God appears to Jacob and says: return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you. Jacob summons Rachel and Leah to the field and makes his case. He has served Laban faithfully. Laban has deceived him, changed his wages ten times. But God has seen everything and now says: leave. Both women agree. They feel like foreigners in their own father's house. Their inheritance was consumed. They say: whatever God has said to you, do.
Jacob rises, sets his sons and wives on camels, and drives all his livestock and property toward Canaan. Rachel steals her father's teraphim — household gods, small figurines that carried legal and spiritual weight in the ancient Near East. She does not tell Jacob. Her motive is not recorded: inheritance claim, sentiment, protection, spite — the text does not say. Jacob leaves while Laban is away shearing sheep. The timing is deliberate: the window when Laban cannot immediately pursue.
The Torah says Jacob stole Laban's heart — Hebrew: ganav et-lev — meaning he acted in secret, without telling him, stealing the moment of departure from him. The word ganav is the same word used for Rachel's theft of the teraphim. Both Jacob and Rachel steal from Laban in different ways on the same morning. The household of deceptions is leaving the household that taught it how.
