And Jacob stole away unawares to Laban the Syrian, in that he told him not that he fled.
Ver. 20. And Jacob stole away.] God's saints are put upon the use of such means sometimes, for their own safety, as render them contemptible to worldly men; all whose contumelies they can bravely bear, so long as their consciences clear and cheer them: yea, they can rejoice and say, It is a mercy they know no worse by me. It is a great work of nature to keep the filth of the body, when it is in man, from being unsavoury to others. But it is a greater work of God to keep the filth of the soul, that is so unsavoury to him, from the knowledge of those that wait all occasions to blaze and blaspheme us.