Part 20 (2/2)

31:31. Jacob answered: That I departed unknown to thee, it was for fear lest thou wouldst take away thy daughters by force.

31:32. But, whereas, thou chargest me with theft: with whomsoever thou shalt find thy G.o.ds, let him be slain before our brethren. Search, and if thou find any of thy things with me, take them away. Now when he said this, he knew not that Rachel had stolen the idols.

31:33. So Laban went into the tent of Jacob, and of Lia, and of both the handmaids, and found them not. And when he was entered into Rachel's tent,

31:34. She, in haste, hid the idols under the camel's furniture, and sat upon them: and when he had searched all the tent, and found nothing,

31:35. She said: Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise up before thee, because it has now happened to me according to the custom of women. So his careful search was in vain.

31:36. And Jacob being angry, said in a chiding manner: For what fault of mine, and for what offence on my part hast thou so hotly pursued me,

31:37. And searched all my household stuff? What hast thou found of all the substance of thy house? lay it here before my brethren, and thy brethren, and let them judge between me and thee.

31:38. Have I, therefore, been with thee twenty years? thy ewes and goats were not barren, the rams of thy flocks I did not eat:

31:39. Neither did I shew thee that which the beast had torn; I made good all the damage: whatsoever was lost by theft, thou didst exact it of me:

31:40. Day and night was I parched with heat, and with frost, and sleep departed from my eyes.

31:41. And in this manner have I served thee in thy house twenty years, fourteen for thy daughters, and six for thy flocks: thou hast changed also my wages ten times.

31:42. Unless the G.o.d of my father, Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had stood by me, peradventure now thou hadst sent me away naked: G.o.d beheld my affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesterday.

31:43. Laban answered him: The daughters are mine, and the children, and thy flocks, and all things that thou seest are mine: what can I do to my children, and grandchildren?

31:44. Come, therefore, let us enter into a league; that it may be for a testimony between me and thee.

31:45. And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a t.i.tle.

31:46. And he said to his brethren: Bring hither stones. And they, gathering stones together, made a heap, and they ate upon it.

31:47. And Laban called it, The witness heap; and Jacob, The hillock of testimony: each of them according to the propriety of his language.

31:48. And Laban said: This heap shall be a witness between me and thee this day, and therefore the name thereof was called Galaad, that is, The witness heap.

31:49. The Lord behold and judge between us, when we shall be gone one from the other.

31:50. If thou afflict my daughters, and if thou bring in other wives over them: none is witness of our speech but G.o.d, who is present and beholdeth.

31:51. And he said again to Jacob: Behold this heap, and the stone which I have set up between me and thee,

31:52. Shall be a witness: this heap, I say, and the stone, be they for a testimony, if either I shall pa.s.s beyond it going towards thee, or thou shalt pa.s.s beyond it thinking harm to me.

31:53. The G.o.d of Abraham, and the G.o.d of Nachor, the G.o.d of their father, judge betweeen us. And Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac:

31:54. And after he had offered sacrifices in the mountain, he called his brethren to eat bread. And when they had eaten, they lodged there:

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