1And he heard the words of the sons of Laban, saying, Jacob has taken away all that was to our father, and from that which was to our father he has gotten all this wealth. 2And Jacob saw the face of Laban, and, behold, it was not toward him as before. 3And Jehovah said to Jacob, Go back to the land of your fathers and to your kindred. And I will be with you. 4And Jacob sent and called for Rachel and for Leah to come to the field, to his flocks. 5And he said to them, I see your father’s face, that it is not toward me as before. But the God of my father has been with me. 6And you know that with all my power I have served your father. 7And your father has cheated me and has changed my wages ten times. And God has not let him do evil to me. 8And if he said this: The speckled shall be your wages, then all the flocks bore speckled ones. And if he said this, The striped ones shall be your wages, then all the flocks bore striped ones.. 9And God has taken away the livestock of your father and has given to me. 10And it happened at the time the flock was in heat, I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream: And behold! The rams leaping on the flock were striped ones, speckled ones, and spotted ones. 11And the Angel of God spoke to me in a dream, Jacob! And I said, Behold me. 12And He said, Lift up your eyes and see all the rams leaping on the flock; they are striped, speckled and spotted. For I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. 13I am the God of Beth-el, there where you anointed the pillar, where you vowed a vow to Me. Now rise up; go out of this land and go back to the land of your kindred. 14And Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, Is there yet to us a portion and an inheritance in the house of our father? 15Are we not counted strangers by him. For he has sold us, and selling he has sold us for silver. 16For all the wealth which God has taken from our father, it is for us and for our sons. And now all that which God has said to you, do. 17And Jacob arose and set his sons and his wives on camels. 18And he drove all the livestock, and he took all his goods which he had gotten, livestock of his property which he had gotten in Padan-aram, to come to his father Isaac, to the land of Canaan. 19And Laban went to shear his sheep. And Rachel stole the household idols which were her father’s. 20And Jacob stole the heart of Laban the Syrian, for he did not tell him that he was about to flee. 21And he and all that was to him fled. And he rose up and crossed the River and set his face to Mount Gilead. 22And on the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled. 23And he took his brothers with him and pursued him, seven days journey. And he overtook him in Mount Gilead. 24And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream of the night, and said to him, Be on guard for yourself, lest you speak with Jacob from good to evil. 25And Laban overtook Jacob. And Jacob had pitched his tent at the Mount. And Laban with his brothers had pitched at Mount Gilead. 26And Laban said to Jacob, What have you done? And you have stolen my heart and have taken my daughters like captives of the sword. 27Why did you hide so as to flee, and have stolen from me and have not told me. And I would have sent you away with rejoicing and with music, with tabret and with harp. 28And you have not let me kiss my sons and my daughters. Now you have been foolish to do this. 29It is in the power of my hand to do you harm. But the God of your fathers spoke to me last night, saying, Be on guard for yourself that you do not speak with Jacob from good to evil. 30And now longing you have gone because you have longed after your father’s house. Why have you stolen my gods? 31And Jacob answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid. For I said, Lest by force you take your daughters from me. 32With whomever you find your gods, he shall not live before our brothers here. See for yourself what is with me, and take it to you. For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them. 33And Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent, and into the tent of the two slave-girls; and he did not find. And he went out of Leah’s tent and came into Rachel’s tent. 34And Rachel had taken the household idols and put them into the camel’s saddle; and she sat on them. And Laban felt around all the tent, but did not find. 35And she said to her father, Let no anger be in the eyes of my lord, for I am not able to rise before your face, for the way of women is to me. And he searched for and did not find the household idols. 36And Jacob was angry, and he contended with Laban. And Jacob answered and said to Laban, What is my transgression; what my sin that you have hotly pursued me? 37For you have felt around all my articles; what have you found from all the articles of your house? Set it here before my brothers and your brothers and let them decide between the two of us. 38Now I was with you twenty years. Your ewes and your she-goats have not failed to bear, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock. 39I did not bring to you the mangled; I replaced it. From my hand you exacted it, that stolen by day and that stolen by night. 40I was there; by day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night. And my sleep fled from my eyes. 41Now I have been twenty years 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. 42Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had been for me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God has seen my affliction and the toil of my palm, and last night He judged. 43And Laban answered and said to Jacob, The daughters are my daughters and the sons my sons. And the flocks are my flocks; yea, all which you see, it is mine and my daughters’. What can I do to these today, or to their sons whom they have borne? 44And now come, let us cut a covenant, you and me; and let it be a witness between you and me. 45And Jacob took a stone and set it up as a memorial. 46And Jacob said to his brothers, Gather stones. And they took stones and they made a heap. 47And Laban called it, Heap of the Testimony. And Jacob called it in Hebrew, Heap of Testimony. 48And Laban said, This heap is a witness between you and between me today; so he called its name Heap of Testimony; 49also, Watchtower; for he said, May Jehovah watch between you and me, for we are hidden, when we are out of sight, each from his neighbor. 50If you will afflict my daughters, and if you will take wives above my daughters, no man is with us. See now, God is a witness between you and me. 51And Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold the pillar which I have set between you and me. 52This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a testimony. As for me, I will not pass over this heap to you; and as for you, you will not pass over this heap and this pillar for evil to me. 53The God of Abraham, the God of Nahor, the God of their father, let judge between us. And Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac. 54And Jacob sacrificed a sacrifice on the mountain, and called his brothers to eat bread. And they ate bread and lodged on the mountain. 55And Laban rose up early in the morning and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them. And Laban went away and returned to his own place.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 ENVY OF LABAN AND SONS. (Gen. 31:1-21)
he heard the words of Laban's sons--It must have been from rumor that Jacob got knowledge of the invidious reflections cast upon him by his cousins; for they were separated at the distance of three days' journey.
2 And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban--literally, "was not the same as yesterday, and the day before," a common Oriental form of speech. The insinuations against Jacob's fidelity by Laban's sons, and the sullen reserve, the churlish conduct, of Laban himself, had made Jacob's situation, in his uncle's establishment, most trying and painful. It is always one of the vexations attendant on worldly prosperity, that it excites the envy of others (
Eccl 4:4); and that, however careful a man is to maintain a good conscience, he cannot always reckon on maintaining a good name, in a censorious world. This, Jacob experienced; and it is probable that, like a good man, he had asked direction and relief in prayer.
3 the Lord said . . . Return unto the land of thy fathers--Notwithstanding the ill usage he had received, Jacob might not have deemed himself at liberty to quit his present sphere, under the impulse of passionate fretfulness and discontent. Having been conducted to Haran by God (
Gen 28:15) and having got a promise that the same heavenly Guardian would bring him again into the land of Canaan, he might have thought he ought not to leave it, without being clearly persuaded as to the path of duty. So ought we to set the Lord before us, and to acknowledge Him in all our ways, our journeys, our settlements, and plans in life.
4 Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah--His wives and family were in their usual residence. Whether he wished them to be present at the festivities of sheep shearing, as some think; or, because he could not leave his flock, he called them both to come to him, in order that, having resolved on immediate departure, he might communicate his intentions. Rachel and Leah only were called, for the other two wives, being secondary and still in a state of servitude, were not entitled to be taken into account. Jacob acted the part of a dutiful husband in telling them his plans; for husbands that love their wives should consult with them and trust in them (
Pro 31:11).
6 ye know that . . . I have served your father--Having stated his strong grounds of dissatisfaction with their father's conduct and the ill requital he had got for all his faithful services, he informed them of the blessing of God that had made him rich notwithstanding Laban's design to ruin him; and finally, of the command from God he had received to return to his own country, that they might not accuse him of caprice, or disaffection to their family; but be convinced, that in resolving to depart, he acted from a principle of religious obedience.
14 Rachel and Leah answered--Having heard his views, they expressed their entire approval; and from grievances of their own, they were fully as desirous of a separation as himself. They display not only conjugal affection, but piety in following the course described--"whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do" [
Gen 31:16]. "Those that are really their husbands' helpmeets will never be their hindrances in doing that to which God calls them" [HENRY].
17 Then Jacob rose up--Little time is spent by pastoral people in removing. The striking down the tents and poles and stowing them among their other baggage; the putting their wives and children in houdas like cradles, on the backs of camels, or in panniers on asses; and the ranging of the various parts of the flock under the respective shepherds; all this is a short process. A plain that is covered in the morning with a long array of tents and with browsing flocks, may, in a few hours, appear so desolate that not a vestige of the encampment remains, except the holes in which the tent poles had been fixed.
18 he carried the cattle of his getting--that is, his own and nothing more. He did not indemnify himself for his many losses by carrying off any thing of Laban's, but was content with what Providence had given him. Some may think that due notice should have been given; but when a man feels himself in danger--the law of self-preservation prescribes the duty of immediate flight, if it can be done consistently with conscience.
20 Jacob stole away--The result showed the prudence and necessity of departing secretly; otherwise, Laban might have detained him by violence or artifice.
22 LABAN PURSUES JACOB--THEIR COVENANT AT GILEAD. (Gen. 31:22-55)
it was told Laban on the third day--No sooner did the news reach Laban than he set out in pursuit, and he being not encumbered, advanced rapidly; whereas Jacob, with a young family and numerous flocks, had to march slowly, so that he overtook the fugitives after seven days' journey as they lay encamped on the brow of mount Gilead, an extensive range of hills forming the eastern boundary of Canaan. Being accompanied by a number of his people, he might have used violence had he not been divinely warned in a dream to give no interruption to his nephew's journey. How striking and sudden a change! For several days he had been full of rage, and was now in eager anticipation that his vengeance would be fully wreaked, when lo! his hands are tied by invisible power (
Ps 76:10). He did not dare to touch Jacob, but there was a war of words.
26 Laban said . . . What hast thou done?--Not a word is said of the charge (
Gen 31:1). His reproaches were of a different kind. His first charge was for depriving him of the satisfaction of giving Jacob and his family the usual salutations at parting. In the East it is customary, when any are setting out to a great distance, for their relatives and friends to accompany them a considerable way with music and valedictory songs. Considering the past conduct of Laban, his complaint on this ground was hypocritical cant. But his second charge was a grave one--the carrying off his gods--Hebrew, "teraphim," small images of human figures, used not as idols or objects of worship, but as talismans, for superstitious purposes.
31 Jacob said, . . . With whomsoever thou findest thy gods let him not live--Conscious of his own innocence and little suspecting the misdeed of his favorite wife, Jacob boldly challenged a search and denounced the heaviest penalty on the culprit. A personal scrutiny was made by Laban, who examined every tent [
Gen 31:33]; and having entered Rachel's last, he would have infallibly discovered the stolen images had not Rachel made an appeal to him which prevented further search [
Gen 31:34-
Gen 31:35].
34 Rachel had taken the images, and put them in the camel's furniture, and sat upon them--The common pack saddle is often used as a seat or a cushion, against which a person squatted on the floor may lean.
36 Jacob was wroth--Recrimination on his part was natural in the circumstances, and, as usual, when passion is high, the charges took a wide range. He rapidly enumerated his grievances for twenty years and in a tone of unrestrained severity described the niggard character and vexatious exactions of his uncle, together with the hardships of various kinds he had patiently endured.
38 The rams of thy flock have I not eaten--Eastern people seldom kill the females for food except they are barren.
39 That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee--The shepherds are strictly responsible for losses in the flock, unless they can prove these were occasioned by wild beasts.
40 in the day the drought . . . and the frost by night--The temperature changes often in twenty-four hours from the greatest extremes of heat and cold, most trying to the shepherd who has to keep watch by his flocks. Much allowance must be made for Jacob. Great and long-continued provocations ruffle the mildest and most disciplined tempers. It is difficult to "be angry and sin not" [
Eph 4:26]. But these two relatives, after having given utterance to their pent-up feelings, came at length to a mutual understanding, or rather, God influenced Laban to make reconciliation with his injured nephew (
Pro 16:7).
44 Come thou, let us make a covenant--The way in which this covenant was ratified was by a heap of stones being laid in a circular pile, to serve as seats, and in the center of this circle a large one was set up perpendicularly for an altar. It is probable that a sacrifice was first offered, and then that the feast of reconciliation was partaken of by both parties seated on the stones around it. To this day heaps of stones, which have been used as memorials, are found abundantly in the region where this transaction took place.
52 This heap be witness--Objects of nature were frequently thus spoken of. But over and above, there was a solemn appeal to God; and it is observable that there was a marked difference in the religious sentiments of the two. Laban spake of the God of Abraham and Nahor, their common ancestors; but Jacob, knowing that idolatry had crept in among that branch of the family, swore by the "fear of his father Isaac." They who have one God should have one heart: they who are agreed in religion should endeavor to agree in everything else.