King James Version · The patriarchs
Genesis 31
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And he heard the words of ’s sons, saying, hath taken away all that was ’s; and of that which was ’s hath he gotten all this . And beheld the countenance of , and, behold, it was not toward him as before. And said unto , Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee. 4And sent and called and to the field unto his flock, And said unto them, I see your ’s countenance, that it is not toward me as before; but the of hath been with me. And ye know that with all my I have your . And your hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times; but suffered him not to hurt me. If he said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages; then all the cattle speckled: and if he said thus, The ringstraked shall be thy hire; then all the cattle ringstraked. Thus hath taken away the cattle of your , and given them to me. And it came to pass at the time that the cattle conceived, that I lifted up mine eyes, and saw in a , and, behold, the rams which leaped upon the cattle were ringstraked, speckled, and grisled. And spake unto me in a , saying, : And I said, Here am I. And he said, Lift up now thine eyes, and see, all the rams which leap upon the cattle are ringstraked, speckled, and grisled: for I have seen all that doeth unto thee. I am the of Beth–el, where thou anointedst , and where thou vowedst a unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred. And and answered and said unto him, Is there yet any or for us in ’s house? Are we not counted of him strangers? for he hath sold us, and hath quite devoured also our money. For all the riches which hath taken from , that is ours, and our children’s: now then, whatsoever hath said unto thee, do. Then rose up, and set his sons and his wives upon camels; And he all his cattle, and all his goods which he had gotten, the cattle of his getting, which he had gotten in Padan–aram, for to go to his in the land of . And went to shear his sheep: and had stolen the that were her ’s. 20And stole away unawares to the , in that he told him not that he fled. So he fled with all that he had; and he rose up, and passed over the river, and set toward the mount . And it was told on the third day that was fled. And he took his brethren with him, and pursued after him seven days’ journey; and they overtook him in the mount . And came to the in a by night, and said unto him, Take heed that thou speak not to either good or bad. Then overtook . Now had pitched his tent in the mount: and with his brethren pitched in the mount of . And said to , What hast thou done, that thou hast stolen away unawares to me, and my daughters, as taken with ? Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me; and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth, and with songs, with tabret, and with harp? And hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters? thou hast now done foolishly in so doing. It is in the of my hand to do you hurt: but the of your spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed that thou speak not to either good or bad. And now, though thou wouldest needs be gone, because thou sore longedst after thy ’s house, yet wherefore hast thou stolen my gods? And answered and said to , Because I was afraid: for I said, Peradventure thou wouldest take by force thy daughters from me. With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let him not live: before our brethren discern thou what is thine with me, and take it to thee. For knew not that had stolen them. And went into ’s tent, and into ’s tent, and into the two maidservants’ tents; but he found them not. Then went he out of ’s tent, and entered into ’s tent. Now had taken the , and put them in the camel’s furniture, and sat upon them. And searched all the tent, but found them not. And she said to her , Let it not displease my that I cannot rise up before thee; for the custom of women is upon me. And he searched, but found not the . And was wroth, and chode with : and answered and said to , What is my trespass? what is my , that thou hast so hotly pursued after me? Whereas thou hast searched all my stuff, what hast thou found of all thy household stuff? set it here before my brethren and thy brethren, that they may judge betwixt us both. This twenty years have I been with thee; thy ewes and thy she goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. That which was torn of I brought not unto thee; I the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day, or stolen by night. Thus I was; in the day the consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes. Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle: and thou hast changed my wages ten times. Except the of , the of , and the fear of , had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight. 43And answered and said unto , These daughters are my daughters, and these children are my children, and these cattle are my cattle, and all that thou seest is mine: and what can I do this day unto these my daughters, or unto their children which they have born? Now therefore come thou, let us make a , I and thou; and let it be for a between me and thee. And took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. And said unto his brethren, Gather stones; and they took stones, and made an heap: and they did eat there upon the heap. And called it Jegar–sahadutha: but called it Galeed. And said, This heap is a between me and thee this day. Therefore was the name of it called Galeed; And ; for he said, watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another. If thou shalt afflict my daughters, or if thou shalt take other wives beside my daughters, no man is with us; see, is betwixt me and thee. 51And said to , Behold this heap, and behold this pillar, which I have cast betwixt me and thee; This heap be , and this pillar be , that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me, for harm. The of , and the of , the of their , judge betwixt us. And sware by the fear of his . Then offered upon the mount, and called his brethren to eat bread: and they did eat bread, and tarried all night in the mount. And early in the morning rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and them: and departed, and returned unto his place.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. 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