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Genesis 31:30

in Genesis 31

Now you have gone off because you long for your father’s house. But why have you stolen my gods?”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

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

KJV

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

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This verse in Genesis 31

Commentary

6 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

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.

This site's exposition

I have power to do you great harm

on Genesis 31:29-30

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. Gods that fit in a saddlebag stand in the same verse as the God who speaks in dreams.

This site's exposition

you long for your father

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.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

John Chrysostom

Commentary (church-history corpus) · Written in the 5th century.

proposed

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. Are you ignorant of your own error while still charging the good man with theft? After all, why on earth would the good man bring himself to steal them when he despised them, or rather realized they were made of stone and had no feeling?

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

And now, though thou wouldest needs be gone,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

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?

The words behind it

12 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וְעַתָּה֙and now

    veatahH6258 →433 times

  • הָלֹ֣ךְcertainly <to go>

    halokhH1980 →1546 times

  • הָלַ֔כְתָּyou have gone

    halakhtaH1980 →1546 times

  • כִּֽי־for

    ki-H3588 →4482 times

  • נִכְסֹ֥ףcertainly <to long for>

    nikhsofH3700 →

  • נִכְסַ֖פְתָּהyou longed

    nikhsaftahH3700 →

  • לְבֵ֣יתfor [the] household of

    leveitH1004 →2046 times

  • אָבִ֑יךָfather your

    ʾavikhaH1 →1212 times

  • לָ֥מָּה<to> why?

    lamahH4100 →752 times

  • גָנַ֖בְתָּdid you steal

    ganavtaH1589 →40 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • אֱלֹהָֽי׃gods my

    ʾelohaiH430 →2601 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

18 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Genesis 31:19Now while Laban was out shearing his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.7 worksJeremiah 10:11Thus you are to tell them: “These gods, who have made neither the heavens nor the earth, will perish from this earth and from under these heavens.”5 worksGenesis 31:32If you find your gods with anyone here, he shall not live! In the presence of our relatives, see for yourself if anything is yours, and take it back.” For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the idols.5 worksJudges 17:5Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some household idols, and ordained one of his sons as his priest.5 worksJudges 18:24He replied, “You took the gods I had made, and my priest, and went away. What else do I have? How can you say to me, ‘What is the matter with you?’”4 worksJoshua 24:2And Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your fathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates and worshiped other gods.4 works
The other 12 cross-references, with their words ▾
Judges 6:31But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Are you contending for Baal? Are you trying to save him? Whoever pleads his case will be put to death by morning! If Baal is a god, let him contend for himself with the one who has torn down his altar.”3 works2 Samuel 5:21There the Philistines abandoned their idols, and David and his men carried them away.3 worksIsaiah 46:1–2Bel crouches; Nebo cowers. Their idols weigh down beasts and cattle. The images you carry are burdensome, a load to the weary animal.3 worksExodus 12:12On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn male, both man and beast, and I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.3 worksNumbers 33:4who were burying all their firstborn, whom the LORD had struck down among them; for the LORD had executed judgment against their gods.3 worksJeremiah 43:12I will kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt, and Nebuchadnezzar will burn those temples and take their gods as captives. So he will wrap himself with the land of Egypt as a shepherd wraps himself in his garment, and he will depart from there unscathed.3 worksIsaiah 37:19They have cast their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone—the work of human hands.3 works1 Samuel 5:2–6carried it into the temple of Dagon, and set it beside his statue.3 worksEzekiel 21:21For the king of Babylon stands at the fork in the road, at the junction of the two roads, to seek an omen: He shakes the arrows, he consults the idols, he examines the liver.3 worksNumbers 10:30“I will not go,” Hobab replied. “Instead, I am going back to my own land and my own people.”2 works1 Thessalonians 2:17Brothers, although we were torn away from you for a short time (in person, not in heart), our desire to see you face to face was even more intense.2 works2 Samuel 13:39And King David longed to go to Absalom, for he had been consoled over Amnon’s death.2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Jeremiah 10:11

    Thus you are to tell them: “These gods, who have made neither the heavens nor the earth, will perish from this earth and from under these heavens.”

    it leads to

    • Psalms 96:5

      For all the gods of the nations are idols, but it is the LORD who made the heavens.

    • Isaiah 2:18

      and the idols will vanish completely.

    • Jeremiah 51:18

      They are worthless, a work to be mocked. In the time of their punishment they will perish.

    • Zephaniah 2:11

      The LORD will be terrifying to them when He starves all the gods of the earth. Then the nations of every shore will bow in worship to Him, each in its own place.

    • Jeremiah 10:15

      They are worthless, a work to be mocked. In the time of their punishment they will perish.

  • Through

    Genesis 31:19

    Now while Laban was out shearing his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.

    it leads to

    • 1 Samuel 19:13

      Then Michal took a household idol and laid it in the bed, placed some goat hair on its head, and covered it with a garment.

    • Hosea 3:4

      For the Israelites must live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, and without ephod or idol.

    • Ezekiel 21:21

      For the king of Babylon stands at the fork in the road, at the junction of the two roads, to seek an omen: He shakes the arrows, he consults the idols, he examines the…

Where this verse is studied

About Genesis

The Tower of Babel, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1563. Public domain.
The Tower of Babel, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1563. Public domain.
Genesis: the study guide →Read Genesis 31 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, Commentary (church-history corpus); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Genesis 31 →