Bible Commentaries
Genesis 31

Verse 1

31:1 And he heard the {a} 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.

(a) The children put in words what the father disguised in his heart for the covetous think that whatever they cannot take, is taken from them.

Verse 5

31:5 And said unto them, I see your father’s countenance, that it [is] not toward me as before; but the {b} God of my father hath been with me.

(b) The God whom my fathers worshipped.

Verse 9

31:9 Thus {c} God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given [them] to me.

(c) This declares that the thing Jacob did before, was by God’s commandment, and not through deceit.

Verse 13

31:13 {d} I [am] the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, [and] where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.

(d) This angel was Christ who appeared to Jacob in Bethel: and by this it appears that he had taught his wives the fear of God: for he talks as though they knew this thing.

Verse 15

31:15 Are we not counted of him strangers? for he hath {e} sold us, and hath quite devoured also our money.

(e) For they were given to Jacob as payment for his service, which was a kind of sale.

Verse 19

31:19 And Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the {f} images that [were] her father’s.

(f) For so the word here signifies, because Laban calls them gods, Genesis 31:30.

Verse 29

31:29 It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the {g} God of your father spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.

(g) He was an idolater and therefore would not acknowledge the God of Jacob for his God.

Verse 42

31:42 Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the {h} fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked [thee] yesternight.

(h) That is, the God whom Isaac feared and reverenced.

Verse 44

31:44 Now therefore {i} come thou, let us make a covenant, I and thou; and let it be for a witness between me and thee.

(i) His conscience reproved him for his misbehaviour toward Jacob, and therefore moved him to seek peace.

Verse 47

31:47 And Laban called it Jegarsahadutha: but Jacob called it {k} Galeed.

(k) The one named the place in the Syrian tongue, and the other in the Hebrew tongue.

Verse 49

31:49 And Mizpah; for he said, The LORD {l} watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another.

(l) To punish the trespasser.

Verse 50

31:50 If thou shalt afflict my daughters, or if thou shalt take [other] {m} wives beside my daughters, no man [is] with us; see, God [is] witness betwixt me and thee.

(m) Nature compels him to condemn that vice, to which through covetousness he forced Jacob.

Verse 53

31:53 The God of Abraham, and the God of {n} Nahor, the God of their father, judge betwixt us. And Jacob sware by the {o} fear of his father Isaac.

(n) Behold, how the idolaters mingle the true God with their false gods.

(o) Meaning, by the true God whom Isaac worshipped.

Verse 55

31:55 And early in the morning Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and {p} blessed them: and Laban departed, and returned unto his place.

(p) We see that there is always some seed of the knowledge of God in the hearts of the wicked.