Genesis 31:36-42 - Exposition

And Jacob was wroth ,—literally, and it burned , sc . with indignation (same word as used by Rachel, Genesis 31:35 ), to Jacob , i . e . he was infuriated at what he believed to be Laban's unjustifiable insinuation about his lost teraphim— and chode —or contended; the fundamental signification of the root, רוּב or רִיב , being to seize or tear, e.g. the hair, hence to strive with the bands ( Deuteronomy 33:7 ), or with words ( Psalms 103:9 ). The two verbs, וַתִּחַר and וַיָּרֶב , give a vivid representation of the exasperation which Jacob felt— with Laban: and Jacob answered and said to Laban,— in words characterized by "verbosity and self-glorification" (Kalisch), or "acute, sensibility and elevated self-consciousness (Delitzsch, Keil), according as one inclines to an unfavorable or favorable view of Jacob's character— What is my trespass? what is my sin, that thou hast so hotly pursued after me? The intensity of Jacob's feeling imparts to his language a rythmical movement, and leads to the selection of poetical forms of expression, such as דָּלַק אַחֲרֵי , to burn after, in the sense of fiercely persecuting, which occurs again only in 1 Samuel 17:53 ( vide Gesenius and Furst, sub voce; and cf. Keil, in lose ), causing the reader at times to catch "the dance and music of actual verse" (Ewald). Whereas thou hast searched all my stuff ,—literally (so. What is my sin) that thou hast felt all my articles ( LXX ; Kalisch)? the clause being co-ordinate with the preceding; though by others כִּי is taken as equivalent to כַּאֲשֶׁר , quando quidem , since ( A . V ; Ainsworth), or quando, when (Calvin, Murphy)— what hast thou found of all thy household stuff? set it here Before my brethren and thy brethren ( i . e . Laban's kinsmen who accompanied him, who were also of necessity kinsmen to Jacob), that they may judge betwixt us both —which of us has injured the other. This twenty years have I been with thee ( vide infra , vet . 41); thy ewes ( רָחֵל , a ewe, whence Rachel) and thy she goats — עֵן a she-goat; cf. Sanscrit, adsha , a he-goat; adsha , a she-goat; Goth; gaitsa ; Anglo-Saxon, gat; German , geis ; Greek, αἵξ; Turkish, gieik (Gesenius, sub voce )— have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. Roberts says that the people of the East do not eat female sheep except when sterile, and that it would be considered folly and prodigality in the extreme to eat that which has the power of producing more. That which was torn of beasts ( טְרֵפָה , a coll. fem; from טָרַף , to tear in pieces, meaning that which is torn in pieces, hence cattle destroyed by wild beasts) I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of it ;— אֲחֶטַּנָּה , literally, I made expiation for it , the piel of חָטָא , signifying to make atonement for a thing by sacrifice (Le 1 Samuel 9:15 ), or by compensation, as here; hence " I bare the loss it" (Rashi, equivalent to cf. Furst), or ἐγὼ ἀπετίννουν ( LXX .), or, perhaps, " I will be at the loss of it, or pay it back" (Kalisch)— of my hand didst thou require it ,—otherwise, "of my hand require it" (Kalisch)— whether stolen by day, or stolen by night. Without adhering literally to the text, the LXX . give the sense of this and the preceding clause as being, "From my own I paid back the stolen by day and the stolen by night." Thus I was ; ( i . e . I was in this condition that) in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night קֶרַח , ice, so called from its smoothness, hence cold. The alternation of heat and cold in many eastern countries is very great and severely felt by shepherds, travelers, and watchmen, who require to pass the night in the open air, and who in consequence are often obliged to wear clothes lined with skins (of. Psalms 121:6 ; Jeremiah 36:30 ). "The thermometer at 24° Fahr. at night, a lump of solid ice in our basins in the morning, and then the scorching heat of the day drawing up the moisture, made the neighborhood, convenient as it was, rather a fever-trap, and premonitory symptoms warned us to move". "The night air at Joaiza was keen and cold; indeed there was a sharp frost, and ice appeared on all the little pools about the camp". "Does a master reprove his servant for being idle; he will ask, "What can I do? the heat eats me up by day, and the cold eats me up by night'". And my sleep departed from mine eyes. Syrian shepherds were compelled to watch their flocks often both night and day, and for a whole month together, and repair into long plains and deserts without any shelter; and when reduced to this incessant labor, they were besides chilled by the piercing cold of the morning, and scorched by the succeeding heats of a flaming sun, the opposite action of which often swells and chafes their lips and face". Thus have I been—literally, this to me (or for myself, vide infra ) — twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle. The majority of expositors understand the twenty years referred to in 1 Samuel 17:38 to be the same as the twenty spoken of here as consisting of fourteen and six. Dr. Kennicott, regarding the twenty years of 1 Samuel 17:38 as having intervened between the fourteen and the six of 1 Samuel 17:41 , makes the entire period of Jacob's sojourn in Padan-aram to have been forty years. In support of this he contends—