Genesis 30:26

30:26 Let me take my wives and my children whom I have acquired by working for you. ¹  Then I’ll depart, ²  because you know how hard I’ve worked for you.” ³ 

Genesis 30:30

30:30 Indeed, ⁴  you had little before I arrived, ⁵  but now your possessions have increased many times over. ⁶  The Lord has blessed you wherever I worked. ⁷  But now, how long must it be before I do something for my own family too?” ⁸ 

Genesis 31:41

31:41 This was my lot ⁹  for twenty years in your house: I worked like a slave ¹⁰  for you – fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, but you changed my wages ten times!

---

¹ tn Heb “give my wives and my children, for whom I have served you.” In one sense Laban had already “given” Jacob his two daughters as wives (Gen 29:21, 28). Here Jacob was asking for permission to take his own family along with him on the journey back to Canaan.

² tn Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.

³ tn Heb “for you, you know my service [with] which I have served you.”

⁴ tn Or “for.”

⁵ tn Heb “before me.”

⁶ tn Heb “and it has broken out with respect to abundance.”

⁷ tn Heb “at my foot.”

⁸ tn Heb “How long [until] I do, also I, for my house?”

⁹ tn Heb “this to me.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “served you,” but in this accusatory context the meaning is more “worked like a slave.”