Nuzi, an ancient city to the east of the Tigris River and southeast of Nineveh, excavated between 1925 and 1931, yielded many artifacts, including some 20,000 clay tablets. Written in the Babylonian language, they contain a wealth of detail involving legal customs similar to those of the patriarchal era described in Genesis. Texts show, for example, that family gods, often small clay figurines, were a form of title deed, giving their owner a claim to the inheritance. This custom may explain why the patriarch Jacob’s wife Rachel took the family gods, or “teraphim,” belonging to her father, Laban, when Jacob’s family moved away. Understandably, Laban tried to recover the teraphim.​—Genesis 31:14-16, 19, 25-35.

Texts show, for example, that family gods, often small clay figurines, were a form of title deed, giving their owner a claim to the inheritance. This custom may explain why the patriarch Jacob’s wife Rachel took the family gods, or “teraphim,” belonging to her father, Laban, when Jacob’s family moved away. Understandably, Laban tried to recover the teraphim.​—Genesis 31:14-16, 19, 25-35.