Jacob’s trick. There are a lot of moral questions that arise out of these last few verses. God told Jacob to arise and go and he arose and went. That’s a good thing. Jacob leaves with only his property. He does not take anything that doesn’t belong to him. This is his argument we’ll see later when Laban comes after him. So, this is good too. But then it says that Jacob tricked Laban or that he stole away. He purposely withheld the fact that he was leaving. Was this wrong? Was this a mistrust of God? Or was it okay because he needed to leave without telling since the last time he asked to leave Laban wouldn’t let him? Do you always have to tell everyone everything? As you can imagine, there has been a lot of ink spilled on both sides of the question. Regardless, this is what Jacob did and he is able to flee across the Euphrates River and into the hill country of Gilead. Rachel’s theft. The final question that is also debated is: Why did Rachel steal her father’s household gods or the teraphim? Some suggest she was greedy and stole them for their monetary value. Maybe, but Jacob is a very wealthy man at this point, a fact made clear that all of Jacob’s sons and wives were riding on camels as they left. Some suggest that since the teraphim were used in religious practices and brought fertility Rachel wanted them for these reasons. Maybe. I could see how this would fit with the mandrake story and her desire to have more children. Another suggestion is that she stole the teraphim because they were used to confirm the inheritance. A person would bring the teraphim to the city gate thereby proving that they were the rightful heir. Maybe this is the right answer. It seems to fit with what we just read. I like this answer the best though it is speculation. But it makes sense to me that since her father had excluded them from the inheritance and was giving everything to her brothers she would steal the household gods the proof of ownership.