Genesis 31; Genesis 32; Matthew 9:18-38

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Genesis 31

1 Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, "Jacob has taken all that was our father's; and from what was our father's he has gained all this wealth."
2 And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before.
3 Then the LORD said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you."
4 So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was,
5 and said to them, "I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me.
6 You know that I have served your father with all my strength;
7 yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not permit him to harm me.
8 If he said, 'The spotted shall be your wages,' then all the flock bore spotted; and if he said, 'The striped shall be your wages,' then all the flock bore striped.
9 Thus God has taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me.
10 In the mating season of the flock I lifted up my eyes, and saw in a dream that the he-goats which leaped upon the flock were striped, spotted, and mottled.
11 Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacob,' and I said, 'Here I am!'
12 And he said, 'Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that leap upon the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.
13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go forth from this land, and return to the land of your birth.'"
14 Then Rachel and Leah answered him, "Is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father's house?
15 Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and he has been using up the money given for us.
16 All the property which God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children; now then, whatever God has said to you, do."
17 So Jacob arose, and set his sons and his wives on camels;
18 and he drove away all his cattle, all his livestock which he had gained, the cattle in his possession which he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac.
19 Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father's household gods.
20 And Jacob outwitted Laban the Aramean, in that he did not tell him that he intended to flee.
21 He fled with all that he had, and arose and crossed the Euphra'tes, and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.
22 When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled,
23 he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for seven days and followed close after him into the hill country of Gilead.
24 But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night, and said to him, "Take heed that you say not a word to Jacob, either good or bad."
25 And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen encamped in the hill country of Gilead.
26 And Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done, that you have cheated me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword?
27 Why did you flee secretly, and cheat me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with mirth and songs, with tambourine and lyre?
28 And why did you not permit me to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? Now you have done foolishly.
29 It is in my power to do you harm; but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, 'Take heed that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.'
30 And now you have gone away because you longed greatly for your father's house, but why did you steal my gods?"
31 Jacob answered Laban, "Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force.
32 Any one with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our kinsmen point out what I have that is yours, and take it." Now 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 tent of the two maidservants, but he did not find them. And he went out of Leah's tent, and entered Rachel's.
34 Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel's saddle, and sat upon them. Laban felt all about the tent, but did not find them.
35 And she said to her father, "Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me." So he searched, but did not find the household gods.
36 Then Jacob became angry, and upbraided Laban; Jacob said to Laban, "What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me?
37 Although you have felt through all my goods, what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, that they may decide between us two.
38 These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your she-goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks.
39 That which was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it myself; of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.
40 Thus I was; by day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes.
41 These twenty years I have been 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 on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night."
43 Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, "The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to these my daughters, or to their children whom they have borne?
44 Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I; and let it be a witness between you and me."
45 So Jacob took a stone, and set it up as a pillar.
46 And Jacob said to his kinsmen, "Gather stones," and they took stones, and made a heap; and they ate there by the heap.
47 Laban called it Je'gar-sahadu'tha: but Jacob called it Galeed.
48 Laban said, "This heap is a witness between you and me today." Therefore he named it Galeed,
49 and the pillar Mizpah, for he said, "The LORD watch between you and me, when we are absent one from the other.
50 If you ill-treat my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us, remember, God is witness between you and me."
51 Then Laban said to Jacob, "See this heap and the pillar, which I have set between you and me.
52 This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, for harm.
53 The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us." So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac,
54 and Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his kinsmen to eat bread; and they ate bread and tarried all night on the mountain.
55 Early in the morning Laban arose, and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them; then he departed and returned home.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Genesis 32

1 Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him;
2 and when Jacob saw them he said, "This is God's army!" So he called the name of that place Mahana'im.
3 And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Se'ir, the country of Edom,
4 instructing them, "Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, 'I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed until now;
5 and I have oxen, asses, flocks, menservants, and maidservants; and I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.'"
6 And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, "We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men with him."
7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two companies,
8 thinking, "If Esau comes to the one company and destroys it, then the company which is left will escape."
9 And Jacob said, "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD who didst say to me, 'Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will do you good,'
10 I am not worthy of the least of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness which thou hast shown to thy servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan; and now I have become two companies.
11 Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and slay us all, the mothers with the children.
12 But thou didst say, 'I will do you good, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.'"
13 So he lodged there that night, and took from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau,
14 two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,
15 thirty milch camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty she-asses and ten he-asses.
16 These he delivered into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, "Pass on before me, and put a space between drove and drove."
17 He instructed the foremost, "When Esau my brother meets you, and asks you, 'To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these before you?'
18 then you shall say, 'They belong to your servant Jacob; they are a present sent to my lord Esau; and moreover he is behind us.'"
19 He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, "You shall say the same thing to Esau when you meet him,
20 and you shall say, 'Moreover your servant Jacob is behind us.'" For he thought, "I may appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterwards I shall see his face; perhaps he will accept me."
21 So the present passed on before him; and he himself lodged that night in the camp.
22 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had.
24 And Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.
25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and Jacob's thigh was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.
26 Then he said, "Let me go, for the day is breaking." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me."
27 And he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob."
28 Then he said, "Your name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed."
29 Then Jacob asked him, "Tell me, I pray, your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And there he blessed him.
30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peni'el, saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved."
31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penu'el, limping because of his thigh.
32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the sinew of the hip which is upon the hollow of the thigh, because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh on the sinew of the hip.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Matthew 9:18-38

18 While he was thus speaking to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, "My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live."
19 And Jesus rose and followed him, with his disciples.
20 And behold, a woman who had suffered from a hemorrhage for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment;
21 for she said to herself, "If I only touch his garment, I shall be made well."
22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, "Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well." And instantly the woman was made well.
23 And when Jesus came to the ruler's house, and saw the flute players, and the crowd making a tumult,
24 he said, "Depart; for the girl is not dead but sleeping." And they laughed at him.
25 But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose.
26 And the report of this went through all that district.
27 And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, "Have mercy on us, Son of David."
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 be it done to you."
30 And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly charged them, "See that no one knows it."
31 But they went away and spread his fame through all that district.
32 As they were going away, behold, a dumb demoniac was brought to him.
33 And when the demon had been cast out, the dumb man spoke; and the crowds marveled, saying, "Never was anything like this seen in Israel."
34 But the Pharisees said, "He casts out demons by the prince of demons."
35 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity.
36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
37 Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;
38 pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.