Flight, and the household gods
1 Jacob heard Laban’s sons’ words, saying, “Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s. He has obtained all this wealth from that which was our father’s.” 2 Jacob saw the expression on Laban’s face, and, behold, it was not toward him as before. 3 Yahweh said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives, and I will be with you.” 4 Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock, 5 and said to them, “I see the expression on your father’s face, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me. 6 You know that I have served your father with all of my strength. 7 Your father has deceived me, and changed my wages ten times, but God didn’t allow him to hurt me. 8 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. 9 Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock, and given them to me. 10 During mating season, I lifted up my eyes, and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats which leaped on the flock were streaked, speckled, and grizzled. 11 The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’ 12 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 Laban does to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you vowed a vow to me. Now arise, get out from this land, and return to the land of your birth.’” 14 Rachel and Leah answered him, “Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house? 15 Aren’t we considered as foreigners by him? For he has sold us, and has also used up our money. 16 For all the riches which God has taken away from our father are ours and our children’s. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.” 17 Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives on the camels, 18 and he took away all his livestock, and all his possessions which he had gathered, including the livestock which he had gained in Paddan Aram, to go to Isaac his father, to the land of Canaan. 19 Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep; and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father’s. 20 Jacob deceived Laban the Syrian, in that he didn’t tell him that he was running away. 21 So he fled with all that he had. He rose up, passed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead.
Three signals tell Jacob to go, his wives agree for reasons of their own, and one of them takes her father's idols on the way out.
The decision to leave is prompted by three things arriving together, and the narrative gives them in ascending order of authority.
First, gossip. Laban's sons are saying Jacob has taken away all that was our father's — an accusation that is false in law and understandable in feeling, since the flocks did change hands.
Second, a face. Jacob saw the expression on Laban's face, and, behold, it was not toward him as before. Twenty years of reading a difficult man across a table, and he can see the weather changing.
Third, and decisive: Yahweh said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives, and I will be with you."
What follows is Jacob's account to his wives, and it is the most religious speech he has made. He credits nothing to himself. Laban deceived him and changed his wages ten times, but God didn't allow him to hurt me; and the flocks moved because God has taken away your father's livestock, and given them to me.
The dream he reports is the key to the previous chapter. An angel showed him the flocks and said I have seen all that Laban does to you, and identified himself: I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you vowed a vow to me. God is holding Jacob to a night twenty years earlier that Jacob has evidently not mentioned to anyone. The vow made by a frightened fugitive on a stone is being called in.
Rachel and Leah agree, and their reasoning is worth hearing because it is not piety. Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house? Aren't we considered as foreigners by him? For he has sold us, and has also used up our money. They are describing the bride price — fourteen years of their husband's labor — which should have been held for them and which their father spent. The two sisters who have fought each other for a decade are united by a shared grievance against Laban, and their conclusion is unqualified: whatever God has said to you, do.
Then the departure, and the narrative places two sentences side by side without linking them.
Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father's. Household gods — small figures whose possession may have carried claims on inheritance, and which were in any case objects of worship. The covenant family is leaving for the promised land with idols in the baggage, and the wife of the patriarch put them there. Nobody in the chapter knows except her.
Jacob deceived Laban the Syrian, in that he didn't tell him that he was running away. The word is the family's word, used of Jacob at his father's bedside and by Jacob of Laban at the wedding, and here it is used of Jacob again. He is right to be afraid and he is still doing what he has always done, which is leave without saying so.
He crosses the river and sets his face toward Gilead — running, at last, in the right direction.
settled What this mark means