36-37 Now it was Jacob’s turn to get angry. He lit into Laban: “So what’s my crime, what wrong have I done you that you badger me like this? You’ve ransacked the place. Have you turned up a single thing that’s yours? Let’s see it—display the evidence. Our two families can be the jury and decide between us.

38-42 “In the twenty years I’ve worked for you, ewes and she-goats never miscarried. I never feasted on the rams from your flock. I never brought you a torn carcass killed by wild animals but that I paid for it out of my own pocket—actually, you made me pay whether it was my fault or not. I was out in all kinds of weather, from torrid heat to freezing cold, putting in many a sleepless night. For twenty years I’ve done this: I slaved away fourteen years for your two daughters and another six years for your flock and you changed my wages ten times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not stuck with me, you would have sent me off penniless. But God saw the fix I was in and how hard I had worked and last night rendered his verdict.”

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36 Jacob was angry and took Laban to task. “What is my crime?” he asked Laban. “How have I wronged(A) you that you hunt me down?(B) 37 Now that you have searched through all my goods, what have you found that belongs to your household?(C) Put it here in front of your relatives(D) and mine, and let them judge between the two of us.(E)

38 “I have been with you for twenty years now.(F) Your sheep and goats have not miscarried,(G) nor have I eaten rams from your flocks.

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