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.
Metaphysically, the teraphim represent thoughts tending to the outer only for supply, protection, and all good (givers of prosperity, guardians of comforts, nourishers, domestic idols); thoughts that imply trust in the many outer channels through which one's good comes to one instead of faith in God as one's sustenance and power of development; also the many thoughts and desires that man entertains and gives expression to in outer ways and that should first of all be centered in the one Presence within him.
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 idols 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 idols.
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. Gods 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 Jegar-sahadutha: but Jacob called it Galeed.
48 Laban said, "This heap is a witness between you and me today." Therefore he named it Galeed,
Laban called the heap Jegar-sahadutha, the Aramaic name for Galeed. Galeed means "massive witness," "heap of witnesses," "rock of time," "great endurance." It was the heap of stones that Jacob and Laban gathered for a witness between them when Jacob with his wives, children, and possessions left Laban to return to Esau and to Jacob's own country.
49 and the pillar Mizpah, for he said, "YHVH watch between you and me, when we are absent one from the other.
It was also called Mizpah, "watchtower," and thus signifies the watchtower of Prayer, while Galeed signifies the witness that Spirit with man bears to Truth.
50 If you ill-treat my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us, remember, Gods are 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.
By following the true YHVH Spirit in ourselves, we shall always deal justly with every phase of our consciousness and of our entire organism, as well as with persons.
53 The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, God of their Father, judge between us." So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac,
Man should remember always that he does not live by bread alone, by outer ways and means, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of YHVH: by the inner creative, sustaining, energizing life, love, power, strength, and intelligence of Spirit.
Laban symbolizes that which is pure and gentle. He was told in a dream what had happened, but YHVH also revealed to him that he was not to speak good or bad to Jacob. However, he searched the tents for the teraphim without discovering them, as Rachel had placed them on the camel's back under the saddle on which she was riding. A covenant was made between Jacob and Laban. They gathered stones in a heap and they ate there.
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.
Jacob offered a sacrifice, and he and his brethren ate bread together. The sacrifice consisted of an animal slaughtered as an offering to the deity in man, symbolizing the surrender to Spirit of the animal forces that they may be transmuted into higher states of consciousness. Eating bread means joining in communion, partaking of spiritual energy.
55 Early in the morning Laban arose, and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them; then he departed and returned home.