Genesis 31:30

And now, though thou wouldest needs be gone, because thou sore longedst after thy father’s house, yet wherefore hast thou stolen my gods?

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
needs	הָלֹ֣ךְ ha.Lokh	H1980	to walk (in a great variety of applications · verb, qal infinitive absolute
gone	הָלַ֔כְתָּ ha.Lakh.ta	H1980	to walk (in a great variety of applications · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
sore	נִכְסֹ֥ף nikh.Sof	H3700	properly · verb, niphal infinitive absolute
longedst	נִכְסַ֖פְתָּה nikh.Saf.tah	H3700	properly · verb, niphal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
father’s	אָבִ֑יךָ 'a.Vi.kha	H1	father · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
house	לְבֵ֣ית le.Veit	H1004	a house (in the greatest variation of applications · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
stolen	גָנַ֖בְתָּ ga.Nav.ta	H1589	to thieve (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
gods	אֱלֹהָֽי 'e.lo.Hai	H430	gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Jeremiah 10:11 Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under th…
Genesis 31:19 And Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father’s.
Judges 18:24 And he said, Ye have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and ye are gone away: and what have I more? and what is this that ye s…
Exodus 12:12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against…
Numbers 33:4 For the Egyptians buried all their firstborn, which the LORD had smitten among them: upon their gods also the LORD executed judgments.
Judges 6:31 And Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will ye plead for Baal? will ye save him? he that will plead for him, let him be put to deat…
1 Samuel 5:2-6 When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.
2 Samuel 5:21 And there they left their images, and David and his men burned them.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Genesis 31:25-35

We have here the reasoning, not to say the rallying, that took place between Laban and Jacob at their meeting, in that mountain which was afterwards called Gilead, Gen 31:25. Here is, I. The high charge which Laban exhibited against him. He accuses him, 1. As a renegade that had unjustly deserted his service. To represent Jacob as a criminal, he will have it thought that he intended kindness to his daughters (Gen 31:27, Gen 31:28), that he would have dismissed them with all the marks of love and honour that could be, that he would have made a solemn business of it, would have kissed his little grandchildren (and that was all he would have given them), and, according to the foolish custom of…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 31:26

Laban said . . . What hast thou done?--Not a word is said of the charge (Gen 31:1). His reproaches were of a different kind. His first charge was for depriving him of the satisfaction of giving Jacob and his family the usual salutations at parting. In the East it is customary, when any are setting out to a great distance, for their relatives and friends to accompany them a considerable way with music and valedictory songs. Considering the past conduct of Laban, his complaint on this ground was hypocritical cant. But his second charge was a grave one--the carrying off his gods--Hebrew, "teraphim," small images of human figures, used not as idols or objects of worship, but as talismans, for su…

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Adam Clarke on Genesis 31:29

It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt - Literally, My hand is unto God to do you evil, i.e., I have vowed to God that I will punish thee for thy flight, and the stealing of my teraphim; but the God of Your father has prevented me from doing it. It is a singular instance that the plural pronoun, when addressing an individual, should be twice used in this place - the God of your father, אביכם abichem, for אביך abicha, thy father.

John Gill

The Church Fathers

* (this story is not in the surviving works of Hippocrates) GENESIS CHAPTER 31 . THE GODS OF THE GENTILES NAMED FOR THE FIRST TIME. — Concerning what Laban says: Why have you stolen my gods? Perhaps you should think of the fact that he had said that he was making augury and that his daughter had spoken of good fortune. It should be noted that from the beginning of the book we find here for the first time the mention of the gods of the Gentiles. In the previous texts of the Scripture only God is mentioned. [
— Augustine of Hippo, QUESTIONS ON GENESIS, Q. 93 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

What extraordinary folly—what kind of gods are these of yours that can be stolen? Aren't you ashamed to say, "Why did you steal my household gods?" See the extraordinary extent of Laban's selfdeception such that people endowed with reason should worship wood and stone. These gods of yours, Laban, could not prevent their being stolen. How could they, after all, being made out of stone? The God of this good man, on the contrary, even if the good man was unaware of it, checked your aggression. Are you ignorant of your own error while still charging the good man with theft? After all, why on earth would the good man bring himself to steal them when he despised them, or rather realized they were made of stone and had no feeling? Homilies on Genesis
— John Chrysostom,

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Jacob — One who follows on another’s heels; supplanter, (Gen. 25:26; 27:36; Hos. 12:2-4), the second born of the twin sons of Isaac by Rebekah. He was born probably at Lahai-roi, when his father was…
Leah — Weary, the eldest daughter of Laban, and sister of Rachel (Gen. 29:16). Jacob took her to wife through a deceit of her father (Gen. 29:23). She was “tender-eyed” (17). She bore to Jacob six sons…
Magic, Magicians — Magic is “the science or practice of evoking spirits, or educing the occult powers of nature to produce effects apparently supernatural.” It formed an essential element in many ancient religions,…
Chiding · General references — General references
Idolatry · Early notice of, amongst God’s professing people — Early notice of, amongst God’s professing people
Laban · him — him
Teraphim · of Laban’ s property, according to the — of Laban’ s property, according to the

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Genesis 31:30

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Genesis 31:25-35

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 31:26

Adam Clarke on Genesis 31:29

John Gill

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Genesis 31:30

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Genesis 31:25-35

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 31:26

Adam Clarke on Genesis 31:29

John Gill

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Genesis 31:30

Keil & Delitzsch on Genesis 31:30

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Genesis 31:25-30

Rashi on Genesis 31:30