1. One day Jacob heard Laban’s sons talking. They said, “Jacob has taken everything our father owned. Jacob has become rich in this way.”
2. Then Jacob noticed that Laban was not as friendly as he had been before.
3. The Lord said to Jacob, “Go back to the land where your ancestors lived. I will be with you.”
4. So Jacob told Rachel and Leah to meet him in the field where he kept his flocks.
5. He said to them, “I have seen that your father is not as friendly with me as he used to be. But the God of my father has been with me.
6. You both know that I have worked as hard as I could for your father.
7. But he cheated me. He has changed my pay ten times. But God has not allowed your father to harm me.
8. At one time Laban said, ‘You can have all the speckled goats as your pay.’ After that, all the animals gave birth to speckled young ones. But then Laban said, ‘You can have all the streaked goats as your pay.’ After that, all the animals gave birth to streaked babies.
9. So God has taken the animals away from your father. And God has given them to me.
10. “I had a dream during the season when the animals were mating. I saw that the only male goats who were mating were streaked, speckled or spotted.
11. The angel of God spoke to me in that dream. He said, ‘Jacob!’ I answered, ‘Yes!’
12. The angel said, ‘Look! Only the streaked, speckled or spotted goats are mating. I have seen all the wrong things Laban does to you.
13. I am the God who appeared to you at Bethel. There you poured olive oil on the stone you set up on end. There you made a promise to me. Now I want you to leave here. Go back to the land where you were born.’”
14. Rachel and Leah answered Jacob, “Our father has nothing to give us when he dies.