Free Bible Commentary
“Genesis 31:33-42”
Categories: Genesis“So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two maids, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent. Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them in the camel’s saddle, and she sat on them. And Laban felt through all the tent but did not find them. She said to her father, 'Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is upon me.' So he searched but did not find the household idols. Then Jacob became angry and contended with Laban; and Jacob said to Laban, 'What is my transgression? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me? Though you have felt through all my goods, what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, that they may decide between us two. These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the rams of your flocks. That which was torn of beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it myself. You required it of my hand whether stolen by day or stolen by night. Thus I was: by day the heat consumed me and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. These twenty years I have been in your house; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you changed my wages ten times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had not been for me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, so He rendered judgment last night.'”
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“So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two maids, but he did not find them.” (verse 33) With Jacob's permission a frantic search began. Laban personally and methodically examined all the tents in Jacob's entourage for his stolen idols, saving Rachel's lodgings for last. Maybe Laban left Rachel for last because he suspected her least, but the suspense escalated, at least in the perpetrator's mind, as he gradually and unsuccessfully sifted his way through the belongings of everyone else.
“Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them in the camel’s saddle, and she sat on them” (verse 34) “The woman's riding-saddle was commonly made of wicker-work and had the appearance of a basket or cradle. It was usually covered with carpet, and protected against wind, rain, and sun by means of a canopy and curtains, while light was admitted by openings in the side.” (Pulpit Commentary) But that would provide no protection or privacy had her father insisted she stand up and move aside that he might leave no stone (or saddle) unturned. But not to worry. Papa's girl was just as adept at the art of deception as dear ole dad!
“She said to her father, 'Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is upon me.'” (verse 35) This was really a brilliant ruse that would, no doubt, have done her daddy proud had he not been the victim of it. Men typically viewed menstruating women in ancient times and Eastern cultures as unclean, defiling anything that they came in contact with. Surely Rachel dare not come near, let alone SIT ON his precious, “sacred” idols! Some powerful gods these trinkets turned out to be, both pilfered and defiled! The only thing Laban accomplished for his otherwise futile efforts was to loosen and sharpen Jacob’s tongue after twenty years of pent up misery and frustration!
“Then Jacob became angry and contended with Laban.” (verse 36) Jacob seized upon the opportunity to unleash his indignation toward his unscrupulous father-in-law. “What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me?” In Jacob's mind, there was simply no justification for tracking him down like a fugitive from the law when, in fact (he thought), no crime was committed against Laban and no sin was committed against the Lord. “What have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, that they may decide between us two.” (verse 37) “Jacob believes that Laban used the issue of the terafim as a pretext and that he really suspected his son-in-law of stealing much more from him... Jacob calls upon the kinsmen of each side to form a tribunal and to decide which of the rivals is the real thief.” (Nahum Sarna)
Jacob, in his self-defense and righteous indignation, went on to plead the case for his personal integrity and his strenuous and loyal service over the prior two decades. He had worked with a diligent yet tender hand in the birthing of Laban's lambs, and refused to expend a single ram of his flock for his own, personal consumption (verse 38). Jacob restored to Laban any animal that was lost through predation or theft. “'According to Hammurabi's laws, a shepherd who presented the remnants (of a sheep torn by a wild beast) as evidence, was not liable for the losses that Jacob described.' The prophet Amos made mention of shepherds retrieving just such evidence in Amos 3:12, indicating that it was a well-established custom that in such cases, the owner of the flock, not the shepherd, made good the loss. Laban had thus exceeded his lawful rights in requiring of Jacob that he bear the loss of all animals lost in such a manner. This was later incorporated into the Divine Law (Exodus 22:13). Of this situation, McKeating wrote: 'The shepherd was accountable to the owner for any animal lost, unless he could prove that it was lost owing to circumstances beyond his control.' Because of the unfairness of Laban, Jacob spent many a sleepless night protecting the flocks from predatory beasts.” (James Burton Coffman)
“Thus I was: by day the heat consumed me and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes.” (verse 40) “The temperature changes often in twenty-four hours from the greatest extremes of heat and cold, most trying to the shepherd who has to keep watch by his flocks. 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 Bible Commentary)
“If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had not been for me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed.” (verse 42) “The God whom my father Isaac worships with reverence and godly fear, as appears by comparing Genesis 31:53. The act is here put for the object, as it frequently is; and particularly God is called our fear, Isaiah 8:13... He calls him not Isaac's God, but his fear, because Isaac was yet alive, and in the state of probation, and served God with fear and trembling.” (Matthew Poole's Commentary) Jacob clearly interpreted the unfolding of recent events as God being “for” him. “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:31-32)
“God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, so He rendered judgment last night.” (verse 42) Over the course of twenty years of hard service to a rough and unreasonable tyrant, it may not have looked like the Lord had “seen” Jacob's “affliction,” but He hadn't missed a moment of it. Sometimes it seems like God's justice is long overdue, but rest assured, He is always sitting in judgment on high, and He will always set things straight in His own, good time. The Lord finally rendered judgment in Jacob's favor when He appeared to Laban in a dream and told him leave His hand-picked, protected patriarch alone or else!
Please read Genesis 31:43-55 for tomorrow.
Have a blessed day!
- Louie Taylor
