as she said, "God hath taken away my reproach," and "adding," since she regarded her child as a pledge

that God - this time "Jehovah" - "shall add to me another son." The object of Jacob's prolonged stay with

his father-in-law was now accomplished. Fourteen years' servitude to Laban left him as poor as when first he

had come to him. The wants of his increasing family, and the better understanding now established in his

family, must have pointed out to him the desirableness of returning to his own country. But when he

intimated this wish to his father-in-law, Laban was unwilling to part with one by whom he had so largely

profited. With a characteristic confusion of heathen ideas with a dim knowledge of the being of Jehovah,

Laban said to Jacob (we here translate literally): "If I have found grace in thy sight (i.e. tarry), for I have

divined 47 (ascertained by magic), and Jehovah hath blessed me for thy sake." The same attempt to place

Jehovah as the God of Abraham by the side of the god of Nahor - not denying, indeed, the existence of

Jehovah, but that He was the only true and living God - occurs again later when Laban made a covenant

with Jacob.(Genesis 31:53) It also frequently recurs in the later history of Israel. Both strange nations and

Israel itself, when in a state of apostasy, did not deny that Jehovah was God, but they tried to place Him on

a level with other and false deities. Now, Scripture teaches us that to place any other pretended God along

with the living and true One argues as great ignorance, and is as great a sin, as to deny Him entirely.

In his own peculiar fashion Laban, with pretended candor and liberality, now invited Jacob to name his

wages for the future. But this time the deceiver was to be deceived. Basing his proposal on the fact that in

the East the goats are mostly black and the sheep white, Jacob made what seemed the very modest request,

that all that were spotted and speckled in the flock were to be his share. Laban gladly assented, taking care

to make the selection himself, and to hand over Jacob's portion to his own sons, while Jacob was to tend the

flocks of Laban. Finally, he placed three days' journey betwixt the flocks of Jacob and his own. But even so,

Jacob knew how, by an artifice well understood in the East, to circumvent his father-in- law, and to secure

that, though ordinarily "the ringstraked, speckled, and spotted" had been an exception, now they were the

most numerous and the strongest of the flocks. And the advantage still remained on the side of Jacob, when

Laban again and again reversed the conditions of the agreement.(Genesis 31:7) This clearly proved that

Jacob's artifice could not have been the sole nor the real reason of his success. In point of fact, immediately

after the first agreement with Laban, the angel of God had spoken to Jacob in a dream, assuring him that,

even without any such artifices, God would right him in his cause with Laban.(Genesis 31:12, 13) Once more,

then, Jacob acted, as when in his father's house. He "made haste;" he would not wait for the Lord to fulfill

his promise; he would use his own means - and employ his cunning and devices - to accomplish the

purpose of God, instead of committing his cause unto Him. And as formerly he had had the excuse of his

father's weakness and his brother's violence, so now it might seem as if he were purely on his defense, and

as if his deceit were necessary for his protection - the more so as he resorted to his device only in spring,

not in autumn,48 so that the second produce of the year belonged chiefly to his father-in-law.

The consequences proved very similar to those which followed his deceit in his father's house. The rapidly

growing wealth of Jacob during the six years of this bargain so raised the enmity and envy of Laban and of

his sons, that Jacob must have felt it necessary for his own safety to remove, even if he had not received

Divine direction to that effect. But this put an end to all hesitancy; and having communicated his purpose to

his wives, and secured their cordial consent, he left secretly, while Laban was away at the sheep-shearing,

which would detain him some time. Three days elapsed before Laban was informed of Jacob's flight. He

immediately pursued after him, "with his brethren," his anger being further excited by the theft of his

household gods, or "teraphim," which Rachel, unknown, of course, to Jacob, had taken with her. On the

seventh day Laban and his relatives overtook Jacob and his caravan in Mount Gilead. The consequences

might have been terrible, if God had not interposed to warn Laban in a dream, not to injure nor to hurt Jacob.

Being further foiled in his search after the missing teraphim, through the cunning of his own daughter,

Laban, despite his hypocritical professions of how affectionate their leave-taking might have been if Jacob

had not "stolen away," stood convicted of selfishness and unkindness. In fact, if the conduct of Jacob,

even in his going away, had been far from straightforward, that of Laban was of the most unprincipled kind.

However, peace was restored between them, and a covenant made, in virtue of which neither party was to

cross for hostile purposes the memorial pillar which they erected, and to which Laban gave a Chaldee and

Jacob a Hebrew name, meaning "the heap of witness."