¹ But after that he heard the words of the sons of Laban, saying: Jacob hath taken away all that was our father's, and being enriched by his substance is become great:

² And perceiving also that Laban's countenance was not towards him as yesterday and the other day,

³ Especially the Lord saying to him: Return into the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred, and I will be with thee.

⁴ He sent, and called Rachel and Lia into the field, where he fed the flocks,

⁵ And said to them: I see your father's countenance is not towards me as yesterday and the other day: but the God of my father hath been with me.

⁶ And you know that I have served your father to the utmost of my power.

⁷ Yea, your father also hath overreached me, and hath changes my wages ten times: and yet God hath not suffered him to hurt me.

⁸ If at any time he said: The speckled shall be thy wages: all the sheep brought forth speckled: but when he said on the contrary: Thou shalt take all the white ones for thy wages: all the flocks brought forth white ones.

⁹ And God hath taken your father's substance, and given it to me.

¹⁰ For after that time came of the ewes conceiving, I lifted up my eyes, and saw in my sleep that the males which leaped upon the females were of diverse colors, and spotted, and speckled.

¹¹ And the angel of God said to me in my sleep: Jacob? And I answered: Here I am.

¹² And he said: Lift up thy eyes, and see that all the males leaping upon the females, are of divers colors, spotted, and speckled. For I have seen all that Laban hath done to thee.

¹³ I am the God of Bethel, where thou didst anoint the stone, and make a vow to me. Now therefore arise, and go out of this land, and return into thy native country.

¹⁴ And Rachel and Lia answered: Have we anything left among the goods and inheritance of our father's house?

¹⁵ Hath he not counted us as strangers and sold us, and eaten up the price of us?

¹⁶ But God hath taken our father's riches, and delivered them to us, and to our children: wherefore do all that God hath commanded thee.

¹⁷ Then Jacob rose up, and having set his children and wives upon camels, went his way.

¹⁸ And he took all his substance, and flocks, and whatsoever he had gotten in Mesopotamia, and went forward to Isaac his father to the land of Chanaan.

¹⁹ At that time Laban was gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole away her father's idols.

²⁰ And Jacob would not confess to his father in law that he was flying away.

²¹ And when he was gone, together with all that belonged to him, and having passed the river, was going on towards mount Galaad,

²² It was told Laban on the third day that Jacob fled.

²³ And he took his brethren with him, and pursued after him seven days; and overtook him in the mount of Galaad.

²⁴ And he saw in a dream God saying to him: Take heed thou speak not any thing harshly against Jacob.

²⁵ Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain: and when he with his brethren had overtaken him, he pitched his tent in the same mount of Galaad.

²⁶ And he said to Jacob: Why hast thou done thus, to carry away, without my knowledge, my daughters, as captives taken with the sword.

²⁷ Why wouldst thou run away privately and not acquaint me, that I might have brought thee on the way with joy, and with songs, and with timbrels, and with harps?

²⁸ Thou hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and daughters: thou hast done foolishly: and now, indeed,

²⁹ It is in my power to return thee evil: but the God of your father said to me yesterday: Take heed thou speak not any things harshly against Jacob.

³⁰ Suppose thou didst desire to go to thy friends, and hadst a longing after thy father's house: why hast thou stolen away my gods?

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

³² But whereas thou chargest me with theft: with whomsoever thou shalt find thy gods, 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.

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,

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,

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.

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

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.

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:

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

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

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.

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

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?

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

⁴⁵ And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a title:

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

⁵³ The God of Abraham, and the God of Nachor, the God of their father, judge between us. And jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac.

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:

⁵⁵ But laban arose in the night, and kissed his sons, and daughters, and blessed them: and returned to his place.

¹ At the same time Josue called the Rubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasses,

² And said to them: You have done all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you: you have also obeyed me in all things,

³ Neither have you left your brethren this long time, until this present day, keeping the commandment of the Lord your God.

⁴ Therefore as the Lord your God hath given your brethren rest and peace, as he promised: return, and go to your dwellings, and to the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan:

⁵ Yet so that you observe attentively, and in work fulfil the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you: that you love the Lord your God, and walk in all his ways, and keep all his commandments, and cleave to him, and serve him with all your heart, and with all your soul.

⁶ And Josue blessed them, and sent them away, and they returned to their dwellings.

⁷ Now to half the tribe of Manasses, Moses had given a possession in Basan: and therefore to the half that remained, Josue gave a lot among the rest of their brethren beyond the Jordan to the west. And when he sent them away to their dwellings and had blessed them,

⁸ He said to them : With much substance and riches, you return to your settlements, with silver and gold, brass and iron, and variety of raiment: divide the prey of your enemies with your brethren.

⁹ So the children of Ruben, and the children of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasses returned, and parted from the children of Israel in Silo, which is in Chanaan, to go into Galaad the land of their possession, which they had obtained according to the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses.

¹⁰ And when they were come to the banks of the Jordan, in the land of Chanaan, they built an altar immensely great near the Jordan.

¹¹ And when the children of Israel had heard of it, and certain messengers had brought them an account that the children of Ruben, and of Cad, and the half tribe of Manasses had built an altar in the land of Chanaan, upon the banks of the Jordan, over against the children of Israel:

¹² They all assembled in Silo, to go up and fight against them.

¹³ And in the mean time they sent to them into the land of Galaad, Phinees the son of Eleazar the priest,

¹⁴ And ten princes with him, one of every tribe.

¹⁵ Who came to the children of Ruben, and of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasses, into the land of Galaad, and said to them:

¹⁶ Thus saith all the people of the Lord: What meaneth this transgression? Why have you forsaken the Lord the God of Israel, building a sacrilegious altar, and revolting from the worship of him?

¹⁷ Is it a small thing to you that you sinned with Beelphegor, and the stain of that crime remaineth in us to this day? and many of the people perished.

¹⁸ And you have forsaken the Lord to day, and to morrow his wrath will rage against all Israel.

¹⁹ But if you think the land of your possession to be unclean, pass over to the land wherein is the tabernacle of the Lord, and dwell among us: only depart not from the Lord, and from our society, by building an altar beside the altar of the Lord our God.

²⁰ Did not Achan the son of Zare transgress the commandment of the Lord, and his wrath lay upon all the people of Israel? And he was but one man, and would to God he alone had perished in his wickedness.

²¹ And the children of Ruben, and of Gad, and of the half tribe of Manasses answered the princes of the embassage of Israel:

²² The Lord the most mighty God, The Lord the most mighty God, he knoweth, and Israel also shall understand: If with the design of transgression we have set up this altar, let him not save us, but punish us immediately:

²³ And if we did it with that mind, that we might lay upon it holocausts, and sacrifice, and victims of peace offerings, let him require and judge:

²⁴ And not rather with this thought and design, that we should say: To morrow your children will say to our children: What have you to do with the Lord the God of Israel?

²⁵ The Lord hath put the river Jordan for a border between us and you, O ye children of Ruben, and ye children of Gad: and therefore you have no part in The Lord. And by this occasion you children shall turn away our children from the fear of The Lord. We therefore thought, it best,

²⁶ And said: Let us build us an altar, not for holocausts, nor to offer victims,

²⁷ But for a testimony between us and you, and our posterity and yours, that we may serve the Lord, and that we may have a right to offer both holocausts, and victims and sacrifices of peace offerings: and that your children to morrow may not say to our children: You have no part in the Lord.

²⁸ And if they will say so, they shall answer them: Behold the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made, not for holocausts, nor for sacrifice, but for a testimony between us and you.

²⁹ God keep us from any such wickedness that we should revolt from the Lord, and leave off following his steps, by building an altar to offer holocausts, and sacrifices, and victims, beside the altar of the Lord our God, which is erected before his tabernacle.

³⁰ And when Phinees the priest, and the princes of the embassage, who were with him, had heard this, they were satisfied: and they admitted most willingly the words of the children of Ruben, and Gad, and of the half tribe of Manasses.

³¹ And Phinees the priest the son of Eleazar said to them: Now we know that the Lord is with us, because you are not guilty of this revolt, and you have delivered the children of Israel from the hand of the Lord.

³² And he returned with the princes from the children of Ruben and Gad, out of the land of Galaad, into the land of Chanaan, to the children of Israel, and brought them word again.

³³ And the saying pleased all that heard it. And the children of Israel praised God, and they no longer said that they would go up against them, and fight, and destroy the land of their possession.

³⁴ And the children of Ruben, and the children of Cad called the altar which they had built, Our testimony, that the Lord is God.