Genesis 30:40

30:40 Jacob removed these lambs, but he made the rest of the flock face the streaked and completely dark-colored animals in Laban’s flock. So he made separate flocks for himself and did not mix them with Laban’s flocks.

Genesis 24:31

24:31 Laban said to him, “Come, you who are blessed by the Lord! Why are you standing out here when I have prepared the house and a place for the camels?”

Genesis 28:2

28:2 Leave immediately for Paddan Aram! Go to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and find yourself a wife there, among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.

Genesis 28:5

28:5 So Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean and brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

Genesis 29:25

29:25 In the morning Jacob discovered it was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What in the world have you done to me! Didn’t I work for you in exchange for Rachel? Why have you tricked me?”

Genesis 30:27

30:27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, please stay here, 10  for I have learned by divination 11  that the Lord has blessed me on account of you.”

Genesis 30:31

30:31 So Laban asked, 12  “What should I give you?” “You don’t need to give me a thing,” 13  Jacob replied, 14  “but if you agree to this one condition, 15  I will continue to care for 16  your flocks and protect them:

Genesis 31:12

31:12 Then he said, ‘Observe 17  that all the male goats mating with 18  the flock are streaked, speckled, or spotted, for I have observed all that Laban has done to you.

Genesis 31:33-34

31:33 So Laban entered Jacob’s tent, and Leah’s tent, and the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find the idols. 19  Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s. 20  31:34 (Now Rachel had taken the idols and put them inside her camel’s saddle 21  and sat on them.) 22  Laban searched the whole tent, but did not find them. 23 

Genesis 30:35

30:35 So that day Laban 24  removed the male goats that were streaked or spotted, all the female goats that were speckled or spotted (all that had any white on them), and all the dark-colored lambs, and put them in the care 25  of his sons.

Genesis 31:43

31:43 Laban replied 26  to Jacob, “These women 27  are my daughters, these children are my grandchildren, 28  and these flocks are my flocks. All that you see belongs to me. But how can I harm these daughters of mine today 29  or the children to whom they have given birth?


tn Heb “and he set the faces of.”

tn Heb “and he said.” The referent (Laban) has been specified and the words “to him” supplied in the translation for clarity.

sn Laban’s obsession with wealth is apparent; to him it represents how one is blessed by the Lord. Already the author is laying the foundation for subsequent events in the narrative, where Laban’s greed becomes his dominant characteristic.

tn The disjunctive clause is circumstantial.

tn Heb “Arise! Go!” The first of the two imperatives is adverbial and stresses the immediacy of the departure.

tn Heb “and it happened in the morning that look, it was Leah.” By the use of the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”), the narrator invites the reader to view the scene through Jacob’s eyes.

tn Heb “and he said”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

tn Heb What is this you have done to me?” The use of the pronoun “this” is enclitic, adding emphasis to the question: “What in the world have you done to me?”

sn The Hebrew verb translated tricked here (רָמָה, ramah) is cognate to the noun used in Gen 27:35 to describe Jacob’s deception of Esau. Jacob is discovering that what goes around, comes around. See J. A. Diamond, “The Deception of Jacob: A New Perspective on an Ancient Solution to the Problem,” VT 34 (1984): 211-13.

10 tn The words “please stay here” have been supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.

11 tn Or perhaps “I have grown rich and the Lord has blessed me” (cf. NEB). See J. Finkelstein, “An Old Babylonian Herding Contract and Genesis 31:38f.,” JAOS 88 (1968): 34, n. 19.

12 tn Heb “and he said.” The referent (Laban) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

13 tn The negated imperfect verbal form has an obligatory nuance.

14 tn The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

15 tn Heb “If you do for me this thing.”

16 tn Heb “I will return, I will tend,” an idiom meaning “I will continue tending.”

17 tn Heb “lift up (now) your eyes and see.”

18 tn Heb “going up on,” that is, mounting for intercourse.

19 tn No direct object is specified for the verb “find” in the Hebrew text. The words “the idols” have been supplied in the translation for clarification.

20 tn Heb “and he went out from the tent of Leah and went into the tent of Rachel.”

21 tn The “camel’s saddle” was probably some sort of basket-saddle, a cushioned saddle with a basket bound on. Cf. NAB “inside a camel cushion.”

22 tn The disjunctive clause (introduced by a vav [ו] conjunction) provides another parenthetical statement necessary to the storyline.

23 tn The word “them” has been supplied in the translation for clarification.

24 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Laban) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

25 tn Heb “and he gave [them] into the hand.”

26 tn Heb “answered and said.”

27 tn Heb “daughters.”

28 tn Heb “children.”

29 tn Heb “but to my daughters what can I do to these today?”