29. I have the power to really hurt you. But last night the God of your father came to me in a dream. He warned me not to hurt you in any way.
30. I know that you want to go back to your home. That is why you left. But why did you steal the gods from my house?”
31. Jacob answered, “I left without telling you, because I was afraid. I thought you would take your daughters away from me.
32. But I did not steal your gods. If you find anyone here with me who has taken your gods, they will be killed. Your men will be my witnesses. You can look for anything that belongs to you. Take anything that is yours.” (Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen Laban’s gods.)
33. So Laban went and looked through Jacob’s camp. He looked in Jacob’s tent and then in Leah’s tent. Then he looked in the tent where the two slave women stayed, but he did not find the gods from his house. Then he went into Rachel’s tent.
34. Rachel had hidden the gods inside her camel’s saddle, and she was sitting on them. Laban looked through the whole tent, but he did not find the gods.
35. And Rachel said to her father, “Father, don’t be angry with me. I am not able to stand up before you. I am having my monthly time of bleeding.” So Laban looked through the camp, but he did not find the gods from his house.
36. Then Jacob became very angry and said, “What wrong have I done? What law have I broken? What right do you have to chase me and stop me?
37. You looked through everything I own and found nothing that belongs to you. If you found something, show it to me. Put it here where our men can see it. Let our men decide which one of us is right.
38. I have worked 20 years for you. During all that time none of the baby sheep and goats died during birth. And I have not eaten any of the rams from your flocks.
39. Any time a sheep was killed by wild animals, I always paid for the loss myself. I did not take the dead animal to you and say that it was not my fault. But I was robbed day and night.
40. In the daytime the sun took away my strength, and at night sleep was taken from my eyes by the cold.