with his brethren, had overtaken him, he pitched his tent in the same
mount of Galaad.

31:26. And he said to Jacob: Why hast thou done thus, to carry away,
without my knowledge, my daughters as captives taken with the sword?

31:27. Why wouldst thou run away privately, and not acquaint me, that I
might have brought thee on the way with joy, and with songs, and with
timbrels, and with harps?

31:28. Thou hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and daughters; thou
hast done foolishly; and now indeed,

31:29. It is in my power to return thee evil; but the God of your
father said to me yesterday: Take heed thou speak not any thing harshly
against Jacob.

31:30. Suppose thou didst desire to go to thy friends, and hadst a
longing after thy father's house: why hast thou stolen away my gods?

31:31. Jacob answered: That I departed unknown to thee, it was for fear
lest thou wouldst take away thy daughters by force.

31:32. But, whereas, thou chargest me with theft: with whomsoever thou
shalt find thy gods, let him be slain before our brethren. Search, and
if thou find any of thy things with me, take them away. Now when he
said this, he knew not that Rachel had stolen the idols.

31:33. So Laban went into the tent of Jacob, and of Lia, and of both
the handmaids, and found them not. And when he was entered into
Rachel's tent,

31:34. She, in haste, hid the idols under the camel's furniture, and
sat upon them: and when he had searched all the tent, and found
nothing,

31:35. She said: Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise up before
thee, because it has now happened to me according to the custom of
women. So his careful search was in vain.

31:36. And Jacob being angry, said in a chiding manner: For what fault
of mine, and for what offence on my part hast thou so hotly pursued me,

31:37. And searched all my household stuff? What hast thou found of all
the substance of thy house? lay it here before my brethren, and thy
brethren, and let them judge between me and thee.

31:38. Have I, therefore, been with thee twenty years? thy ewes and
goats were not barren, the rams of thy flocks I did not eat:

31:39. Neither did I shew thee that which the beast had torn; I made
good all the damage: whatsoever was lost by theft, thou didst exact it
of me:

31:40. Day and night was I parched with heat, and with frost, and sleep
departed from my eyes.

31:41. And in this manner have I served thee in thy house twenty years,
fourteen for thy daughters, and six for thy flocks: thou hast changed
also my wages ten times.

31:42. Unless the God of my father, Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had
stood by me, peradventure now thou hadst sent me away naked: God beheld
my affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesterday.

31:43. Laban answered him: The daughters are mine, and the children,
and thy flocks, and all things that thou seest are mine: what can I do
to my children, and grandchildren?

31:44. Come, therefore, let us enter into a league; that it may be for
a testimony between me and thee.

31:45. And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a title.

31:46. And he said to his brethren: Bring hither stones. And they,
gathering stones together, made a heap, and they ate upon it.

31:47. And Laban called it, The witness heap; and Jacob, The hillock of
testimony: each of them according to the propriety of his language.

31:48. And Laban said: This heap shall be a witness between me and thee
this day, and therefore the name thereof was called Galaad, that is,
The witness heap.

31:49. The Lord behold and judge between us, when we shall be gone one
from the other.

31:50. If thou afflict my daughters, and if thou bring in other wives
over them: none is witness of our speech but God, who is present and
beholdeth.

31:51. And he said again to Jacob: Behold this heap, and the stone
which I have set up between me and thee,

31:52. Shall be a witness: this heap, I say, and the stone, be they for
a testimony, if either I shall pass beyond it going towards thee, or
thou shalt pass beyond it thinking harm to me.

31:53. The God of Abraham, and the God of Nachor, the God of their
father, judge between us. And Jacob swore by the fear of his father


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