_JACOB, HAVING COMMUNICATED HIS DESIGN TO HIS WIVES, DEPARTS SECRETLY FROM LABAN WITH HIS FAMILY AND FLOCKS. LABAN PURSUES, AND OVERTAKES HIM AT GILEAD. AFTER MUTUAL RECRIMINATIONS, THEY MAKE A COVENANT TOGETHER._... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE HEARD, &C.— i.e.. _Jacob_ heard: another proof of the bad divisions of the Chapter s. Three things concurred to determine him in his departure from Laban: the first, the envy and jealousy of Laban's sons; the second, the chagrin and ill behaviour of Laban, Genesis 31:2.; and the third, the di... [ Continue Reading ]
JACOB SENT AND CALLED RACHEL, &C.— Determined to depart secretly from Laban, he appointed his wives to meet him in the field, that he might communicate his design more unreservedly to them. Rachel is named _first_, as being, properly speaking, his first, and certainly his best-loved wife. He calls G... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE ANGEL OF GOD, &C.— See notes on ch. Genesis 30:32. Jacob seems to unite, in this account to his wives, two visions; the first, wherein God represented to him his attention to his interest with regard to the flocks; the second, Genesis 30:13 wherein he exhorts him to fly from Laban; though pe... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR ALL THE RICHES, &C.— Another reason here offers itself to justify Jacob. The daughters of Laban justly complain of their father's treatment, who had behaved to them as if they had been slaves, not daughters; and assert, that the gracious God who had so blessed their husband, herein had only caus... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN JACOB AROSE, &C.— Finding his wives agreeable to his proposal, Jacob resolved to put it into execution; he accordingly seized the proper opportunity, when Laban was absent from home, employed in the fields in shearing his sheep, and consequently much engaged, as it was a time of great festivity... [ Continue Reading ]
STOLE AWAY UNAWARES— Heb. _stole the heart of Laban._ In Scripture-language the _heart_ frequently signifies the _knowledge,_ the _understanding._ Ecclesiastes 7:25 compared with Proverbs 7:7. The meaning is, that Jacob _stole, secreted_ from Laban the _knowledge_ of his design. The _river,_ Proverb... [ Continue Reading ]
WITH MIRTH, AND WITH SONGS, WITH TABRET, AND WITH HARP— The Easterns in general set out, at least in their longer journies, with _music;_ for, when the Prefetto of AEgypt, whose journal the late Bishop of Clogher published, was preparing for his journey, he complains of his being incommoded by the s... [ Continue Reading ]
IT IS IN THE POWER OF MY HAND, &C.— And it appears very plainly, that it was as much in the inclination of his heart to do him hurt, had not God interposed, as indeed he himself confesses. Nothing can be more strongly marked than the hypocrisy of Laban, Genesis 31:27 after he found that the Almighty... [ Continue Reading ]
BECAUSE I WAS AFRAID, &C.— To the first part of Laban's charge Jacob answers, that he fled privately, because he feared him; to the latter part he answers, by giving him free leave to search for his goods, and exposing to death whoever should be found guilty of the theft; whence it seems to follow,... [ Continue Reading ]
AND LABAN WENT, &C.— The LXX here add, _and searched; Laban went and searched into Jacob's tent,_ &c. which Dr. Kennicott defends by a reading from the Samaritan; but the matter is of no consequence, since the passage is perfectly well understood in the Hebrew without this addition; and the concisen... [ Continue Reading ]
AND JACOB WAS WROTH, &C.— Nothing can be imagined more exquisite than this apology of Jacob to Laban; nothing more descriptive of the painful and careful life of a shepherd, Luke 2:8.; and nothing, one would imagine, could be more affecting to the heart of Laban, than truths thus ardently and pathet... [ Continue Reading ]
THUS I WAS; IN THE DAY THE DROUGHT CONSUMED ME, AND THE FROST BY NIGHT— Thus Jacob complains of the weather in Mesopotamia. Accordingly Rawwolff, speaking of his going down the Euphrates, gives us to understand that he was wont to wrap himself up in a frize coat in the night-time to keep himself _fr... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW THEREFORE COME, &C.— Finding it impossible to do Jacob any injury, Laban assumes the language of tenderness and affection; and, like a true worldly man, carefully provides against receiving any injury from Jacob, whom his conscience assured him he had great cause to fear: he therefore proposes t... [ Continue Reading ]
MADE AN HEAP, &C.— This monument, says Parker, Jacob seems to have erected after the same manner as he did that of _Beth-el._ It must not be supposed to have been a heap of loose stones; for then it could not have continued long in the same position, nor given a name to the country round it. It was,... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH I HAVE CAST— Laban neither erected the pillar nor made the heap, Genesis 31:45. as Houbigant remarks; therefore he renders the word in the second person, _which thou hast ereated,_ erexisti; though the Samaritan, he thinks, reads best in the second person, not יריתי _irithi,_ but יראת _irath,... [ Continue Reading ]
THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, &C.— It seems very plain that Laban, by these expressions, means to refer to that true God, who was peculiarly the God of their fathers and family. And when Jacob swears by the _fear of his father Isaac,_ that is, by the God who was the object of his father's religious veneration... [ Continue Reading ]