Chapter Thirty-One

Jacob prepares to return home and announces it to his wives

Genesis 31:1–3. And Jacob heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, Jacob has taken all that was our father’s, and from what was our father’s, he has acquired all this wealth. And Jacob saw Laban’s face, and behold, it was not toward him as it had been before and the day before. And the Lord said to Jacob, Return to the land of your fathers and to your native place, and I will be with you. The new six years of Jacob’s service with Laban had enriched him, but this circumstance aroused Laban’s discontent and that of his sons: their reproachful remarks to Jacob and Laban’s unfriendly attitude toward him, “having forgotten what he had said to Jacob before (Gen 30:27): ‘The Lord has blessed me for your sake’ (Chrysostom, Homily 57, 609), – created for Jacob a position in Haran that was as difficult as what he had faced earlier in his native place, and now his thoughts turned decidedly toward it. But God’s revelation, which commanded Jacob to return to Canaan, drawing him also from danger from Laban, as he had once been saved from Esau’s hatred, finally confirmed Jacob in the necessity of returning to his homeland. This intention, with detailed explanation (vv. 4–16), Jacob communicates to Rachel and Leah and receives their consent.

Genesis 31:4. And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field, to his flock of small cattle, Jacob summoned his wives to the field so that his decision would not be revealed prematurely; in this, his beloved Rachel is mentioned before Leah. Laban’s flocks Jacob found it possible to leave and remain with his own livestock.

Genesis 31:5–6. And he said to them, I see that your father’s face is not toward me as it was before and the day before; but the God of my father was with me; you yourselves know that I have served your father with all my strength, Preparing his wives for the resolution to leave their father and go to Canaan, Jacob points to: the altered relations of Laban toward him; his own conscientiousness and diligence in work; and the divine assistance, which manifested itself in the multiplication of Jacob’s flocks and which now calls him to return to Canaan. Jacob calls the Creator of heaven and earth and God of all the God of his father, perhaps adapting to his wives’ understanding of idols (which, according to v. 19, were in Laban’s house), or expressing that the God of the universe is for him the God of the promises given to his fathers (cf. Rosenmüller, p. 481).

Genesis 31:7–8. But your father deceived me and changed my wages ten times; but God did not allow him to do me harm. When he said, The spotted livestock shall be your wages, then all the livestock bore spotted. And when he said, The striped shall be your wages, then all the livestock bore striped. Jacob points to that in which Laban’s ill will toward him was actually manifested: he changed the agreed wages ten times or generally several times – ten times is used in an indefinite sense, as a round number (e.g., in Num 14:22; Job 19:3) – cutting its amount at his pleasure, despite all of Jacob’s diligence (v. 6). The Slavonic version: “ten lambs” – a translation of the Greek τῶν δέκα ἀμνῶν, an erroneous reading, – according to interpreters (Capella, Bochart, etc.) should be μνῶν (Aquila: ἀριυμούς; Vulgate: decem vicibus).

Genesis 31:9. And God took all the livestock from your father and gave it to me. But God did not permit Laban’s will to prevail; on the contrary, He transferred the greater part of his livestock to Jacob: Jacob says nothing about his own efforts in this direction, though certainly he does not deny them altogether; but he especially emphasizes the heavenly protection afforded him through all of Laban’s injustices.

Genesis 31:11–13. The angel of God said to me in a dream, Jacob! And I said, Here I am. He said, Lift up your eyes and see: all the male goats and rams that have mounted the females are spotted, speckled, and dappled, for I see all that Laban is doing to you; I am the God who appeared to you at Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to Me; now arise, leave this land and return to the land of your birth and I will be with you. Having already pointed to the fact that the gradual transfer of the greater part of Laban’s livestock to Jacob is the work of God’s blessing on him, the work of his protection from Laban’s injustice, Jacob now shows his wives how he came to be convinced of God’s blessing toward him; he speaks of a whole series of dreams he had, some of which took place at the beginning of his six-year period of service, and others at the end of this period. In the first case, whenever Jacob was grieved by a new injustice from Laban, he saw in a dream the fulfillment of his desire; the angel of God showed him that the sheep and goats that would be born would be of exactly those colors that according to agreement belonged to Jacob – God, seeing the injustice done to him by Laban, by His creative power guarded Jacob’s well-being and, it is supposed, forgave his not always lawful actions in the struggle against Laban’s avarice. In v. 13 is mentioned a more recent vision of Jacob, in which the angel of the Lord, reminding Jacob of a vision he once had at Bethel and the vow he made there, commands him to return home. The translation of the LXX (Slavonic and Russian) adds God’s promise – always to be with Jacob. By all this account Jacob intended to convince his wives to go with him to Canaan. It is characteristic that the angel of God is designated by the name of God and identified with Jehovah, who appeared to Jacob at Bethel on his way to Mesopotamia (Gen 28:12-13). “Having called Him above the Angel, he now shows that He is God, because He Himself says: ‘I am the God who appeared to you’ on the way. And he saw the angels ascending and descending on the ladder, and the Lord established above it. He named Him here both Angel and God – God by nature, Angel so that we might know that the one who appeared was not the Father, but the only-begotten Son... and the angel of great counsel” (Blessed Theodoret, in answer to question 90). In the blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh, Jacob calls (Gen 48:15-16) this angel of the Lord, the Son of God before His incarnation, – the Angel-Deliverer.

Genesis 31:14–16. Rachel and Leah answered him, Is there still any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house? Are we not considered as foreigners to him? For he has sold us, and has even consumed our money; therefore all the wealth and possessions that God has taken from our father are ours and our children’s; so do all that God has said to you. The answer of Rachel and Leah, remarkable for the unanimity of these longtime rivals in this case, first affirms that nothing now binds them to Laban’s house, and therefore there is no obstacle on their part to Jacob’s departure with his family from Haran to Canaan (v. 14); second, contains a bitter and just complaint about the greed and heartlessness of their father, who regarded them (as he did Jacob) as servants, not leaving them their bride-price – the compensation of the fourteen years of Jacob’s service for them; meanwhile, it is evident that the custom of the time and place required exactly such use of the bride-price (v. 15); third, contains a complete justification of all of Jacob’s activity in acquiring property, which Rachel and Leah regard as an inalienable possession of themselves and their children (v. 16), and at the same time, a complete agreement to follow Jacob.

Jacob with all his family and all his possessions, in secret from Laban, departs for Canaan

Genesis 31:17–19. And Jacob rose and set his children and his wives upon camels, and took all his livestock and all his property that he had acquired, his own livestock that he had acquired in Mesopotamia, and all that was his, to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan. And as Laban went to shear his sheep, Jacob now hastily prepares his family, livestock and all his possessions and, taking advantage of Laban’s absence, who is at the festival of sheep-shearing, which lasted several days (1 Sam 25:2 and others), immediately sets out on his journey with his entire caravan. The time, judging by the festival of sheep-shearing, was spring, the most convenient season for travel in hot lands. Rachel took her father’s household gods. The teraphim that Rachel stole from her father were a kind of penates, household gods (cf. v. 30), used for inquiring about the future: they had the form of a human figure (1 Sam 19:13). It is possible that the teraphim are mentioned in Joshua’s speech about the gods whom the patriarchs of the Hebrew people served (Josh 24:2). But it is more probable to see in the reported case a superstition, and in the teraphim – a kind of talismans. Rachel stole them, perhaps intending to deprive Laban of the ability to learn which way Jacob had gone; or perhaps Laban’s teraphim attracted Rachel’s attention because of their material value. The Midrash sees the reason in the fact that Rachel did this to free her father from his superstition. The Blessed Theodoret held the same view of Rachel’s deed: “some say that Rachel stole the idols from devotion to them. But I think the opposite, namely that she stole them with the intention and aim of freeing her father from superstition” (in answer to question 91). John Chrysostom understands Rachel’s deed differently and perhaps more accurately: “the daughters still held to their father’s custom and had great respect for the idols” (Homily 57, 613).

Genesis 31:20–23. But Jacob stole away unaware to Laban the Syrian, because he did not inform him that he was departing. And he left with all that he had; and rising up, he crossed the river and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead. On the third day, Laban was told that Jacob had fled. Then he took his brothers and relatives with him and pursued Jacob for seven days, and overtook him in the hill country of Gilead. Jacob “stole away” the heart of Laban the Syrian (according to the Hebrew text; the Greeks and Slavs have no such idiom, v. 20) – a play on words (cf. v. 19); the meaning of the expression is determined by the second half of the verse: he left secretly, taking with him all his relatives’ daughters (cf. v. 26). The designation of Laban as “Syrian” (Slavonic: “Aramean”) here and below (v. 24) is intended, according to Clericus, not to designate Laban’s fatherland, but to mark the character of this man, since the Syrians from ancient times were considered the most cunning and deceitful of all peoples; Jacob outwitted the most cunning (Rosenmüller, p. 487). Jacob crossed the river, i.e., the Euphrates, and directed himself to the southwest – toward the hill country of Gilead. The latter name here (v. 21) is used proleptically, since according to v. 47 it was only Jacob who gave the hill this name. The place where Laban overtook Jacob ten days after his flight: for 3 days Laban still did not know of Jacob’s escape, v. 22, and for 7 days he pursued him to the hill country of Gilead, v. 23. Later, as is known, the entire Transjordanic region was called Gilead, and the river Jabbok divided it into northern and southern parts. In this case, it probably means the most northern part of the territory, nearest to Mesopotamia, and not the present Jelad on the Jabbok: Jacob, with the slowness of his caravan’s movement (cf. Gen 33:13), could not have reached here in ten days. On the same hill, perhaps on different slopes, Jacob with his family and Laban with his relatives-companions were stationed separately (v. 25).

Laban pursues him, overtakes him with intention to take revenge on his son-in-law, but being enlightened from above, becomes reconciled with what has happened and concludes, before the final separation with his son-in-law, daughters and grandchildren, a friendly covenant with Jacob

Genesis 31:24. And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night and said to him, Be careful lest you speak to Jacob either good or bad. Protecting the inviolability of His chosen one, God (called here by the general name Elohim, not by the specifically theocratic name Jehovah) appears in a dream to the heathen Laban to warn him against violence to Jacob, as He had appeared earlier to Abimelech for the sake of Abraham (Gen 20:3). The Midrash sees a distinction in these divine appearances to heathen from those which were granted to members of the chosen people, in that the former happened only in dreams (cf. Job 4:13-16, Beresch. r. Par. LXXIV, s. 361–462), though the opposite also occurred: cf. the vision to Jacob (Gen 28:11-16) and the revelation to Balaam (Num 23-24). More accurately it can be said: the former divine appearances belong to the sphere of general divine providence, the latter have a theoretical and soteriological character; the former are connected with the Old Testament idea of Elohim, God of nature, the latter – with the idea of Jehovah, God of salvation. In any case, the fact that the Syrian Laban was deemed worthy of a divine appearance indicates that there was a good disposition in his soul.

Genesis 31:25–28. And Laban overtook Jacob, and Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban and his kinsmen pitched in the hill country of Gilead. And Laban said to Jacob, What have you done? You have deceived me and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword! Why did you flee secretly and deceive me, and not tell me? I would have sent you away with joy and songs, with tambourine and harp; and you have not allowed me even to kiss my grandsons and daughters! You have acted foolishly. Laban’s speech, breathing impetuous passion, nevertheless contains some favorable qualities of Laban’s character: first, quite tender, it seems, affection for his daughters and grandsons: he calls the former his own heart (see Hebrew text: “you have stolen my heart”) and is indignant that Jacob took them away like war captives (v. 26), not allowing Laban to escort his daughters and grandsons with triumph and music, customary in the East at meetings and farewells (cf. 1 Sam 18:6; Judg 11:34); (toph – a percussion instrument, “tambourine” – a kind of drum, kinnor – a stringed instrument, harp or lyre), and even depriving Laban of the pleasure of kissing his grandsons (vv. 27–28). According to the Midrash, Jacob remarked about this: you can do this even now, – and Laban did this at parting, (v. 55); second, the piety and obedience of Laban to God’s command (v. 29): “God’s command tamed his fury, bridled his rage, and he treats Jacob with meekness and as it were with paternal love” (John Chrysostom, Homily 57, 616–617).

Genesis 31:29–30. It is in my power to do you harm; but God said to me last night, ‘Be careful lest you speak to Jacob either good or bad.’ Well, you were eager to go to your father’s house, but why did you steal my gods? But Laban soon turns to threats and finally to the accusation of stealing the teraphim, which he calls his gods. Thus, reverence before the true God in Laban was obscured by crude pagan superstition, and love for his children – by egoism and vengefulness.

Genesis 31:31–32. Jacob answered Laban and said, I was afraid, for I thought you would take your daughters from me by force. Anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our kinsmen, look for what is yours and take it. (But he did not find anything.) Jacob did not know that Rachel his wife had stolen them. In his defense, Jacob first briefly and humbly answers Laban’s reproach about his secret departure from him: he feared that Laban, being unfavorably disposed toward him, would keep his wives and children, as he had previously deprived him of his rightful wages. To the second accusation – of stealing the teraphim – Jacob offers to conduct a thorough search in his camp, namely in the presence of witnesses from among Laban’s companions. In this case, if the teraphim were to be found with someone in Jacob’s camp, he, as patriarch and head of the family (Gen 9:25), pronounces – a curse on the guilty party (about the theft of Rachel, he did not know); according to the Midrash, this was an unthinking word – Rachel stole the teraphim and died (Beresch. r. Par. 74, s. 362).

Genesis 31:34–35. Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel’s saddle and sat on them. And Laban searched all the tents but did not find them. She said to her father, Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is upon me. And he searched but did not find the gods. Laban conducts the search in Jacob’s tents and in the tents of all his wives (who had separate tents). The cunning and resourcefulness of the guilty party in all this, Rachel, consisted in knowing the ancient custom, known to other peoples as well, and in the Mosaic legislation raised to the level of binding law (Lev 15:19-20) – a woman is unclean during menstruation, and any contact with her defiles, – Rachel hid the teraphim under the camel’s saddle and sat on all of it in the confidence that Laban would not dare to search her once she announced her unclean state. Remarkable in this is the profound respect with which the daughter addresses the father (v. 35), though neither Rachel nor Leah regarded Laban’s treatment of them and Jacob as normal and just (vv. 15–16).

Genesis 31:36–40. And Jacob became angry and upbraided Laban. Jacob said to Laban, What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have pursued after me? Since you have searched all my property, what have you found of all your property? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, and let them judge between us two. These twenty years I have been in your house; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks; What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss myself. You required it of me, whether stolen by day or stolen by night; I was consumed by heat during the day and by frost during the night, and sleep fled from my eyes. Now that Laban’s search has come to nothing, Jacob, inclined perhaps to see in Laban’s suspicion a slander against himself, expresses with all his energy the feelings of deep bitterness against Laban – both for this last accusation (vv. 36–37) and for all of Laban’s injustices toward Jacob throughout all twenty years of his service to Laban, a service that was most careful and often demanded self-denial, yet met with extreme heartlessness from Laban. Experienced in the shepherd’s life, Jacob vividly depicts the unattractive features of his shepherd’s life with Laban, and with it the shepherding generally. It was the shepherd’s duty to ensure that pregnant ewes and goats did not miscarry; Jacob did not allow himself, like other shepherds, to take even an occasional lamb from his master’s flock for food (v. 38). On the contrary, Laban mercilessly demanded compensation for every missing animal, even if the loss occurred not during the day, when watching the flock is more favorable, but at night, when the shepherd’s vigilance naturally weakens (v. 39). To the grave moral conditions of service with Laban were added the discomforts of the shepherd’s physical life: an extremely sharp alternation between the highest heat during the day and intolerable cold at night. According to the testimony of travelers, in all of Western Asia and now, especially in the spring and autumn months, the difference between day and night temperatures is approximately the same as in a temperate climate – between summer and winter. The opposition of day heat and night cold is often found in the Bible (Jer 36:30). “Sleep... fled from” Jacob’s eyes – as a result of his particular care for the safety of the flock. “See the watchfulness of the shepherd? See the intense effort?” (John Chrysostom, Homily 57, 620).

Genesis 31:42. 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. But God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night. Jacob’s careful and even self-denying attitude toward his shepherd’s duties with Laban did not receive just appreciation from Laban: on the contrary, he seemed inclined to reduce Jacob’s wages by every means (cf. v. 7). And, in Jacob’s conviction, only God’s evident care for Laban’s well-being – evident even to Laban – held him back from completely depriving Jacob of all his acquired property. “Since God knows with what great zeal you have served and what labors you have endured... then, considering this, He, as the Lord who loves mankind, rebuked you last night, turned away from me your unjust and foolish attempts” (John Chrysostom, Homily 57, 621). In contrast to Laban’s polytheistic beliefs (v. 30, cf. v. 53), Jacob (as in his speech to his wives, v. 5) confesses the God of the universe to be the God of his father and grandfather, using expressions that are parallel to each other: “God of Abraham” and “Fear of Isaac.” The latter expression represents a metonymy, designating the object of Isaac’s fear, i.e., God; such a designation is applied to God in the prophet Isaiah (Isa 8:13). “By the Fear of Isaac he meant piety, that is, the fear of God; because Isaac carried the fear of God in his soul” (Blessed Theodoret, question 92). The feeling of fear, reverence before God, inalienable from religion generally and especially from Old Testament religion, seems to be ascribed to Isaac in a more specific sense – as an indication of Isaac’s individual characteristic. According to the rabbis, this name either meant that Isaac, when offered as a sacrifice, experienced the fear of God in a particularly strong degree, or that Isaac, as still living, inevitably experienced the feeling of the fear of God, and Jacob could not have said of his living father: “God of Isaac” (cf. H. Grotius, Annotatt. in V. T., 1.1, p. 39: non dicit Deus Isaaci, quia vivebat adhuc Isaac).

Genesis 31:43–44. And Laban answered and said to Jacob, The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the livestock are my livestock, and all that you see is mine! How then can I do anything to my daughters and their children whom they have borne? Now come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between me and you. [And Jacob said to him: Behold, there is no one with us; see, God is witness between you and me.] Convinced by the passionate, and with justice, reproaches of Jacob, Laban assures his son-in-law of his absence of any ill intention toward Jacob’s family, which was akin to him, and as a pledge of good will offers to make a mutual covenant, the essence and content of which are indicated below, vv. 50 and 52: on Jacob’s part, it was an obligation to treat Laban’s daughters kindly and not to take wives beyond the present number (v. 50), and on the part of both, Jacob and Laban, the covenant was a guarantee that neither one nor the other would cross the boundary – the hill – established between them with hostile intent.

Genesis 31:45–46. So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a memorial. And Jacob said to his kinsmen, Gather stones. They took stones and made a heap, and they ate and drank there on the heap. [And Laban said to him, This heap is a witness between me and you today.] The external expression, or monumental confirmation of the covenant, customary in the ancient East for contracts, is a stone stela, jointly erected by both parties (in accordance with the stone erected by Jacob at Bethel, Gen 28:18). As confirmation of the covenant, a meal is arranged on the newly erected heap (cf. Gen 26:30; Josh 9:14-15).

Genesis 31:47. And Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha; but Jacob called it Galeed. Both Jacob and Laban point to the heap as a witness of the covenant (cf. Josh 4:3). But Jacob uses two Hebrew words: gal – ed, while Laban uses the corresponding Aramaic or Syrian words: jegar – sahaduta, from this we learn that already in the third generation of the patriarchs of the Hebrew people, the language they spoke in Canaan (the native land of Jacob) was dialectically different from the Aramaic or Chaldean language spoken in the land of Abraham’s origin. Consequently, the biblical Hebrew language was adopted by the biblical patriarchs from the native inhabitants of Canaan and Phoenicia.

Genesis 31:49. And he said, “Let the Lord watch between me and you when we are out of each other’s sight; Another name given to the place of the covenant between Jacob and Laban is “Mizpah” (in the LXX: Massiphah), that is, a watchtower, because, Laban says, after our separation God alone will be the guardian, the protector of the faithfulness of our mutual covenant obligations; He will also be the sole judge of the treacherous side (Vulgate: Intucatur et judicet Dominus inter nos quando recesserimus a nobis). Later, in the East-Jordanic part of the Holy Land, Mizpah or Massiphah of Gilead was known (Judg 11:29) in the tribe of Gad (Josh 11:3), distinguished from the Massiphah of the West-Jordan side of Benjamin (Judg 20:1). The name Gilead subsequently became the name of the entire region, from the borders of Moab to the river Hermon on the north (cf. Deut 3:13 and others).

Genesis 31:50–52. If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, remember that God is witness between me and you. And Laban said to Jacob, “See this heap and see the pillar, which I have set between me and you. This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass beyond this heap to you for harm, and you will not pass beyond this heap and this pillar to me for harm; In expressing the conditions and essence of the covenant, Laban sees the guarantee of faithfulness and the inviolability of the covenant solely in God, whom he solemnly invokes to protect the integrity of the proposed obligations and to punish the treacherous side. Jacob could have disrupted his family by taking other wives besides Leah and Rachel and their maidservants – Jacob’s concubines, and in this case it would naturally have been expected to worsen the position of both Leah and Rachel; besides, Laban fears that Jacob might return to Mesopotamia to take revenge on him: he therefore demands that Jacob never cross the “heap-witness” with hostile intent; peaceful and general friendly relations are here naturally implied as possible (cf. 1 Sam 20:34). Laban’s covenant with Jacob in its final form is rather an international contract than a personal alliance.

Genesis 31:53. May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor judge between us – the God of their father.” And Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac. The concluding act of the covenant – the oath in God’s name – is performed by Laban and Jacob differently: in the former, in a polytheistic, in the latter, in a purely monotheistic, theocratic sense. However, having mentioned the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor as two different gods, Laban seems to correct himself, using the expression “God of their father.” “By the Fear of Isaac” – cf. v. 42.

Genesis 31:54. And Jacob offered a sacrifice on the hill and called his kinsmen to eat bread; and they ate bread and spent the night on the hill. A Hebrew commentator interprets it: “he slaughtered animals for a feast.” The shared meal of Jacob with Laban and his companions is mentioned both here and above in v. 46. Indeed, the Hebrew verb zabach has, besides a specifically sacrificial meaning, also a general one – to slaughter (1 Sam 28:24; 1 Sam 19:21), as does zebach – not only a sacrifice (usually a peace offering), but also a meal generally (Prov 17:1; Ezek 39:17). That here we are speaking not of a sacrifice, Hebrew commentators conclude from the fact that the entire reconciliation of Jacob with Laban bears the character of insincerity. In a similar case from the life of Isaac – in the covenant with Abimelech – there was only a feast (Gen 26:30). But of course, Jacob could have offered a proper sacrifice, a thanksgiving or, as it was later called in the Law of Moses, a peace sacrifice – zebach shelamim – (Lev 6:12): what Moses prescribed, could have existed earlier in practice and custom of worship.

Genesis 31:55. And early in the morning Laban rose and kissed his grandsons and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place. Laban gives one last expression to his family affection toward Jacob’s household, and, having kissed his grandsons and daughters, returns to his place, according to the Midrash, to his idols (Beresch. r. par. 74, s. 365). * * * Notes proleptically – assuming a hidden and for now inaccessible to outsiders meaning.