Genesischapter 31
55 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Now while Laban was out shearing his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Genesis Overview.
This chapter was first heard by a nation that had just walked out of a long servitude of its own. It closes the twenty years Jacob spent working for his mother's brother in Haran, and it tells how a hired man leaves a master who does not want to let him go. Two households that share one grandfather settle their accounts in it. Listen for the two versions of the same years, one told by each man, and for the way God speaks to both of them. Watch what each person carries out of the house. It ends with a border that both sides swear to keep.
Context
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, camped near the same eastern hills
- What
- A narrative of Jacob's departure from Laban, the pursuit into Gilead and the covenant that parts the two men.
- Where
- From Haran in Paddan-aram west across the Euphrates to the hill country of Gilead, east of the Jordan.
- When
- About 1909 BC by the traditional dating, at the end of Jacob's twenty years in Haran.
- Why
- To show that God brought Jacob out of Haran and kept him from harm, as He had promised at Bethel.
Historical context
The chapter is Jacob's and Laban's, and Jacob is by now a wealthy herdsman whose wealth Laban's sons say came out of their father's flocks.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
The ground it covers runs from Haran across the Euphrates to Gilead, a pursuit of seven days after a start of three.
The occasion is a command, since God tells Jacob at verse 3 to go back to the land of his fathers and names Himself at verse 13 by the pillar Jacob anointed at Bethel and by the vow he made beside it.
A first hearer knew what the teraphim were. They were small figurines kept in a family shrine, and documents of the period show they could carry more than a household's religion, since holding them could support a claim to family headship and inheritance, which is why Laban chases a caravan for hundreds of miles over them while Rachel's own complaint at verse 15 is that her father sold her and spent the price.
He also knew the shepherd's law Jacob's speech turns on, because under the herding practice of the region a shepherd could deduct an animal killed by predators if he produced the carcass, and Exodus 22:10 to 13 later writes that release into Israel's law. Jacob says he waived it for twenty years and paid every loss from his own herd.
The treaty at the end is sealed the way treaties were sealed, with a heap of stones, an oath, a sacrifice and a meal eaten on it, and boundary heaps marking where one party may not pass are attested across the region. This one is named in two languages, Aramaic by Laban and Hebrew by Jacob.
Significance
Israel heard how their forefather got free, on God's command and under God's warning to the man pursuing him rather than by his own cunning.
Show the rest of the significance, 2 more paragraphs
They also heard the Mizpah stone for what the chapter says it is. It is a border with a watch on it, set between two men who did not trust one another, and verse 50 says what the watching is for.
The title Jacob gives God at verses 42 and 53, the Fear of Isaac, is used twice here and nowhere else in Scripture.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The classical readers treat the flight from Haran as a lawful departure rather than a theft, and they spend their effort on showing that Jacob is owed what he takes. Rashi reads the command to return as a condition of God's presence, that Jacob may have it in the land of his fathers, "but as long as you are associated with the unclean Laban it is impossible to make my Divine Presence (Shechina) rest upon you", on Midrash Tanchuma, Vayetzei 10 (Rashi on Genesis 31:3:1, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain). He notes the order in which Jacob calls his wives, "First Rachel and afterwards Leah for she was the chief wife of the house", and adds that even Leah's descendants conceded it (Rashi on Genesis 31:4:1). The rams of the dream he explains by angels moving the marked animals from the flock in the charge of Laban's sons to the flock in Jacob's, on Genesis Rabbah 73:10 (Rashi on Genesis 31:10:1). The daughters' complaint he reads as a legal one, that a father who sold them for fourteen years of labour and gave no dowry had treated them as strangers, and that what God took from their father is theirs rather than his (Rashi on Genesis 31:14:1, 31:15:1 and 31:16:1). On the warning given to Laban in the night he hands on the ruling of Yevamot 103b, that God forbade Laban even a kind word, "Because all the good that the wicked do to the righteous is evil in the opinion of the righteous" (Rashi on Genesis 31:24:1). Radak keeps to the plain reading. He says Laban's change of face was plain to see, "he could see it in his face, for he was not hiding his feelings", and that the dream came while Jacob was still turning the matter over (Radak on Genesis 31:2:1, translated by Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY). He puts Jacob's case in one line, "I have served him faithfully whereas he related to me with deceit" (Radak on Genesis 31:6:1), and identifies the river of the flight as the Euphrates (Radak on Genesis 31:21:1). Ibn Ezra comments here at five places and Malbim at 31:12:1, and the corpus holds no English of either under a licence permitting quotation, so they stand as citations: Ibn Ezra on Genesis 31:5:1, 31:8:1, 31:9:1, 31:20:1 and 31:25:1, Malbim on Genesis 31:12:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, thirty-four of them Midrash and six Talmud, the heaviest Talmud count of any chapter in this half of the book. Bereshit Rabbah follows the flight and the pursuit at 73:9, 73:10, 74:1, 74:3, 74:4, 74:5, 74:6, 74:8, 79:1, 82:1, 82:13 and 48:15, and Bereshit Rabbati at Parashat Vayetze 38, 43, 70, 71, 73 and 75 and Parashat Vayishlach 52. Midrash Lekach Tov is cited at Genesis 31:2:1, 31:6:1, 31:13:1, 31:15:1, 31:26:1 and 31:37:1 and at Exodus 3:1:2, Aggadat Bereshit at 42:1, 52:3, 54:2, 68:1 and 76:3, and Bamidbar Rabbah at 13:20 and 14:5. The six Talmud locators fall where the chapter turns legal: Berakhot 8b:14 at the calling of the wives, Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 1:8:1 at the flight, Avodah Zarah 3a:8 and 24b:20 at the search for the household gods, Bava Kamma 65b:18 at Jacob's charge against Laban and Bava Metzia 93b:3 at his account of the losses he bore himself. Rashi hands on further sayings with their locators, among them Midrash Tanchuma, Vayetzei 10, Genesis Rabbah 73:10, 74:5 and 74:9, and Yevamot 103b.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Genesis 31:1:1, 31:3:1, 31:4:1, 31:7:1, 31:10:1, 31:13:1, 31:14:1, 31:15:1, 31:16:1, 31:17:1, 31:18:1, 31:19:1, 31:22:1, 31:23:1 and 31:24:1, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain; Radak, Radak on Genesis 31:2:1, 31:6:1 and 31:21:1, translated by Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Genesis 31:5:1, 31:8:1, 31:9:1, 31:20:1 and 31:25:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus under a licence permitting quotation; Malbim, Malbim on Genesis 31:12:1, cited only; Midrash, Bereshit Rabbah 48:15, 73:9, 73:10, 74:1, 74:3, 74:4, 74:5, 74:6, 74:8, 79:1, 82:1 and 82:13; Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayetze 38, 43, 70, 71, 73 and 75 and Parashat Vayishlach 52; Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 31:2:1, 31:6:1, 31:13:1, 31:15:1, 31:26:1 and 31:37:1 and Exodus 3:1:2; Aggadat Bereshit 42:1, 52:3, 54:2, 68:1 and 76:3; Bamidbar Rabbah 13:20 and 14:5; Midrash Aggadah, Genesis 31:31:1; Midrash Tanchuma, Vayetzei 10, as Rashi cites it; Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 8b:14, Avodah Zarah 3a:8 and 24b:20, Bava Kamma 65b:18, Bava Metzia 93b:3; Yevamot 103b as Rashi cites it; Jerusalem Talmud, Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 1:8:1.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Time to Go Home
Genesis 31:1-2
The trouble starts in what Laban's sons say. The Hebrew word behind wealth here is kavod, which carries weight and glory. They charge Jacob with building it all at their father's expense. Jacob then reads Laban's face and sees that his attitude has changed.
Genesis 31:1
“He has gotten all his glory - And what was this glory? It was a parcel of brown sheep and speckled goats, and some camels and asses. Jacob has taken away all that was our fathers - Not all, sure; what was become of those cattle which were committed to the custody of Laban's sons, and sent three days journey off?”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
from the countenance of Laban: The Hebrew idiom says Laban's face was no longer toward Jacob as yesterday and the day before, meaning as it used to be. Jacob repeats the idiom word for word to his wives in verse 5. Exodus 5:7 uses it of the straw Israel once received.
Genesis 31:2
“He was but a churl at the best, but now he was more churlish than formerly. Note, Envy is a sin that often appears in the countenance; hence we read of an evil eye, Prov. xxiii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The LORD sends Jacob back along the line Abram was told to leave. At 12:1 the command was to leave country and kindred; here it is to return to both. God adds the Bethel clause, I will be with you. Jacob had asked for exactly that in his vow at 28:20.
Genesis 31:3
“Having been conducted to Haran by God (Ge 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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Genesis 31:4-6
called Rachel and Leah to the field: Jacob calls Rachel and Leah out to the field where his flocks were. Clarke reads the meeting place as deliberate, away from the ears of Laban's household. He tells them their father's attitude toward him has changed. The God of his father has been with him all the same.
Genesis 31:4
“Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah - He had probably been at some considerable distance with the flocks; and for the greater secrecy, he rather sends for them to the field, to consult them on this most momentous affair, than visit them in their tents, where probably some of the family of Laban might overhear their conversation, though Laban himself was at the time three days’ journey off.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the God of my father has been with me: Jacob speaks of God as the God of his father here, at verse 42, and in his prayer at 32:9. His vow at Genesis 28:21 had set a day when the LORD would be his own God. That day waited on his safe return.
Genesis 31:5
“And said unto them, I see your father's countenance, that it is not towards me as before,.... See Gill on Gen 31:2; no notice is taken of what their brethren, the sons of Laban, had said: but the God of my father hath been with me; not only by affording him his gracious presence with him, which supported him under all his troubles; but by his good providence prospering and succeeding him in his outward affairs, as well as he had lately appeared to him, and encouraged him to return to his own country.”
I have served your father with all my strength: Served is the Hebrew avad, the verb of the bargain at 29:18 and of every year that followed. Jacob told Laban the same at 30:29. The oracle at 25:23 said the older would serve the younger, and the younger has served twenty years.
Genesis 31:6
“And ye know, that with all my power I have served your father. With all faithfulness and uprightness; with all diligence and industry; with all wisdom and prudence; with all my might and main, contriving the best methods, and sparing no pains by day or night to take care of his flocks, and increase his substance: of this his wives had been witnesses for twenty years past, and to them he appeals for the truth of it; so that there was no just reason for their father's behaviour towards him.”
Genesis 31:7-9
he has cheated me and changed my wages ten times: Jacob says his wages were changed ten times, and he says it again at verse 41. Jerome reads the switching as a bet against the flock, the terms moving each time to whatever the ewes were not bearing. Each time the flock bore what Jacob was promised. He credits the outcome to God, who took the livestock and gave it to him.
Genesis 31:7
“Changed my wages ten times - There is a strange diversity among the ancient versions, and ancient and modern interpreters, on the meaning of these words. The Hebrew is עשרת מנים asereth monim, which Aquila translates δεκα αριθμους ten numbers; Symmachus, δεκακις αριτμῳ, ten times in number; the Septuagint δεκα αμνων, ten lambs, with which Origen appears to agree.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The first bargain, at 30:32, took in speckled and spotted animals and dark lambs together. Laban later cut the wage down to a single marking and moved it each time the lambs came out with it. God's hand followed each new term.
Thus God has taken away: Taken away is the Hebrew natsal, to snatch away or deliver. Exodus 12:36 uses the same verb when Israel plunders the Egyptians on the way out of Egypt. The sisters take up Jacob's word in verse 16.
Genesis 31:9
“Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father,.... Not all of them, see Gen 31:19; but a great part of them; his flock was much lessened by those means, and more were taken away, and came to Jacob's share, than if Laban had abode by the original agreement: and gave them to me; who has the disposing of all things in the world, whose the world, and all in it, are, and gives of it to the sons of men as he pleases.”
Genesis 31:10-12
I saw in a dream: Chapter 30 told this from the outside, with peeled branches in the troughs and no word from God. Here a dream shows him the flock already marked. The angel of God spoke to him in it and named what Laban had done to him. Calvin reads the increase as God's work and the branches as Jacob's own device.
the angel of God said to me: Here I am is hinneni, the answer Abraham gave when God called him at Genesis 22:1 and 11. Jacob answers the same way at 46:2, when God speaks to him at night on the road to Egypt. The caller names Himself the God of Bethel in verse 13.
Genesis 31:11
“The angel of God spake unto me in a dream - It is strange that we had not heard of this dream before; and yet it seems to have taken place before the cattle brought forth, immediately after the bargain between him and Laban.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
I have seen all that Laban has done: Look up is the Hebrew lift up your eyes, spoken to Abram at Genesis 13:14 when God showed him the land. God's seeing of Laban's dealings uses the verb Leah used at 29:32, when the LORD saw her affliction. Reuben's name is built on that verb.
Genesis 31:12
“Grisled - ברדים beruddim; ברד barad signifies hail, and the meaning must be, they had white spots on them similar to hail. Our word grisled comes from the old French, gresl, hail, now written gràle; hence greslé, grisled, spotted with white upon a dark ground.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar: God names Himself by a stone Jacob set up twenty years earlier and by the vow he made beside it. That vow at 28:20 to 22 turned on God keeping him and bringing him home again. The going home is now commanded. Jacob pays the vow at 35:1 to 7, when he is sent back to build the altar there.
Genesis 31:13
“Jacob had been sent away to Padanaram and he might, perhaps, have stopped there if things had been quite as he wished. As it was, he stayed there quite long enough. He seemed almost to forget his father's house in the cares that his wives and children and the anxious oversight of his constantly increasing flocks involved. But God did not mean him to remain at Padanaram. He was to lead a separated life in Canaan and, therefore, things grew very uncomfortable with Laban.”
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 31:13
“Now that thou beginnest to grow rich it is time to think of an altar and sacrifices again." (2.) To thy comforts in Canaan: Return to the land of thy kindred. He was here among his near kindred; but those only he must look upon as his kindred in the best sense, the kindred he must live and die with, to whom pertained the covenant.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 31:14-16
The sisters answer with one voice, and Rachel is named first though Leah is the elder. Their charge is that their father treats them as outsiders, sold them, and spent what was paid for them. They say the wealth God took from Laban belongs to them and their children. Do whatever God has told you, they say.
Genesis 31:14
“And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him,.... One after another, and their answers agreeing, are put together; it may be Rachel answered in the name of Leah, and for herself, since she is mentioned first, and the verb is singular.”
he has certainly squandered what was paid for us: The Hebrew says Laban has eaten their silver, the price Jacob paid in fourteen years of work. The daughters expected a share of that price for themselves. Laban kept all of it.
Genesis 31:15
“Are we not counted of him strangers? - Rachel and Leah, who well knew the disposition of their father, gave him here his true character. He has treated us as strangers - as slaves whom he had a right to dispose of as he pleased; in consequence, he hath sold us - disposed of us on the mere principle of gaining by the sale. And hath quite devoured also our money - Has applied to his own use the profits of the sale, and has allowed us neither portion nor inheritance.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
belongs to us and to our children: The last words between these sisters, at Genesis 30:14 and 15, were a quarrel over mandrakes. Their father's dealings have now put them on one side. They claim the wealth for their children, the sons who become the tribes of Israel.
Rachel Steals the Household Gods
Genesis 31:17-18
put his children and his wives on camels: Jacob sets his children and his wives on camels. He drives all his livestock ahead of him. The text counts every possession as acquired in Paddan-aram, and he is going to his father Isaac, in Canaan. The destination is named in the same verse as the departure.
Genesis 31:17
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
to go to his father Isaac: Isaac had spoken of dying at Genesis 27:2 and 4, more than twenty years before. Jacob finds him alive at Mamre in 35:27, and Isaac lives to 180 years. Genesis records only Rebekah's burial, at 49:31.
Genesis 31:18
“He took what Providence gave him, and was content with that, and would not take the repair of his damages into his own hands.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Rachel stole her father’s household idols: Shearing took a master and his men away from home for days, as Judah goes up to his shearers at 38:12. Under that cover Rachel takes her father's teraphim, the household gods. This is the first time Scripture names them. Jerome points to the same word in Judges 17, and Jacob buries the foreign gods of his house at 35:2 to 4.
Genesis 31:19
“Laban went to shear his sheep - Laban had gone; and this was a favorable time not only to take his images, but to return to Canaan without being perceived. Rachel had stolen the images - תרפים teraphim. What the teraphim were is utterly unknown.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 31:20-21
Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean: The Hebrew has Jacob stealing Laban's heart, the same verb used of Rachel and the idols one verse before. The Berean renders it deceived. He left without telling Laban he was going. He crossed the Euphrates and made for the hill country of Gilead.
Genesis 31:20
“Jacob stole away--The result showed the prudence and necessity of departing secretly; otherwise, Laban might have detained him by violence or artifice. LABAN PURSUES JACOB--THEIR COVENANT AT GILEAD.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
fled with all his possessions, crossed the Euphrates: The Hebrew says only that Jacob crossed the River, the name Scripture gives the Euphrates, as Joshua 24:2 places Abraham's fathers beyond it. Gilead is the hill country east of the Jordan, known for its balm at 37:25. Its name sounds like Galeed in verse 47.
Genesis 31:21
“Passed over the river - The Euphrates, as the Targum properly notices. But how could he pass such a river with his flocks, etc.? This difficulty does not seem to have struck critics in general. The rabbins felt it, and assert that God wrought a miracle for Jacob on this occasion, and that he passed over dry shod. As we know not in what other way he could pass, it is prudent to refer it to the power of God, which accompanied him through the whole of his journey.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 31:21
The fact that the world should have been offended because of Christ, after the increase in the flocks of believers, and that it, excited by its anger, would have reacted, does not need to be confirmed with a long speech. Just see how Laban, together with his sons, pursued Jacob, who was running away, and recalled him. Christ himself, in a sense, departed from the world with his brides, that is, the churches, and moved out with the entire household by spiritually addressing his companions with these words: "Arise, let us go from here."
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · GLAPHYRA ON Genesis, 5.5patristic
Genesis 31:22-24
On the third day Laban was informed: On the third day word reaches Laban, the distance he had set between the flocks at 30:36. He pursues seven days and overtakes Jacob in Gilead. God comes to him that night and warns him to say nothing to Jacob, good or bad. Abimelech was warned in a dream the same way at 20:3.
Genesis 31:22
“And it was told Laban on the third day, that Jacob was fled. Three days after Jacob was gone he had the report of it, by some means or another; by some of his neighbours, or servants left at home, and sooner he could not well have it, since the flock he went to shear was three days' distance from Jacob's, Gen 30:36.”
So he took his relatives with him: Relatives is the Hebrew his brothers, the kinsmen Laban raises to recover his property. The same kinsmen are called in verse 37 to judge between the two men. They end by eating together at the mound.
Genesis 31:23
“He would not have taken half the pains to have visited his best friends. But the truth is bad men will do more to serve their sinful passions than good men will to serve their just affections, and are more vehement in their anger than in their love.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Good or bad is a Hebrew pair meaning anything at all. Laban and Bethuel used it at Genesis 24:50 when they gave Rebekah away, where the Hebrew has them unable to speak bad or good. The warning closes off both coaxing Jacob back and threatening him.
Genesis 31:24
“And God came to Laban - God’s caution to Laban was of high importance to Jacob - Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad; or rather, as is the literal meaning of the Hebrew, מטוב עד רע mittob ad ra, from good to evil; for had he neither spoken good nor evil to Jacob, they could have had no intercourse at all.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Laban Searches and Finds Nothing
Genesis 31:25-28
when Laban overtook him: Laban opens with the words Jacob used to him at 29:25, What have you done. He says he would have sent them off with joy and singing, tambourines and harps. He calls his daughters captives of war. His last charge is the kiss he wanted for his grandchildren and daughters.
Genesis 31:25
“Then Laban overtook Jacob,.... He was come to the mount the overnight, but now in the morning he came nearer to him, so as to hold a conversation with him: now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mount, and Laban with his brethren pitched in the mount of Gilead; both on the same mount; one perhaps at the bottom, and the other at the top; or one on one hill of it, and the other on another, or right over against one another.”
like captives of war!: The Hebrew has captives of the sword, women taken in battle. The daughters had given their own account in verses 14 to 16, that their father sold them and spent the price. They left by choice.
Genesis 31:26
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
with tambourines and harps: The last feast Laban gave for Jacob, at Genesis 29:22, was the wedding night he used to switch Leah for Rachel. The harp is the kinnor, the instrument first named with Jubal at 4:21. The tambourine is the one Miriam plays at Exodus 15:20.
Genesis 31:27
“I might have sent thee away with mirth - בשמחה, besimchah, with rejoicing, making a feast or entertainment on the occasion; and with songs, בשרים beshirim, odes either in the praise of God, or to commemorate the splendid acts of their ancestors; with tabret, בתף bethoph, the tympanum used in the east to the present day, and there called diff, a thin broad wooden hoop, with parchment extended over one end of it, to which are attached small pieces of brass, tin, etc., which make a jingling noise; it is held in the air with one hand, and beat on…”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Now you have done a foolish thing: The Hebrew calls the grandchildren Laban's sons. Laban counts Jacob's children as his own, as he does again in verse 43. Foolish is sakal, the verb Samuel uses at 1 Samuel 13:13 when he tells Saul he has acted foolishly.
Genesis 31:28
“And hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters?....”
Genesis 31:29-30
I have power to do you great harm: Laban says he has the power to do harm and that God stopped him. Clarke reads the Hebrew as a vow already made, his hand lifted to God against Jacob. Then comes the charge, why have you stolen my gods. Gods that fit in a saddlebag stand in the same verse as the God who speaks in dreams.
Genesis 31:29
“It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt - Literally, My hand is unto God to do you evil, i.e., I have vowed to God that I will punish thee for thy flight, and the stealing of my teraphim; but the God of Your father has prevented me from doing it. It is a singular instance that the plural pronoun, when addressing an individual, should be twice used in this place - the God of your father, אביכם abichem, for אביך abicha, thy father.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The Hebrew doubles the verb, and Laban grants that Jacob longed and longed for his father's house. Psalm 84:2 uses the same verb of a soul that longs for the courts of the LORD. Laban accepts the longing and keeps the charge about his gods.
Genesis 31:30
“Rather than own that he had given him any colour of provocation to depart, he is willing to impute it to a foolish fondness for his father's house, which made him that he would needs begone; but then (says he) wherefore hast thou stolen my gods?”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 31:30
“What extraordinary folly—what kind of gods are these of yours that can be stolen? Aren't you ashamed to say, "Why did you steal my household gods?" See the extraordinary extent of Laban's selfdeception such that people endowed with reason should worship wood and stone. These gods of yours, Laban, could not prevent their being stolen. How could they, after all, being made out of stone? The God of this good man, on the contrary, even if the good man was unaware of it, checked your aggression.”
John Chrysostom · written before 407 · Commentary (church-history corpus)patristic
Genesis 31:31-32
Jacob gives his reason, that he feared Laban would take the daughters by force. He then pronounces death on a thief he cannot name. The narrator adds that Jacob did not know Rachel had stolen the idols. Clarke reports a Jewish tradition that the words fell on Rachel and were answered at her death in 35:16 to 19.
Genesis 31:31
“Note, Those that are unjust in the least, it may be suspected, will be unjust also in much, Luke xvi. If Laban deceive Jacob in his wages, it is likely he will make no conscience of robbing him of his wives, and putting those asunder whom God has joined together.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
see for yourself if anything is yours: See for yourself is the Hebrew verb for recognize, and it returns against Jacob's house. His sons hand him Joseph's bloodied robe at 37:32 with the same verb, and Tamar uses it on Judah at 38:25. Here Jacob invites a search he expects to fail.
Genesis 31:32
“Let him not live - It appears that anciently theft was punished by death; and we know that the patriarchs had the power of life and death in their hands. But previously to the law, the punishment of death was scarcely ever inflicted but for murder. The rabbins consider that this was an imprecation used by Jacob, as if he had said, Let God take away the life of the person who has stolen them! And that this was answered shortly after in the death of Rachel, Gen 35:16-19.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 31:33-35
Laban went into Jacob’s tent, then Leah’s tent: Laban searches four tents in order, and Rachel's comes last. She has put the household idols in her camel's saddlebag and is sitting on them. She stays seated and tells her father she is having her period. Laban searches the tent and finds nothing.
Genesis 31:33
“Laban, after all his searches, missed of finding his gods, and was baffled in his enquiry with a sham; but our God will not only by found of those that seek him, but they shall find him their bountiful rewarder. 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?”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 31:33
But this pertains to the moral sense, whereas the mystical sense is that Laban, whose name means "lie that has been purified"—and even Satan transfigures himself into an angel of light—came to Jacob and began to demand his possessions from him. Jacob answered him, "Identify whatever of yours I may have," that is, "I have nothing of yours. See if you recognize any of your vices and crimes. I have not carried off with me any of your deceits, and I have no share in your guile; all that is yours I have shunned as a contagion."
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Jacob and the Blessed Lifepatristic
Laban searched everything in the tent: Searched is the Hebrew mashash, to feel with the hands, and Laban gropes through the tent. It is the verb of Isaac touching his disguised son at Genesis 27:21 and 22. Another father now searches by hand and is deceived.
Genesis 31:34
“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. 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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 31:34
“Moreover, holy Rachel—that is, the church, or prudence—hid the idols, because the church does not know representations and figures of idols that are totally devoid of reality, but it knows the real existence of the Trinity. Indeed, it has destroyed darkness and revealed the splendor of glory.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · FLIGHT FROM THE WORLD 5.27patristic
I cannot stand up before you: Rachel addresses her father as lord, and a daughter was expected to stand before her father. Leviticus 19:32 later commands rising in the presence of the elderly. Under Leviticus 15:20, whatever a woman sat on in her period became unclean, and Laban's gods are under her.
Genesis 31:35
“The custom of women is upon me - This she knew must be a satisfactory reason to her father; for if the teraphim were used to any religious purpose, and they seem to have been used in this way, as Laban calls them his gods, he therefore could not suspect that a woman in such a situation, whose touch was considered as defiling, would have sat upon articles that were either the objects of his adoration, or used for any sacred purpose. The stratagem succeeded to her wish, and Laban departed without suspicion.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 31:36-37
Then Jacob became incensed and challenged Laban: Jacob becomes incensed and answers, and what follows is his longest speech in Genesis. He turns the empty search into his own evidence. He asks Laban to set whatever was found before both households and let them judge. Clarke notes that Jacob stands here on the one charge he knows nothing about.
Genesis 31:36
“And Jacob was wroth, and chode with Laban - The expostulation of Jacob with Laban, and their consequent agreement, are told in this place with great spirit and dignity. Jacob was conscious that though he had made use of cunning to increase his flocks, yet Laban had been on the whole a great gainer by his services. He had served him at least twenty years, fourteen for Rachel and Leah, and six for the cattle; and some suppose he had served him twenty years besides the above, which is not unlikely: see the remarks at the conclusion of this chapter.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
that they may judge between the two of us: Judge between is yakach, to settle a case by argument. Jacob uses it again in verse 42, where God has already rendered judgment the night before. A form of the verb names the mediator Job longs for at Job 9:33.
Genesis 31:38-40
I have been with you for twenty years now: Jacob reads out a shepherd's account: no ewe miscarried, no ram eaten, every loss to wild beasts paid from his own herd. Exodus 22:10 to 13 later releases a shepherd from the loss of a torn animal. He bore it himself for twenty years. Heat by day and frost by night took his sleep.
Genesis 31:38
“His piety also procured a blessing upon his master's effects that were under his hands. Note, Servants should take no less care of what they are entrusted with for their masters than if they were entitled to it as their own. He was very honest, and took none of that for his own eating which was not allowed him.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
I bore the loss myself: Bore the loss is a form of chata, the verb for sin and for missing a mark, used here of making good a shortfall. Amos 3:12 pictures a shepherd pulling two legs from a lion's mouth, a scrap kept as evidence. Jacob paid without presenting the carcass.
Genesis 31:39
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 31:39
“That which was torn - of my hand didst thou require it - This more particularly marks the covetous and rigorous disposition of Laban; for the law of God required that what had been torn by beasts the shepherd should not be obliged to make good, Exo 22:10, Exo 22:13. And it is very likely that this law was in force from the earliest times.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the frost by night: Frost is the Hebrew qerach, the word Job 37:10 uses for ice formed by the breath of God. Upper Mesopotamia swings between burning days and freezing nights. Psalm 121:4 to 6 gives the LORD this watch over Israel, never sleeping and guarding by day and by night.
Genesis 31:40
“In the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night - The being exposed to the heat by day, and frost by night, is made part of the heaviest punishment of Promethus by Aeschylus. Σταθευτος δ’ ἡλιου φοιβῃ φλογι, Χροιας αμευψεις· ασμενῳ δε σοι Ἡ ποικιλεμων νυξ αποκρυψει φαος· Παχνην θ’ ἑῳαν ἡλιος σκεδᾳ παλιν. Aeschyl. Prom. Vinc., v.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 31:40
“He stuck to his business, all weathers; and bore both heat and cold with invincible patience. Note, Men of business, that intend to make something of it, must resolve to endure hardness. Jacob is here an example to ministers; they also are shepherds, of whom it is required that they be true to their trust and willing to take pains.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 31:40
“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].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Genesis 31:41-42
The reckoning is exact: fourteen years for two daughters, six for the flocks. Jacob says God has seen his affliction and the toil of his hands. Exodus 3:7 uses the same language of Israel in Egypt. He names God the Fear of Isaac, a title found twice here and nowhere else in Scripture.
Genesis 31:41
“Twenty years - See the remarks at the end, Gen 31:55 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 31:41
“It was unreasonable for him to make Jacob serve for his daughters, when he had in reversion so great an estate secured to him by the promise of God himself; as it was also to give him his daughters without portions, when it was in the power of his hands to do well for them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
sent me away empty-handed: Empty-handed is reqam, and Deuteronomy 15:13 and 14 forbid sending a freed servant off that way, ordering gifts from the master's flock and threshing floor. Laban would have sent Jacob off with nothing after twenty years. The God of his father prevented it.
Genesis 31:42
“The fear of Isaac - It is strange that Jacob should say, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, when both words are meant of the same Being.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 31:42
“He calls him the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac; for Abraham was dead, and had gone to that world where perfect love casts out fear; but Isaac was yet alive, sanctifying the Lord in his heart, as his fear and his dread. Jacob's Covenant with Laban.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The Heap of Witness at Mizpah
Genesis 31:43-44
Laban claims the daughters, the sons and the flocks in one sentence. Everything you see is mine, he says. Then he asks what he can do about the daughters and their children. From there he proposes a covenant between the two of them.
Genesis 31:43
“1 And he heard the words of Laban's sons, saying, Jacob hath taken away all that was our father's; and of that which was our father's hath he gotten all this glory. 2 And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban, and, behold, it was not toward him as before.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
let us make a covenant: Laban proposes the treaty, as Abimelech came asking a treaty of Abraham at Genesis 21:22 and of Isaac at 26:28. In each case the outsider seeks terms with the family God has blessed. The Hebrew for make a covenant is to cut one.
Genesis 31:44
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Genesis 31:45-47
Jacob picked out a stone and set it up as a pillar: Jacob sets up another pillar, and his relatives gather stones into a mound. They eat by the mound. Laban names it Jegar-sahadutha, Jacob names it Galeed, and both mean heap of witness. Jerome notes that one family is speaking two languages, Aramaic and Hebrew, inside a single generation.
Genesis 31:45
“And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. To show his readiness to agree to the motion, he immediately took a large stone that lay upon the mount, and set it up on one end, to be a standing monument or memorial of the agreement now about to be made between them.”
Heaps of stones mark places in Israel's memory, over Achan at Joshua 7:26 and over Absalom at 2 Samuel 18:17. This one marks a border. The meal eaten beside it binds both households to the terms.
Genesis 31:46
“Made a heap - גל gal, translated heap, signifies properly a round heap; and this heap was probably made for the double purpose of an altar and a table, and Jacob’s stone or pillar was set on it for the purpose of a memorial.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha: Laban names the mound of witness in Aramaic, the only Aramaic in the five books of Moses. The word for witness returns at Job 16:19, where Job's witness is in heaven. Jeremiah 10:11, Ezra and Daniel hold the rest.
Genesis 31:47
“Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha - יגר שהדותא yegar sahadutha, the heap or round heap of witness; but Jacob called it גלעד galed, which signifies the same thing. The first is pure Chaldee, the second pure Hebrew. אגר agar signifies to collect, hence יגר yegar and אוגר ogar, a collection or heap made up of gathered stones; and hence also אגורא egora, an altar, used frequently by the Chaldee paraphrast. See 1Ki 12:33; Jdg 6:31; 2Ki 21:3; Jer 17:1. See Castel’s Lexicon. From this example we may infer that the Chaldee language was nearly coequal with the Hebrew.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 31:48-50
The Mizpah line is read at partings as a blessing between friends. Here it is a watch between two men parting. Verse 50 names what the watching is for, that Jacob not mistreat the daughters or take other wives. Clarke argues the verse division is wrong and that Galeed and Mizpah were named in one breath.
Genesis 31:48
“I think these two verses are badly divided, and should be read thus: Gen 31:48 - And Laban said, This heap is a witness between me and thee this day. Gen 31:49 - Therefore was the name of it called Galeed and Mizpah; for he said, The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
It was also called Mizpah: Mizpah means watchtower, from tsaphah, the verb Laban uses for the LORD keeping watch. A Mizpah in Gilead appears again at Judges 11:11, where Jephthah repeats his terms before the LORD. Laban had used the LORD's name at 24:31 and 30:27.
Malachi 2:14 uses this language for marriage, with the LORD as witness between a man and the wife of his youth. Laban calls God to watch where no man sees.
Genesis 31:50
“No man is with us - Though all were present at the sacrifice offered, yet it appears that in making the contract Jacob and Laban withdrew, and transacted the business in private, calling on God to witness it. Jacob had already four wives; but Laban feared that he might take others, whose children would naturally come in for a share of the inheritance to the prejudice of his daughters and grandchildren.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 31:51-53
Neither man is to pass the mound to harm. Laban swears by the God of Abraham, the God of Nahor, and the God of their father, folding three households into one oath. Clarke notes that Terah served other gods, from Joshua 24:2. Jacob swears by the Fear of his father Isaac.
Genesis 31:51
“And Laban said to Jacob - behold this pillar, which I have cast betwixt me and thee - But this pillar, not cast but set up, was certainly set up by Jacob; for in Gen 31:45 we read, And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar: it is therefore for the honor of one Hebrew and one Samaritan MS. that they have preserved the true reading in Gen 31:51, ירית yaritha, Thou hast set up - Kennicott.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
this pillar is a witness: The mound and the pillar stand as two witnesses, the number Deuteronomy 19:15 requires to establish a matter. The mound marks the border between Laban the Aramean and Jacob's house in Gilead. Ahab died fighting Aram for Ramoth-gilead at 1 Kings 22.
Genesis 31:52
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 31:52
“It was agreed that no act of hostility should ever pass between them, that Jacob should forgive and forget all the wrongs he had received and not remember them against Laban or his family in after-times. Note, We may resent an injury which yet we may not revenge. The ceremony of this covenant.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The verb judge is plural in the Hebrew, so Laban's oath calls on more than one god. Sarai called on the LORD with the same words against Abram at Genesis 16:5. Jacob answers with a single name.
Genesis 31:53
“The God of their father - As Laban certainly speaks of the true God here, with what propriety can he say that this God was the God of Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor? It is certain that Terah was an idolater; of this we have the most positive proof, Jos 24:2. Because the clause is not in the Septuagint, and is besides wanting in some MSS., Dr. Kennicott considers it an interpolation.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 31:54-55
Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain: The treaty closes the way covenants close in Genesis, with a sacrifice and a meal eaten together. They spend the night on the mountain. Laban kisses his grandchildren and daughters in the morning, blesses them, and goes home. Chapter 32 opens with Jacob sending messengers ahead to Esau.
Genesis 31:54
“Offered sacrifice upon the mount - It is very likely that Laban joined in this solemn religious rite, and that, having offered the blood and fat to God, they feasted upon the sacrifice.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Then he left to return home: Laban leaves the story here, returning home to Paddan-aram. His name returns only in the family lists of chapter 46, beside the daughters and maidservants he gave. Hebrew Bibles number this verse 32:1, so their next chapter opens on his return home.
Genesis 31:55
“Kissed his sons and his daughters - That is, his grandchildren, Jacob’s eleven sons with Dinah their sister, and their mothers Leah and Rachel. All these he calls his children, Gen 31:43. And blessed them - prayed heartily for their prosperity, though we find from Gen 31:29 that he came having bound himself by a vow to God to do them some injury. Thus God turned his intended curse into a blessing. The most important topics in this chapter have already been considered in the notes, and to those the reader is referred.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: A narrative of flight and pursuit closing in a covenant between two parties, with the longest speech Genesis gives Jacob at its centre, as Henry classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Stolen, said of a heart and of gods | The Hebrew verb that has Rachel taking her father's household gods at verse 19 is the verb that has Jacob stealing Laban's heart at verse 20, which the Berean renders as deceived. The same word runs through Laban's charge at verse 30 and Jacob's answer at verse 32.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 31:20 and 21. | Genesis 31:19, Genesis 31:20, Genesis 31:30, Genesis 31:32 |
| What have you done, said back | Laban opens the confrontation with the words Jacob used to him at Genesis 29:25 when Leah was put in Rachel's place. The rebuke passes from the deceived son-in-law to the deceived father-in-law across two chapters and one substitution.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Genesis 31:25 to 28. | Genesis 31:26 |
| Twenty years counted out as a shepherd's account | Jacob answers the empty search with an itemised account: no ewe miscarried, no ram eaten, every loss to wild beasts paid from his own herd, heat by day and frost by night, fourteen years for two daughters and six for the flocks, and the wages changed ten times. Exodus 22:10 to 13 later releases a shepherd from the loss of a torn animal, and Jacob bore it himself.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Genesis 31:38 to 40. | Genesis 31:38, Genesis 31:39, Genesis 31:40, Genesis 31:41 |
| The heap of witness, named in two languages | Laban names the mound Jegar-sahadutha in Aramaic and Jacob names it Galeed in Hebrew, and the two words mean the same thing. Jerome notes two languages inside one family. The mound and the pillar together are the boundary neither man is to pass to harm the other.Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis, c. 390, on Genesis 31:47. | Genesis 31:45, Genesis 31:47, Genesis 31:52 |
The historical value
12 more paragraphs on the patterns
The chapter is the fullest account in Genesis of what a hired shepherd carried. Jacob lists the losses he bore that the later law would not make a shepherd bear, since Exodus 22:10 to 13 releases him from an animal torn by beasts, and he names the heat of the day and the frost of the night as what took his sleep.
It also records the teraphim, the household gods, named here for the first time in Scripture. Jerome points to the same word in Judges 17. The sheepshearing that takes Laban from home is the same seasonal absence Judah goes up to at Genesis 38:12.
The treaty follows the form a covenant takes in Genesis, with a witness set up, terms spoken over it, an oath, a sacrifice and a meal eaten together.
The debated concept
Why Rachel took the teraphim is the chapter's open question, and Genesis gives no reason. One reading takes them as objects of worship she still held to, which the household purge at Genesis 35:2 to 4 would support. A second takes them as property, on the ground that in some ancient households the holder of the family gods had a claim on the inheritance, which fits her complaint at verse 14 that her father had sold her and spent the price. A third takes it as a blow struck at her father's religion on the way out. The text supports the second and third by placing her grievance beside her theft, and supports the first by what Jacob has to bury at Genesis 35:4.
Jacob's sentence at verse 32 raises the chapter's second question. He pronounces death on a thief he cannot name, and the narrator adds that he did not know Rachel had the gods. Adam Clarke reports a Jewish tradition that the words fell on her, answered by her death at Genesis 35:16 to 19. Genesis never makes that link itself.
Where the chapter reaches
The language of Genesis 31 reaches forward inside the Old Testament. Jacob says at verse 42 that God saw his affliction and the toil of his hands, which is the language Exodus 3:7 uses of Israel in Egypt.
The title Jacob gives God at verses 42 and 53, the Fear of Isaac, is used twice here and nowhere else in Scripture.
The Mizpah line at verse 49 is read at partings as a blessing. In the chapter it is a watch set between two men, and verse 50 says what the watching is for, that Jacob not mistreat the daughters or take other wives.
The divine connection
The chapter puts two accounts of the same twenty years side by side. Jacob tells his wives at verses 5 to 12 that the God of his father has been with him, that his wages were changed ten times, and that a dream showed him the flock already marked before the branches were cut. Laban tells him at verse 29 that he had the power to do harm and that the God of Jacob's father stopped him the night before. At the Evidence Standard the claim is that two men on opposite sides of the quarrel both attribute the outcome to the same God, and that Genesis records the warning to Laban at verse 24 in its own voice.
Keep studying
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 31:20 and 21; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Genesis 31:38 to 40; Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis, c. 390, on Genesis 31:47 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Genesis 31.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis; John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.