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?
Jacob answered and said to Laban. The use of the word "answered," as in this instance, is a Hebrew idiom, and peculiar to the Hebrew mode of conception, in reference to something prior as the occasion of speaking. The words, though in the form of question, are an answer to Laban's injurious, and so far as Jacob was concerned, unfounded, suspicions. 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 20 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.
Verse 38. The rams ... have I not eaten. Eastern people seldom kill the females for food unless they are barren.
Verse 39. That which was torn of beasts. The shepherds are strictly responsible for losses in the flock, unless they can prove these were occasioned by casualties beyond their foresight to anticipate, or their power to prevent. They are bound every evening to re-deliver their charge as they received it, without diminution. Their wages being paid not in money but in kind, consisting commonly of a tenth part of the milk and lambs, they are required, in the event of any of the flock being lost while under their custody, to make up the damage out of their earnings; and even in those exceptional cases where they can plead the prevalence of distemper, or the ravages of wild beasts, they must demonstrate their attention in applying the proper remedies to the diseased, and their vigilance in repelling the ravenous prowlers by some ocular proof, such as the diseased head or body of the animal, or a fragment of its ears, legs, or tail, snatched from the beast of prey (Amos 3:12). These stringent rules were in existence in the time of Jacob, who, however, chose rather to repair the losses himself than to enter upon the irksome task of satisfying his grasping father-in-law.
Verse 40. In the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night. Obliged to be much abroad in the fields, under the slender covert of a tent, and frequently without any shelter, he was exposed, not only to all the variations of the seasons, but to the sudden and great alternations of temperature which distinguish the climate of Mesopotamia, where the vicissitudes of day and night appear like a transition in a few hours, from the heat of the summer's solstices to the piercing cold and rigours of winter. The temperature changes often in 24 hours from the greatest extremes of heat and cold, most trying to the shepherd who has to keep watch by his flocks.
Verse 42. The Fear of Isaac [Hebrew, pachad (H6343)] - the object of his fear and reverence (see the note at verse 53). 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." But these two relatives, after having given utterance to their pent-up feelings, came at length to a mutual understanding. Laban was so cut by the severe and well-founded reproaches of Jacob, that he saw the necessity of an immediate surrender, or rather, God influenced him to make reconciliation with his injured nephew (Proverbs 16:7).