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Genesis 31

Flight from Laban.

1^* Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father, and he has produced all this wealth from our father’s property.”

2Jacob perceived, too, that Laban’s attitude toward him was not what it had previously been.

3Then the LORD said to Jacob: Return to the land of your ancestors, where you were born, and I will be with you.^a

4So Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah to meet him in the field where his flock was.

5There he said to them: “I have noticed that your father’s attitude toward me is not as it was in the past; but the God of my father has been with me.

6You know well that with all my strength I served your father;

7yet your father cheated me and changed my wages ten times. God, however, did not let him do me any harm.^b

8Whenever your father said, ‘The speckled animals will be your wages,’ the entire flock would bear speckled young; whenever he said, ‘The streaked animals will be your wages,’ the entire flock would bear streaked young.

9So God took away your father’s livestock and gave it to me.

10Once, during the flock’s mating season, I had a dream in which I saw he-goats mating that were streaked, speckled and mottled.

11In the dream God’s angel said to me, ‘Jacob!’ and I replied, ‘Here I am!’

12Then he said: ‘Look up and see. All the he-goats that are mating are streaked, speckled and mottled, for I have seen all the things that Laban has been doing to you.

13I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a sacred pillar and made a vow to me. Get up now! Leave this land and return to the land of your birth.’”^c

14Rachel and Leah answered him: “Do we still have an heir’s portion in our father’s house?

15Are we not regarded by him as outsiders?^* He not only sold us; he has even used up the money that he got for us!

16All the wealth that God took away from our father really belongs to us and our children. So do whatever God has told you.”^d

17Jacob proceeded to put his children and wives on camels,

18and he drove off all his livestock and all the property he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.

19Now Laban was away shearing his sheep, and Rachel had stolen her father’s household images.^{* e}

20Jacob had hoodwinked^* Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was going to flee.

21Thus he fled with all that he had. Once he was across the Euphrates, he headed for the hill country of Gilead.

22On the third day, word came to Laban that Jacob had fled.

23Taking his kinsmen with him, he pursued him for seven days^* until he caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.

24But that night God appeared to Laban the Aramean in a dream and said to him: Take care not to say anything to Jacob.^f

Jacob and Laban in Gilead.

25When Laban overtook Jacob, Jacob’s tents were pitched in the hill country; Laban also pitched his tents in the hill country of Gilead.

26Laban said to Jacob, “How could you hoodwink me and carry off my daughters like prisoners of war?^*

27Why did you dupe me by stealing away secretly? You did not tell me! I would have sent you off with joyful singing to the sound of tambourines and harps.

28You did not even allow me a parting kiss to my daughters and grandchildren! Now what you have done makes no sense.

29I have it in my power to harm all of you; but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Take care not to say anything to Jacob!’

30Granted that you had to leave because you were longing for your father’s house, why did you steal my gods?”

31Jacob replied to Laban, “I was frightened at the thought that you might take your daughters away from me by force.

32As for your gods, the one you find them with shall not remain alive! If, with our kinsmen looking on, you identify anything here as belonging to you, take it.” Jacob had no idea that Rachel had stolen the household images.

33Laban then went in and searched Jacob’s tent and Leah’s tent, as well as the tents of the two maidservants; but he did not find them. Leaving Leah’s tent, he went into Rachel’s.

34^* Meanwhile Rachel had taken the household images, put them inside the camel’s saddlebag, and seated herself upon them. When Laban had rummaged through her whole tent without finding them,^g

35she said to her father, “Do not let my lord be angry that I cannot rise in your presence; I am having my period.” So, despite his search, he did not find the household images.

36Jacob, now angered, confronted Laban and demanded, “What crime or offense have I committed that you should hound me?

37Now that you have rummaged through all my things, what have you found from your household belongings? Produce it here before your kinsmen and mine, and let them decide between the two of us.

38“In the twenty years that I was under you, no ewe or she-goat of yours ever miscarried, and I have never eaten rams of your flock.

39^h I never brought you an animal torn by wild beasts; I made good the loss myself. You held me responsible for anything stolen by day or night.^*

40Often the scorching heat devoured me by day, and the frost by night, while sleep fled from my eyes!

41Of the twenty years that I have now spent in your household, I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, while you changed my wages ten times.

42If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, you would now have sent me away empty-handed. But God saw my plight and the fruits of my toil, and last night he reproached you.”ⁱ

43^* Laban replied to Jacob: “The daughters are mine, their children are mine, and the flocks are mine; everything you see belongs to me. What can I do now for my own daughters and for the children they have borne?

44^* Come, now, let us make a covenant, you and I; and it will be a treaty between you and me.”

45Then Jacob took a stone and set it up as a sacred pillar.^j

46Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” So they got stones and made a mound; and they ate there at the mound.

47Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha,^* but Jacob called it Galeed.

48Laban said, “This mound will be a witness from now on between you and me.” That is why it was named Galeed—

49and also Mizpah,^* for he said: “May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are out of each other’s sight.

50If you mistreat my daughters, or take other wives besides my daughters, know that even though no one else is there, God will be a witness between you and me.”

51Laban said further to Jacob: “Here is this mound, and here is the sacred pillar that I have set up between you and me.

52This mound will be a witness, and this sacred pillar will be a witness, that, with hostile intent, I may not pass beyond this mound into your territory, nor may you pass beyond it into mine.

53May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us!” Jacob took the oath by the Fear of his father Isaac.^*

54He then offered a sacrifice on the mountain and invited his kinsmen to share in the meal. When they had eaten, they passed the night on the mountain.

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Genesis 32

1^* Early the next morning, Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them; then he set out on his journey back home.

2Meanwhile Jacob continued on his own way, and God’s angels encountered him.

3When Jacob saw them he said, “This is God’s encampment.” So he named that place Mahanaim.^*

Envoys to Esau.

4Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom,^a

5ordering them: “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: ‘Thus says your servant Jacob: I have been residing with Laban and have been delayed until now.

6I own oxen, donkeys and sheep, as well as male and female servants. I have sent my lord this message in the hope of gaining your favor.’”

7When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We found your brother Esau. He is now coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”

8Jacob was very much frightened. In his anxiety, he divided the people who were with him, as well as his flocks, herds and camels, into two camps.

9“If Esau should come and attack one camp,” he reasoned, “the remaining camp may still escape.”

10Then Jacob prayed: “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac! You, LORD, who said to me, ‘Go back to your land and your relatives, and I will be good to you.’^b

11I am unworthy of all the acts of kindness and faithfulness that you have performed for your servant: although I crossed the Jordan here with nothing but my staff, I have now grown into two camps.

12Save me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau! Otherwise I fear that he will come and strike me down and the mothers with the children.

13You yourself said, ‘I will be very good to you, and I will make your descendants like the sands of the sea, which are too numerous to count.’”^c

14After passing the night there, Jacob selected from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau:

15two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats; two hundred ewes and twenty rams;

16thirty female camels and their young; forty cows and ten bulls; twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.

17He put these animals in the care of his servants, in separate herds, and he told the servants, “Go on ahead of me, but keep some space between the herds.”

18He ordered the servant in the lead, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? To whom do these animals ahead of you belong?’

19tell him, ‘To your servant Jacob, but they have been sent as a gift to my lord Esau. Jacob himself is right behind us.’”

20He also ordered the second servant and the third and all the others who followed behind the herds: “Thus and so you shall say to Esau, when you reach him;

21and also tell him, ‘Your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” For Jacob reasoned, “If I first appease him with a gift that precedes me, then later, when I face him, perhaps he will forgive me.”

22So the gifts went on ahead of him, while he stayed that night in the camp.

Jacob’s New Name.^*

23That night, however, Jacob arose, took his two wives, with the two maidservants and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.

24After he got them and brought them across the wadi and brought over what belonged to him,

25Jacob was left there alone. Then a man^* wrestled with him until the break of dawn.

26When the man saw that he could not prevail over him, he struck Jacob’s hip at its socket, so that Jacob’s socket was dislocated as he wrestled with him.^d

27The man then said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go until you bless me.”

28“What is your name?” the man asked. He answered, “Jacob.”^e

29Then the man said, “You shall no longer be named Jacob, but Israel,^* because you have contended with divine and human beings and have prevailed.”

30Jacob then asked him, “Please tell me your name.” He answered, “Why do you ask for my name?” With that, he blessed him.

31Jacob named the place Peniel,^* “because I have seen God face to face,” he said, “yet my life has been spared.”^f

32At sunrise, as he left Penuel, Jacob limped along because of his hip.

33That is why, to this day, the Israelites do not eat the sciatic muscle that is on the hip socket, because he had struck Jacob’s hip socket at the sciatic muscle.

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Mark 5 : 21-43

Jairus’s Daughter and the Woman with a Hemorrhage.^*

21When Jesus had crossed again [in the boat] to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea.^c

22One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward.^d Seeing him he fell at his feet

23and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, “My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her^* that she may get well and live.”

24He went off with him, and a large crowd followed him and pressed upon him.

25There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years.

26She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse.

27She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak.

28^* She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.”

29Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.

30Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who has touched my clothes?”

31But his disciples said to him, “You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’”

32And he looked around to see who had done it.

33The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth.

34He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.”^e

35^* While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official’s house arrived and said, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?”

36Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.”

37He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.

38When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official, he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.

39^{* f} So he went in and said to them, “Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep.”

40And they ridiculed him. Then he put them all out. He took along the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and entered the room where the child was.

41^* He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!”

42The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around. [At that] they were utterly astounded.

43He gave strict orders that no one should know this and said that she should be given something to eat.

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