Genesis 31–32
1 Now Jacob heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s, and he has gotten all his wealth from what was our father’s.” 2 Jacob saw the look of Laban and saw he was not congenial toward him as before.
3 Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers, to your family, and I will be with you.”
4 So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field where his flock was, 5 and said to them, “I see your father’s demeanor, that it is not congenial toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me. 6 You know that with all my strength I have served your father. 7 Your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to hurt me. 8 If he said, ‘The speckled will be your wages,’ then all the flock produced speckled. If he said, ‘The striped will be your pay,’ then all the flock produced striped. 9 In this way God has taken away your father’s flock and given them to me.
10 “When the livestock conceived, I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the male goats mating with the flock were striped, speckled, and spotted. 11 The angel of God spoke to me in a dream, saying, ‘Jacob.’ And I said, ‘Here I am.’ 12 He said, ‘Now lift up your eyes and see all the male goats which mate with the flock are striped, speckled, and spotted, for I have seen all that Laban has done to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar, where you vowed a vow to Me. Now arise, and get out of this land, and return to the land of your family.’”
14 Rachel and Leah answered him, “Is there any portion or inheritance left for us in our father’s house? 15 Are we not seen by him as foreigners? For he has sold us and has completely spent our money also. 16 For all the riches which God has taken from our father are ours and our children’s. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do it.”
17 Then Jacob rose up and set his sons and his wives on camels. 18 Then he carried away all his livestock and all his goods which he had obtained, his acquired livestock which he had gotten in Paddan Aram, in order to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan.
19 When Laban went to shear his sheep, Rachel stole the household idols that were her father’s. 20 Jacob also deceived Laban the Syrian by not telling him that he was fleeing. 21 So Jacob fled with all that he had, and he rose up and passed over the river and headed toward the mountains of Gilead.
22 Laban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled. 23 He took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for seven days until he caught up with him in the mountains of Gilead. 24 But God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night and said to him, “Take care that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.”
25 Then Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent on the mountain, and Laban with his kinsmen pitched in the mountains of Gilead. 26 Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done that you have stolen away without my knowing and carried away my daughters like captives taken with the sword? 27 Why did you flee away secretly and sneak away from me and not tell me? I would have sent you away with joy and with songs, with the tambourine and harp. 28 And why did you not permit me to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? You have acted foolishly in so doing. 29 It is in my power to do you harm, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Take care that you not speak to Jacob either good or bad.’ 30 Now you surely have gone away because you longed desperately after your father’s house, yet why have you stolen my gods?”
31 Then Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force. 32 But anyone with whom you find your gods, let him not live. In the presence of our kinsmen, point out what I have that is yours and take it.” For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the two female servants’ tents, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah’s tent and entered into Rachel’s tent. 34 Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them in the camel’s saddle and sat on them. Laban searched the entire tent, but could not find them.
35 She said to her father, “Let not my lord be displeased that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is on me.” So he searched, but he did not find the household idols.
36 Then Jacob became angry and berated Laban. And Jacob asked Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin that you have so hotly pursued after me? 37 You have searched all my things, and yet what have you found of all your household things? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, so that they may judge between us both.
38 “This twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried their young, and the male goats of your flock I have not eaten. 39 That which was torn by beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it. You required it from my hand whether it was stolen by day or stolen by night. 40 It was like this with me: In the day the heat consumed me and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. 41 I have been twenty years in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. 42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely you would have sent me away empty now. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.”
43 Laban answered and said to Jacob, “These daughters are my daughters, and these children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to my daughters or to their children whom they have borne? 44 Now therefore come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be as a witness between you and me.”
45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up for a pillar. 46 Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a pile, and they ate there on the pile. 47 And Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.
48 Laban said, “This pile is a witness between me and you this day.” Therefore its name was called Galeed, 49 and Mizpah, for he said, “May the Lord watch between you and me, when we are apart from one another. 50 If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take other wives beside my daughters, although no one else is with us, remember that God is witness between you and me.”
51 Then Laban said to Jacob, “See this pile and see this pillar which I have thrown between you and me. 52 This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, so that I will not cross over this pile to you and so that you will not pass over this pile and this pillar to me for harm. 53 The God of Abraham, the God of Nahor, and the God of their father, judge between us.”
Then Jacob vowed by the Fear of his father Isaac. 54 Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his kinsmen to eat bread. And they ate bread and stayed all night on the mountain.
55 Early in the morning Laban rose up, kissed his grandchildren and his daughters, and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place.
Chapter 32
1 Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is God’s camp.” So he called the name of that place Mahanaim.
3 Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. 4 He commanded them, saying, “This is what you must say to my lord Esau: This is what your servant Jacob says, ‘I have sojourned with Laban and stayed there until now. 5 I have oxen and donkeys, flocks, and male servants and female servants, and I am may find favor in your sight.’”
6 The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We went to your brother Esau. He is coming to meet you, and what is more, four hundred men are with him.”
7 Then Jacob was very afraid and distressed, and he divided the people that were with him, along with the flocks and herds and the camels, into two groups. 8 He said, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the other camp which is left may escape.”
9 And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will prosper you,’ 10 I am not worthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant. For with my staff I crossed over this Jordan, and now I have become two encampments. 11 Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau. For I fear him, that he will come and attack me and the mothers with the children. 12 You said, ‘I will surely prosper you and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which is too many to be counted.’”
13 So he spent the night there. Then he selected from what he had with him a gift for his brother Esau: 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty female camels with their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16 He gave them to his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass over before me, and keep a distance between each drove.”
17 He commanded the one leading, saying, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, saying, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and to whom do these animals belong?’ 18 then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is also behind us.’”
19 Likewise he commanded the second and the third and all that followed the droves, saying, “This is what you are to say to Esau when you find him. 20 Moreover, say, ‘Your servant Jacob is behind us.’” For he said, “I will appease him with the gift that goes before me, and then I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.” 21 So the gift went before him, but he lodged that night in the encampment.
22 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream along with all that he had. 24 Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him there until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that He did not prevail against Jacob, He touched the socket of his thigh, so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated, as he wrestled with Him. 26 Then He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.”
But Jacob said, “I will not let You go, unless You bless me.”
27 So He said to him, “What is your name?”
And he said, “Jacob.”
28 Then the man said, “Your name will no more be called Jacob, but Israel. For you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
29 Then Jacob asked Him, “Tell me, I pray You, Your name.”
But He said, “Why do you ask Me My name?” Then He blessed him there.
30 Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “I have seen God face to face, and my life has been preserved.”
31 As he crossed over Peniel, the sun rose over him, and he was limping on his thigh. 32 Therefore to this day the children of Israel do not eat the sinew which is attached to the socket of the thigh, because He touched the socket of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip.
Matthew 9:18–38
18 While He was speaking these things to them, a certain ruler came and worshipped Him, saying, “My daughter is even now dead. But come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 Jesus rose and followed him, and so did His disciples.
20 Then a woman, who was ill with a flow of blood for twelve years, came behind Him and touched the hem of His garment. 21 For she said within herself, “If I may just touch His garment, I shall be healed.”
22 But Jesus turned around, and when He saw her, He said, “Daughter, be of good comfort. Your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well instantly.
23 When Jesus came to the ruler’s house and saw the musicians and the mourners making a noise, 24 He said to them, “Depart. The girl is not dead, but is sleeping.” And they laughed Him to scorn. 25 But when the people were put outside, He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. 26 The news of this went out into all that land.
27 As Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, “Son of David, have mercy on us!”
28 When He entered the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.”
29 Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith, let it be done for you.” 30 And their eyes were opened, and Jesus strictly commanded them, saying, “See that no one knows of it.” 31 But when they had departed, they spread His fame in all that region.
32 As they went out, they brought to Him a mute man possessed with a demon. 33 And when the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke, and the crowds were amazed, saying, “This has never been seen in Israel.”
34 But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons through the ruler of the demons.”
35 Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. 36 But when He saw the crowds, He was moved with compassion for them, because they fainted and were scattered, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest, that He will send out laborers into His harvest.”