Discovery BoxGenesis 21:23 
Context21:23 Now swear to me right here in God’s name 1 that you will not deceive me, my children, or my descendants. 2 Show me, and the land 3 where you are staying, 4 the same loyalty 5 that I have shown you.” 6
Genesis 31:32
Context31:32 Whoever has taken your gods will be put to death! 7 In the presence of our relatives 8 identify whatever is yours and take it.” 9 (Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.) 10
Genesis 31:53
Context31:53 May the God of Abraham and the god of Nahor, 11 the gods of their father, judge between us.” Jacob took an oath by the God whom his father Isaac feared. 12
Genesis 35:4
Context35:4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods that were in their possession 13 and the rings that were in their ears. 14 Jacob buried them 15 under the oak 16 near Shechem
1 tn Heb “And now swear to me by God here.”
2 tn Heb “my offspring and my descendants.”
3 tn The word “land” refers by metonymy to the people in the land.
4 tn The Hebrew verb means “to stay, to live, to sojourn” as a temporary resident without ownership rights.
5 tn Or “kindness.”
6 tn Heb “According to the loyalty which I have done with you, do with me and with the land in which you are staying.”
7 tn Heb “With whomever you find your gods, he will not live.”
8 tn Heb “brothers.”
9 tn Heb “recognize for yourself what is with me and take for yourself.”
10 tn The disjunctive clause (introduced here by a vav [ו] conjunction) provides supplemental material that is important to the story. Since this material is parenthetical in nature, it has been placed in parentheses in the translation.
11 tn The God of Abraham and the god of Nahor. The Hebrew verb translated “judge” is plural, suggesting that Laban has more than one “god” in mind. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the LXX, apparently in an effort to make the statement monotheistic, have a singular verb. In this case one could translate, “May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” However, Laban had a polytheistic world view, as evidenced by his possession of household idols (cf. 31:19). The translation uses “God” when referring to Abraham’s God, for Genesis makes it clear that Abraham worshiped the one true God. It employs “god” when referring to Nahor’s god, for in the Hebrew text Laban refers to a different god here, probably one of the local deities.
12 tn Heb “by the fear of his father Isaac.” See the note on the word “fears” in v. 42.
13 tn Heb “in their hand.”
14 sn On the basis of a comparison with Gen 34 and Num 31, G. J. Wenham argues that the foreign gods and the rings could have been part of the plunder that came from the destruction of Shechem (Genesis [WBC], 2:324).
15 sn Jacob buried them. On the burial of the gods, see E. Nielson, “The Burial of the Foreign Gods,” ST 8 (1954/55): 102-22.
16 tn Or “terebinth.”
