehenge is standing and already old.
All of Genesis