Quotes About Family

If you find your gods with anyone here, he shall not live! In the presence of our relatives, see for yourself if anything is yours, and take it back.” For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the idols.

So Laban went into Jacobís tent, then Leahís tent, and then the tents of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. Then he left Leahís tent and entered Rachelís tent.

Now Rachel had taken Labanís household idols, put them in the saddlebag of her camel, and was sitting on them. And Laban searched everything in the tent but found nothing.

Rachel said to her father, “Sir, do not be angry that I cannot stand up before you; for I am having my period.” So Laban searched, but could not find the household idols.

Thus for twenty years I have served in your household—fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks—and you have changed my wages ten times!

If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely by now you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, and last night He rendered judgment.”

But Laban answered Jacob, “These daughters are my daughters, these sons are my sons, and these flocks are my flocks! Everything you see is mine! Yet what can I do today about these daughters of mine or the children they have borne?

May 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.

Early the next morning, Laban got up and kissed his grandchildren and daughters and blessed them. Then he left to return home.

Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

He instructed them, “You are to say to my master Esau, ëYour servant Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban and have remained there until now.

When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you—he and four hundred men with him.”

In great fear and distress, Jacob divided his people into two camps, as well as the flocks and herds and camels.

He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one camp, then the other camp can escape.”

Then Jacob declared, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, the LORD who told me, ëGo back to your country and to your kindred, and I will make you prosper,í

Please deliver me from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid that he may come and attack me and the mothers and children with me.

Jacob spent the night there, and from what he had brought with him, he selected a gift for his brother Esau:

30 milk camels with their young, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys, and 10 male donkeys.

He instructed the one in the lead, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ëTo whom do you belong, where are you going, and whose animals are these before you?í

He also instructed the second, the third, and all those following behind the herds: “When you meet Esau, you are to say the same thing to him.

So Jacobís gifts went on before him, while he spent the night in the camp.

During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.

He took them and sent them across the stream, along with all his possessions.

Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming toward him with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two maidservants.