Day 97 of 365

¹Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the children of the east.

²He looked, and behold, a well in the field, and, behold, three flocks of sheep lying there by it. For out of that well they watered the flocks. The stone on the well's mouth was large.

³There all the flocks were gathered. They rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again on the well's mouth in its place.

⁴Jacob said to them, "My relatives, where are you from?" They said, "We are from Haran."

⁵He said to them, "Do you know Laban, the son of Nahor?" They said, "We know him."

⁶He said to them, "Is it well with him?" They said, "It is well. See, Rachel, his daughter, is coming with the sheep."

⁷He said, "Behold, it is still the middle of the day, not time to gather the livestock together. Water the sheep, and go and feed them."

⁸They said, "We can't, until all the flocks are gathered together, and they roll the stone from the well's mouth. Then we water the sheep."

⁹While he was yet speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she kept them.

¹⁰It happened, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother.

¹¹Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept.

¹²Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother, and that he was Rebekah's son. She ran and told her father.

¹³It happened, when Laban heard the news of Jacob, his sister's son, that he ran to meet Jacob, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things.

¹⁴Laban said to him, Surely you are my bone and my flesh. He lived with him for a month.

¹⁵Laban said to Jacob, "Because you are my brother, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what will your wages be?"

¹⁶Laban had two daughters. The name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.

¹⁷Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and attractive.

¹⁸Jacob loved Rachel. He said, "I will serve you seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter."

¹⁹Laban said, "It is better that I give her to you, than that I should give her to another man. Stay with me."

²⁰Jacob served seven years for Rachel. They seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had for her.

²¹Jacob said to Laban, "Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in to her."

²²Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast.

²³It happened in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him. He went in to her.

²⁴Laban gave Zilpah his handmaid to his daughter Leah for a handmaid.

²⁵It happened in the morning that, behold, it was Leah. He said to Laban, "What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?"

²⁶Laban said, "It is not done so in our place, to give the younger before the firstborn.

²⁷Fulfill the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you will serve with me yet seven other years."

²⁸Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week. He gave him Rachel his daughter as wife.

²⁹Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah, his handmaid, to be her handmaid.

³⁰He went in also to Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years.

³¹The Lord saw that Leah was hated, and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.

³²Leah conceived, and bore a son, and she named him Reuben. For she said, "Because the Lord has looked at my affliction. For now my husband will love me."

³³She conceived again, and bore a son, and said, "Because the Lord has heard that I am hated, he has therefore given me this son also." She named him Simeon.

³⁴She conceived again, and bore a son. Said, "Now this time will my husband be joined to me, because I have borne him three sons." Therefore was his name called Levi.

³⁵She conceived again, and bore a son. She said, "This time will I praise the Lord." Therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing.

¹When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister. She said to Jacob, "Give me children, or else I will die."

²Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, "Am I in God's place, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?"

³She said, "Behold, my maid Bilhah. Go in to her, that she may bear on my knees, and I also may obtain children by her."

⁴She gave him Bilhah her handmaid as wife, and Jacob went in to her.

⁵Bilhah conceived, and bore Jacob a son.

⁶Rachel said, "God has judged me, and has also heard my voice, and has given me a son." Therefore called she his name Dan.

⁷Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid, conceived again, and bore Jacob a second son.

⁸Rachel said, "With mighty wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed." She named him Naphtali.

⁹When Leah saw that she had finished bearing, she took Zilpah, her handmaid, and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

¹⁰Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, bore Jacob a son.

¹¹Leah said, "How fortunate!" She named him Gad.

¹²Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, bore Jacob a second son.

¹³Leah said, "Happy am I, for the daughters will call me happy." She named him Asher.

¹⁴Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother, Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes."

¹⁵She said to her, "Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son's mandrakes, also?" Rachel said, "Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son's mandrakes."

¹⁶Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, "You must come in to me; for I have surely hired you with my son's mandrakes." He lay with her that night.

¹⁷God listened to Leah, and she conceived, and bore Jacob a fifth son.

¹⁸Leah said, "God has given me my hire, because I gave my handmaid to my husband." She named him Issachar.

¹⁹Leah conceived again, and bore a sixth son to Jacob.

²⁰Leah said, "God has endowed me with a good dowry. Now my husband will live with me, because I have borne him six sons." She named him Zebulun.

²¹Afterwards, she bore a daughter, and named her Dinah.

²²God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her, and opened her womb.

²³She conceived, bore a son, and said, "God has taken away my reproach."

²⁴She named him Joseph, saying, "May the Lord add another son to me."

²⁵It happened, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, "Send me away, that I may go to my own place, and to my country.

²⁶Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service with which I have served you."

²⁷Laban said to him, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, stay here, for I have divined that the Lord has blessed me for your sake."

²⁸He said, "Appoint me your wages, and I will give it."

²⁹He said to him, "You know how I have served you, and how your livestock have fared with me.

³⁰For it was little which you had before I came, and it has increased to a multitude. The Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. Now when will I provide for my own house also?"

³¹He said, "What shall I give you?" Jacob said, "You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it.

³²I will pass through all your flock today, removing from there every speckled and spotted one, and every black one among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. This will be my hire.

³³So my righteousness will answer for me hereafter, when you come concerning my hire that is before you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the sheep, that might be with me, will be counted stolen."

³⁴Laban said, "Behold, I desire it to be according to your word."

³⁵That day, he removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons.

³⁶He set three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks.

³⁷Jacob took to himself rods of fresh poplar, almond, plane tree, peeled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.

³⁸He set the rods which he had peeled opposite the flocks in the gutters in the watering-troughs where the flocks came to drink. They conceived when they came to drink.

³⁹The flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted.

⁴⁰Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the black in the flock of Laban: and he put his own droves apart, and did not put them into Laban's flock.

⁴¹It happened, whenever the stronger of the flock conceived, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the flock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods;

⁴²but when the flock were feeble, he did not put them in. So the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's.

⁴³The man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

¹He heard the words of Laban's sons, saying, "Jacob has taken away all that was our father's. From that which was our father's, has he gotten all this wealth."

²Jacob saw the expression on Laban's face, and, behold, it was not toward him as before.

³The Lord said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives, and I will be with you."

⁴Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock,

⁵and 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.

⁶You know that I have served your father with all of my strength.

⁷Your father has deceived me, and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to hurt me.

⁸If he said this, 'The speckled will be your wages,' then all the flock bore speckled. If he said this, 'The streaked will be your wages,' then all the flock bore streaked.

⁹Thus God has taken away your father's livestock, and given them to me.

¹⁰It happened during mating season that 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.

¹¹The angel of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacob,' and I said, 'Here I am.'

¹²He 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.

¹³I 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.'"

¹⁴Rachel and Leah answered him, "Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house?

¹⁵Aren't we accounted by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and has also quite devoured our money.

¹⁶For all the riches which God has taken away from our father, that is ours and our children's. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do."

¹⁷Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives on the camels,

¹⁸and 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.

¹⁹Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep: and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father's.

²⁰Jacob deceived Laban the Syrian, in that he did not tell him that he was running away.

²¹So he fled with all that he had. He rose up, passed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead.

²²Laban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled.

²³He took his relatives with him, and pursued after him seven days' journey. He overtook him in the mountain of Gilead.

²⁴God came to Laban, the Syrian, in a dream of the night, and said to him, "Take heed to yourself that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad."

²⁵Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain, and Laban with his relatives encamped in the mountain of Gilead.

²⁶Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done, that you have deceived me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword?

²⁷Why did you flee secretly, and deceive me, and did not tell me, that I might have sent you away with mirth and with songs, with tambourine and with harp;

²⁸and did not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now have you done foolishly.

²⁹It is in the power of my hand to hurt you, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, 'Take heed to yourself that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.'

³⁰Now, you want to be gone, because you greatly longed for your father's house, but why have you stolen my gods?"

³¹Jacob answered Laban, "Because I was afraid, for I said, 'Lest you should take your daughters from me by force.'

³²Anyone you find your gods with shall not live. Before our relatives, discern what is yours with me, and take it." For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

³³Laban went into Jacob's tent, into Leah's tent, and into the tent of the two female servants; but he did not find them. He went out of Leah's tent, and entered into Rachel's tent.

³⁴Now Rachel had taken the teraphim, put them in the camel's saddle, and sat on them. Laban felt about all the tent, but did not find them.

³⁵She said to her father, "Do not let my lord be angry that I can't rise up before you; for the manner of women is on me." He searched, but did not find the teraphim.

³⁶Jacob was angry, and argued with Laban. Jacob answered Laban, "What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued after me?

³⁷Now 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.

³⁸These 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.

³⁹That which was torn of animals, I did not bring to you. I bore its loss. Of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.

⁴⁰This was my situation: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my eyes.

⁴¹These twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.

⁴²Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night."

⁴³Laban answered Jacob, "The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine: and what can I do this day to these my daughters, or to their children whom they have borne?

⁴⁴Now come, let us make a covenant, you and I; and let it be for a witness between me and you."

⁴⁵Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar.

⁴⁶Jacob said to his relatives, "Gather stones." They took stones, and made a heap. They ate there by the heap.

⁴⁷Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.

⁴⁸Laban said, "This heap is witness between me and you this day." Therefore it was named Galeed

⁴⁹and Mizpah, for he said, "The Lord watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another.

⁵⁰If you afflict my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, no man is with us; behold, God is witness between me and you."

⁵¹Laban said to Jacob, "See this heap, and see the pillar, which I have set between me and you.

⁵²May this heap be a witness, and the pillar be a witness, 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.

⁵³The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us." Then Jacob swore by the fear of his father, Isaac.

⁵⁴Jacob offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread, and stayed all night in the mountain.

⁵⁵Early in the morning, Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Laban departed and returned to his place.

¹The Lord reigns! Let the earth rejoice! Let the multitude of islands be glad!

²Clouds and darkness are around him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.

³A fire goes before him, and burns up his adversaries on every side.

⁴His lightning lights up the world. The earth sees, and trembles.

⁵The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.

⁶The heavens declare his righteousness. All the peoples have seen his glory.

⁷Let all them be shamed who serve engraved images, who boast in their idols. Worship him, all you gods!

⁸Zion heard and was glad. The daughters of Judah rejoiced, because of your judgments, Lord.

⁹For you, Lord, are most high above all the earth. You are exalted far above all gods.

¹⁰You who love the Lord, hate evil. He preserves the souls of his holy ones. He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.

¹¹Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.

¹²Be glad in the Lord, you righteous people! Give thanks to his holy Name.

¹Listen, sons, to a father's instruction. Pay attention and know understanding;

²for I give you sound learning. Do not forsake my law.

³For I was a son to my father, tender and an only child in the sight of my mother.

⁴He taught me, and said to me: "Let your heart retain my words. Keep my commandments, and live.

⁵Get wisdom. Get understanding. Do not forget, neither swerve from the words of my mouth.

⁶Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you. Love her, and she will keep you.

⁷Wisdom is supreme. Get wisdom. Yes, though it costs all your possessions, get understanding.

⁸Esteem her, and she will exalt you. She will bring you to honor, when you embrace her.

⁹She will give to your head a garland of grace. She will deliver a crown of splendor to you."

¹⁰Listen, my son, and receive my sayings. The years of your life will be many.

¹¹I have taught you in the way of wisdom. I have led you in straight paths.

¹²When you go, your steps will not be hampered. When you run, you will not stumble.

¹³Take firm hold of instruction. Do not let her go. Keep her, for she is your life.

¹⁴Do not enter into the path of the wicked. Do not walk in the way of evil men.

¹⁵Avoid it, and do not pass by it. Turn from it, and pass on.

¹⁶For they do not sleep, unless they do evil. Their sleep is taken away, unless they make someone fall.

¹⁷For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.

¹⁸But the path of the righteous is like the dawning light, that shines more and more until the perfect day.

¹⁹The way of the wicked is like darkness. They do not know what they stumble over.

²⁰My son, attend to my words. Turn your ear to my sayings.

²¹Let them not depart from your eyes. Keep them in the midst of your heart.

²²For they are life to those who find them, and health to their whole body.

²³Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life.

²⁴Put away from yourself a perverse mouth. Put corrupt lips far from you.

²⁵Let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you.

²⁶Make the path of your feet level. Let all of your ways be established.

²⁷Do not turn to the right hand nor to the left. Remove your foot from evil.