(17) Thereupon Jacob put his children and wives on camels; (18) and he drove off all his livestock and all the wealth that he had amassed, the livestock in his possession that he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan. (19) Meanwhile Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father’s household idols. (20) Jacob kept Laban the Aramean in the dark, not telling him that he was fleeing, (21) and fled with all that he had. Soon he was across the Euphrates and heading toward the hill country of Gilead.

(22) On the third day, Laban was told that Jacob had fled. (23) So he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him a distance of seven days, catching up with him in the hill country of Gilead. (24) But God appeared to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, “Beware of attempting anything with Jacob, good or bad.”

(25) Laban overtook Jacob. Jacob had pitched his tent on the Height, and Laban with his kinsmen encamped in the hill country of Gilead. (26) And Laban said to Jacob, “What did you mean by keeping me in the dark and carrying off my daughters like captives of the sword? (27) Why did you flee in secrecy and mislead me and not tell me? I would have sent you off with festive music, with timbrel and lyre. (28) You did not even let me kiss my sons and daughters good-by! It was a foolish thing for you to do. (29) I have it in my power to do you harm; but the God of your father’s [house] said to me last night, ‘Beware of attempting anything with Jacob, good or bad.’ (30) Very well, you had to leave because you were longing for your father’s house; but why did you steal my gods?” (31) Jacob answered Laban, saying, “I was afraid because I thought you would take your daughters from me by force. (32) But anyone with whom you find your gods shall not remain alive! In the presence of our kin, point out what I have of yours and take it.” Jacob, of course, did not know that Rachel had stolen them. (33) So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and Leah’s tent and the tents of the two maidservants; but he did not find them. Leaving Leah’s tent, he entered Rachel’s tent. (34) Rachel, meanwhile, had taken the idols and placed them in the camel cushion and sat on them; and Laban rummaged through the tent without finding them. (35) For she said to her father, “Let not my lord take it amiss that I cannot rise before you, for I am in a womanly way.” Thus he searched, but could not find the household idols.

(36) Now Jacob became incensed and took up his grievance with Laban. Jacob spoke up and said to Laban, “What is my crime, what is my guilt that you should pursue me? (37) You rummaged through all my things; what have you found of all your household objects? Set it here, before my kin and yours, and let them decide between us two. (38) “These twenty years I have spent in your service, your ewes and she-goats never miscarried, nor did I feast on rams from your flock. (39) That which was torn by beasts I never brought to you; I myself made good the loss; you exacted it of me, whether snatched by day or snatched by night. (40) Often, scorching heat ravaged me by day and frost by night; and sleep fled from my eyes. (41) Of the twenty years that I spent in your household, I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flocks; and you changed my wages time and again. (42) Had not the God of my father’s [house]—the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac—been with me, you would have sent me away empty-handed. But it was my plight and the toil of my hands that God took notice of—and gave judgment on last night.”

(43) Then Laban spoke up and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks; all that you see is mine. Yet what can I do now about my daughters or the children they have borne? (44) Come, then, let us make a pact, you and I, that there may be a witness between you and me.” (45) Thereupon Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar.

(46) And Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a mound; and they partook of a meal there by the mound. (47) Laban named it Yegar-sahadutha, but Jacob named it Gal-ed. (48) And Laban declared, “This mound is a witness between you and me this day.” That is why it was named Gal-ed; (49) and [it was called] Mizpah, because he said, “May יהוה watch between you and me, when we are out of sight of each other. (50) If you ill-treat my daughters or take other wives besides my daughters—though no one else be about, remember, it is God who will be witness between you and me.”

(51) And Laban said to Jacob, “Here is this mound and here the pillar which I have set up between you and me: (52) this mound shall be witness and this pillar shall be witness that I am not to cross to you past this mound, and that you are not to cross to me past this mound and this pillar, with hostile intent. (53) May the God of Abraham’s [house] and the god of Nahor’s [house]”—their ancestral deities—“judge between us.” And Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac’s [house]. (54) Jacob then offered up a sacrifice on the Height, and invited his kinsmen to partake of the meal. After the meal, they spent the night on the Height. (1) Early in the morning, Laban kissed his sons and daughters and bade them good-by; then Laban left on his journey homeward. (2) Jacob went on his way, and messengers of God encountered him. (3) When he saw them, Jacob said, “This is God’s camp.” So he named that place Mahanaim.

(1) Early in the morning, Laban kissed his sons and daughters and bade them good-by; then Laban left on his journey homeward. (2) Jacob went on his way, and messengers of God encountered him. (3) When he saw them, Jacob said, “This is God’s camp.” So he named that place Mahanaim.

(13) Then Jacob had to flee to the land of Aram; There Israel served for a wife, For a wife he had to guard [sheep]. (14) But when GOD Brought Israel up from Egypt, It was through a prophet; Through a prophet they were guarded. (15) Ephraim gave bitter offense, And his Lord cast his crimes upon him And requited him for his mockery. (1) When Ephraim spoke piety, He was exalted in Israel; But he incurred guilt through Baal, And so he died. (2) And now they go on sinning; They have made them molten images, Idols, by their skill, from their silver, Wholly the work of artisans. Yet for these they appoint people to sacrifice; They are wont to kiss calves! (3) Assuredly, They shall be like morning clouds, Like dew so early gone; Like chaff whirled away from the threshing floor. And like smoke from a lattice. (4) Only I the ETERNAL One have been your God Ever since the land of Egypt; You have never known a [true] God but Me, You have never had a helper other than Me. (5) I looked after you in the desert, In a thirsty land. (6) When they grazed, they were sated; When they were sated, they grew haughty; And so they forgot Me. (7) So I am become like a lion to them, Like a leopard I lurk on the way; (8) Like a bear robbed of her young I attack them And rip open the casing of their hearts; I will devour them there like a lion, The beasts of the field shall mangle them. (9) You are undone, O Israel! You had no help but Me. (10) Where now is your king? Let him save you! Where are the chieftains in all your towns From whom you demanded: “Give me a king and officers”? (11) I give you kings in My ire, And take them away in My wrath. (12) Ephraim’s guilt is bound up, His sin is stored away. (13) Pangs of childbirth assail him, And the babe is not wise— For this is no time to survive At the birthstool of babes. (14) From Sheol itself I will save them, Redeem them from very Death. Where, O Death, are your plagues? Your pestilence where, O Sheol? Revenge shall be far from My thoughts. (15) For though he flourish among reeds, A blast, a wind of GOD, Shall come blowing up from the wilderness; His fountain shall be parched, His spring dried up. That [wind] shall plunder treasures, Every lovely object. (1) Samaria must bear her guilt, For she has defied her God. They shall fall by the sword, Their infants shall be dashed to death, And their women with child ripped open. (2) Return, O Israel, to the ETERNAL your God, For you have fallen because of your sin. (3) Take words with you And return to GOD. Say: “Forgive all guilt And accept what is good; Instead of bulls we will pay [The offering of] our lips. (4) Assyria shall not save us, No more will we ride on steeds; Nor ever again will we call Our handiwork our god, Since in You alone orphans find pity!” (5) I will heal their affliction, Generously will I take them back in love; For My anger has turned away from them. (6) I will be to Israel like dew; He shall blossom like the lily, He shall strike root like a Lebanon tree. (7) His boughs shall spread out far, His beauty shall be like the olive tree’s, His fragrance like that of Lebanon. (8) They who sit in his shade shall be revived: They shall bring to life new grain, They shall blossom like the vine; His scent shall be like the wine of Lebanon. (9) Ephraim [shall say]: “What more have I to do with idols? When I respond and look to [God], I become like a verdant cypress.” Your fruit is provided by Me. (10) The wise will consider these words, The prudent will take note of them. For the paths of GOD are smooth; The righteous can walk on them, While sinners stumble on them.

(7) For My people persists In its defection from Me; When it is summoned upward, It does not rise at all. (8) How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How surrender you, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah, Render you like Zeboiim? I have had a change of heart, All My tenderness is stirred. (9) I will not act on My wrath, Will not turn to destroy Ephraim. For I am God—not human— The Holy One in your midst: I will not come in fury. (10) GOD will roar like a lion— Whom they shall march behind; With that roar, God’s children shall come Fluttering out of the west. (11) They shall flutter from Egypt like sparrows, From the land of Assyria like doves; And I will settle them in their homes —declares GOD. (1) Ephraim surrounds Me with deceit, The House of Israel with guile. (But Judah stands firm with God And is faithful to the Holy One.) (2) Ephraim tends the wind And pursues the gale; He is forever adding Illusion to calamity. Now they make a covenant with Assyria, Now oil is carried to Egypt. (3) GOD once indicted Judah, And punished Jacob for his conduct, Requited him for his deeds. (4) In the womb he tried to supplant his brother; Grown to manhood, he strove with a divine being, (5) He strove with an angel and prevailed— The other had to weep and implore him. At Bethel [Jacob] would meet him, There to commune with him. (6) Yet the ETERNAL, the God of Hosts, Must be invoked as “ GOD.” (7) You must return to your God! Practice goodness and justice, And constantly trust in your God. (8) A trader who uses false balances, Who loves to overreach, (9) Ephraim thinks, “Ah, I have become rich; I have gotten power! All my gains do not amount To an offense that is real guilt.” (10) I the ETERNAL have been your God Ever since the land of Egypt. I will let you dwell in your tents again As in the days of old, (11) When I spoke to the prophets; For I granted many visions, And spoke parables through the prophets. (12) As for Gilead, it is worthless; And to no purpose have they Been sacrificing oxen in Gilgal: The altars of these are also Like stone heaps upon a plowed field.

(11) Saul sent messengers to David’s home to keep watch on him and to kill him in the morning. But David’s wife Michal told him, “Unless you run for your life tonight, you will be killed tomorrow.” (12) Michal let David down from the window and he escaped and fled. (13) Michal then took the household idol, laid it on the bed, and covered it with a cloth; and at its head she put a net of goat’s hair. (14) Saul sent messengers to seize David; but she said, “He is sick.” (15) Saul, however, sent back the messengers to see David for themselves. “Bring him up to me in the bed,” he ordered, “that he may be put to death.” (16) When the messengers came, they found the household idol in the bed, with the net of goat’s hair at its head. (17) Saul said to Michal, “Why did you play that trick on me and let my enemy get away safely?” “Because,” Michal answered Saul, “he said to me: ‘Help me get away or I’ll kill you.’” (18) David made good his escape, and he came to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. He and Samuel went and stayed at Naioth.