<p class="bodytext">So Laban asked,<n id="1" /> &#8220;What should I give you?&#8221; &#8220;You don&#8217;t need to give me a thing,&#8221;<n id="2" /> Jacob replied,<n id="3" /> &#8220;but if you agree to this one condition,<n id="4" /> I will continue to care for<n id="5" /> your flocks and protect them:

Jacob removed these lambs, but he made the rest of the flock face<n id="1" /> the streaked and completely dark-colored animals in Laban&#8217;s flock. So he made separate flocks for himself and did not mix them with Laban&#8217;s flocks.

<t /><p class="bodytext">Jacob heard that Laban&#8217;s sons were complaining,<n id="1" /> &#8220;Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father! He has gotten rich<n id="2" /> at our father&#8217;s expense!&#8221;<n id="3" />

I have<n id="1" /> the power to do you harm, but the God of your father told me last night, &#8216;Be careful<n id="2" /> that you neither bless nor curse Jacob.&#8217;<n id="3" />

Whoever has taken your gods will be put to death!<n id="1" /> In the presence of our relatives<n id="2" /> identify whatever is yours and take it.&#8221;<n id="3" /> (Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.)<n id="4" />p>

<p class="bodytext">Laban replied<n id="1" /> to Jacob, &#8220;These women<n id="2" /> are my daughters, these children are my grandchildren,<n id="3" /> and these flocks are my flocks. All that you see belongs to me. But how can I harm these daughters of mine today<n id="4" /> or the children to whom they have given birth?

You must also say, &#8216;In fact your servant Jacob is behind us.&#8217;&#8221;<n id="1" /> Jacob thought,<n id="2" /> &#8220;I will first appease him<n id="3" /> by sending a gift ahead of me.<n id="4" /> After that I will meet him.<n id="5" /> Perhaps he will accept me.&#8221;<n id="6" />

That is why to this day<n id="1" /> the Israelites do not eat the sinew which is attached to the socket of the hip, because he struck<n id="2" /> the socket of Jacob&#8217;s hip near the attached sinew.p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">Jacob looked up<n id="1" /> and saw that Esau was coming<n id="2" /> along with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two female servants.

&#8220;No, please take them,&#8221; Jacob said.<n id="1" /> &#8220;If I have found favor in your sight, accept<n id="2" /> my gift from my hand. Now that I have seen your face and you have accepted me,<n id="3" /> it is as if I have seen the face of God.<n id="4" />

In three days, when they were still in pain, two of Jacob&#8217;s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah&#8217;s brothers, each took his sword<n id="1" /> and went to the unsuspecting city<n id="2" /> and slaughtered every male.

<p class="bodytext">Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, &#8220;You have brought ruin<n id="1" /> on me by making me a foul odor<n id="2" /> among the inhabitants of the land &#8211; among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I<n id="3" /> am few in number; they will join forces against me and attack me, and both I and my family will be destroyed!&#8221;

<t /><p class="bodytext">Then God said to Jacob, &#8220;Go up at once<n id="1" /> to Bethel<n id="2" /> and live there. Make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.&#8221;<n id="3" />

While Israel was living in that land, Reuben had sexual relations with<n id="1" /> Bilhah, his father&#8217;s concubine, and Israel heard about it.p> <p class="bodytext">Jacob had twelve sons:p>

<p class="bodytext">Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, all the people in his household, his livestock, his animals, and all his possessions which he had acquired in the land of Canaan and went to a land some distance away from<n id="1" /> Jacob his brother

<p class="bodytext">This is the account of Jacob.p> <p class="bodytext">Joseph, his seventeen-year-old son,<n id="1" /> was taking care of<n id="2" /> the flocks with his brothers. Now he was a youngster<n id="3" /> working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father&#8217;s wives.<n id="4" /> Joseph brought back a bad report about them<n id="5" /> to their father.p>

But when they related to him everything Joseph had said to them,<n id="1" /> and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to transport him, their father Jacob&#8217;s spirit revived.

Jacob said to Pharaoh, &#8220;All<n id="1" /> the years of my travels<n id="2" /> are 130. All<n id="3" /> the years of my life have been few and painful;<n id="4" /> the years of my travels are not as long as those of my ancestors.&#8221;<n id="5" />

<p class="bodytext">Then Joseph said to his brothers, &#8220;I am about to die. But God will surely come to you<n id="1" /> and lead you up from this land to the land he swore on oath to give<n id="2" /> to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.&#8221;