Genesis 31:22-55 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

Genesis 31:22 to Genesis 32:2. After Mutual Recriminations, Jacob and Laban Make a Covenant to Refrain from Aggression on each other's Territories. The analysis is uncertain; Gunkel assigns Genesis 31:22-24; Genesis 31:26; Genesis 31:28-31 a (to Laban), Genesis 31:32-35; Genesis 31:36 b, Genesis 31:37; Genesis 31:41-43; Genesis 31:45; Genesis 31:49 f., Genesis 31:53 b - Genesis 33:2 to E; the rest, apart from Genesis 31:47, to J. According to E, Laban learns of Jacob's flight on the third day, and overtakes him seven days later, but is warned in a dream the night before their encounter to say nothing to him, a command which he interprets as forbidding him to take hostile measures. He reproaches Jacob with his sudden flight, depriving him of the opportunity of saying adieu to his children. He could hurt him but for God's prohibition. And if sore home-sickness excused him, why has he stolen his gods? Jacob, ignorant of Rachel's theft, replies that the thief shall die (cf. Genesis 44:9), and gives him full liberty to search. Laban searches the tents of Jacob, the maids, and Leah, without discovering the teraphim. Last of all, he enters Rachel's tent. She had concealed them in the camel's howdah, in which she travelled, and alleges her condition of ceremonial uncleanness as the reason why she cannot rise (a stolen god protected from discovery in so ignominious a way!). Jacob concludes that Laban's charge was a pretext for ransacking his property to see if he can find anything of his own, and challenges him to produce it. Then (Genesis 31:41 f.) he carries the war into the enemy's camp. Fourteen years he had served for the daughters, six for the flock; but for God's care Laban would have turned him away penniless. God's rebuke shows that he bad marked Jacob's wrongs. Laban replies, Daughters, children, flocks, all you have is mine, yet I must part with them; what kindness can I show them? Then he (not Jacob) sets up a pillar, to indicate that God will watch between them, to see that Jacob, when no longer under his father-in-law's eye, does not illtreat his daughters. Jacob swears by the Fear of Isaac, offers a sacrifice, and partakes with his brethren of a sacrificial meal. In the morning Laban bids his children adieu, and returns home.

According to J, Laban overtakes Jacob and reproaches him for leaving without the customary send-off. He replies that he feared that Laban might rob him of his daughters. (Laban's reply is not preserved; it aroused Jacob's hot anger (Genesis 31:36 a), and from the tenor of Jacob's reply Gunkel conjectures that he charged him with stealing his flocks.) Jacob replies in wrath that he had served him twenty years, there have been no miscarriages in the flock, he has not eaten the rams, if beasts had devoured he had not brought the mangled remains for inspection to prove his honesty (Exodus 22:13; Amos 3:12), but had borne the loss; pitiless heat by day, biting frost by night, scanty sleep, such had been his thankless lot. Laban proposes a covenant (and (?) the making of a cairn) to witness between them. He (not Jacob) bids his brethren collect stones, and they celebrate the covenant feast on the cairn. This cairn is to be a witness that neither will pass it in hostile aggression against the other.

In Genesis 32:1 f. (E) we have apparently a fragmentary explanation of the name Mahanaim. The incident is so curious that probably something objectionable to later piety (possibly a conflict between Jacob and the angels; cf. Genesis 32:24-32) has been struck out.

Genesis 31:25. the mountain: apparently different from the mountain of Gilead; perhaps Mizpah stood in the text (Genesis 31:49).

Genesis 31:42. the Fear of Isaac: i.e. the deity feared by Isaac, not the terror inspired by the god Isaac (E. Meyer) or a sacred object belonging to and reverenced by Isaac and now in Jacob's possession (Eerdmans).

Related Commentaries of Genesis 31:22

Genesis 31:22-55

22 And it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob was fled.

23 And he took his brethren with him, and pursued after him seven days' journey; and they overtook him in the mount Gilead.

24 And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night, and said unto him, Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.

25 Then Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mount: and Laban with his brethren pitched in the mount of Gilead.

26 And Laban said to Jacob, What hast thou done, that thou hast stolen away unawares to me, and carried away my daughters, as captives taken with the sword?

27 Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me; and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth, and with songs, with tabret, and with harp?

28 And hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters? thou hast now done foolishly in so doing.

29 It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.

30 And now, though thou wouldest needs be gone, because thou sore longedst after thy father's house, yet wherefore hast thou stolen my gods?

31 And Jacob answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid: for I said, Peradventure thou wouldest take by force thy daughters from me.

32 With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let him not live: before our brethren discern thou what is thine with me, and take it to thee. For Jacob knew not that Rachel had stolen them.

33 And Laban went into Jacob's tent, and into Leah's tent, and into the two maidservants' tents; but he found them not. Then went he out of Leah's tent, and entered into Rachel's tent.

34 Now Rachel had taken the images, and put them in the camel's furniture, and sat upon them. And Laban searchede all the tent, but found them not.

35 And she said to her father, Let it not displease my lord that I cannot rise up before thee; for the custom of women is upon me. And he searched, but found not the images.

36 And Jacob was wroth, and chode with Laban: and Jacob answered and said to Laban, What is my trespass? what is my sin, that thou hast so hotly pursued after me?

37 Whereas thou hast searchedf all my stuff, what hast thou found of all thy household stuff? set it here before my brethren and thy brethren, that they may judge betwixt us both.

38 This twenty years have I been with thee; thy ewes and thy she goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten.

39 That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day, or stolen by night.

40 Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes.

41 Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle: and thou hast changed my wages ten times.

42 Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight.

43 And Laban answered and said unto Jacob, These daughters are my daughters, and these children are my children, and these cattle are my cattle, and all that thou seest is mine: and what can I do this day unto these my daughters, or unto their children which they have born?

44 Now therefore come thou, let us make a covenant, I and thou; and let it be for a witness between me and thee.

45 And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar.

46 And Jacob said unto his brethren, Gather stones; and they took stones, and made an heap: and they did eat there upon the heap.

47 And Laban called it Jegarsahadutha:g but Jacob called it Galeed.

48 And Laban said, This heap is a witness between me and thee this day. Therefore was the name of it called Galeed;

49 And Mizpah;h for he said, The LORD watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another.

50 If thou shalt afflict my daughters, or if thou shalt take other wives beside my daughters, no man is with us; see, God is witness betwixt me and thee.

51 And Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold this pillar, which I have cast betwixt me and thee;

52 This heap be witness, and this pillar be witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me, for harm.

53 The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge betwixt us. And Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac.

54 Then Jacob offeredi sacrifice upon the mount, and called his brethren to eat bread: and they did eat bread, and tarried all night in the mount.

55 And early in the morning Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them: and Laban departed, and returned unto his place.