7. but he has cheated me, changing my wages ten times. But God has not allowed him to do me any harm.
8. For if he said, ‘The speckled animals will be your wages,’ the whole flock began to produce speckled young. And when he changed his mind and said, ‘The striped animals will be your wages,’ then the whole flock produced striped young.
9. In this way, God has taken your father’s animals and given them to me.
10. “One time during the mating season, I had a dream and saw that the male goats mating with the females were streaked, speckled, and spotted.
11. Then in my dream, the angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ And I replied, ‘Yes, here I am.’
12. “The angel said, ‘Look up, and you will see that only the streaked, speckled, and spotted males are mating with the females of your flock. For I have seen how Laban has treated you.
13. I am the God who appeared to you at Bethel, the place where you anointed the pillar of stone and made your vow to me. Now get ready and leave this country and return to the land of your birth.’”
14. Rachel and Leah responded, “That’s fine with us! We won’t inherit any of our father’s wealth anyway.
15. He has reduced our rights to those of foreign women. And after he sold us, he wasted the money you paid him for us.
16. All the wealth God has given you from our father legally belongs to us and our children. So go ahead and do whatever God has told you.”
17. So Jacob put his wives and children on camels,
18. and he drove all his livestock in front of him. He packed all the belongings he had acquired in Paddan-aram and set out for the land of Canaan, where his father, Isaac, lived.
19. At the time they left, Laban was some distance away, shearing his sheep. Rachel stole her father’s household idols and took them with her.
20. Jacob outwitted Laban the Aramean, for they set out secretly and never told Laban they were leaving.
21. So Jacob took all his possessions with him and crossed the Euphrates River, heading for the hill country of Gilead.
22. Three days later, Laban was told that Jacob had fled.
23. So he gathered a group of his relatives and set out in hot pursuit. He caught up with Jacob seven days later in the hill country of Gilead.
24. But the previous night God had appeared to Laban the Aramean in a dream and told him, “I’m warning you—leave Jacob alone!”