Verse by Verse

1 Now Jacob heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s, and from what was our father’s he has acquired all this wealth.”

² And Jacob saw the countenance of Laban, and indeed it was not favorable toward him as before.

³ Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you.”

⁴ So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field, to his flock,

⁵ and said to them, “I see your father’s countenance, that it is not favorable toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me.

⁶ And you know that with all my might I have served your father.

⁷ Yet your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to hurt me.

⁸ If he said thus: ‘The speckled shall be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore speckled. And if he said thus: ‘The streaked shall be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore streaked.

⁹ So God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me.

¹⁰ “And it happened, at the time when the flocks conceived, that I lifted my eyes and saw in a dream, and behold, the rams which leaped upon the flocks were streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted.

¹¹ Then the Angel of God spoke to me in a dream, saying, ‘Jacob.’ And I said, ‘Here I am.’

¹² And He said, ‘Lift your eyes now and see, all the rams which leap on the flocks are streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted; for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.

¹³ I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and where you made a vow to Me. Now arise, get out of this land, and return to the land of your family.’ ”

¹⁴ Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, “Is there still any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house?

¹⁵ Are we not considered strangers by him? For he has sold us, and also completely consumed our money.

¹⁶ For all these riches which God has taken from our father are really ours and our children’s; now then, whatever God has said to you, do it.”

¹⁷ Then Jacob rose and set his sons and his wives on camels.

¹⁸ And he carried away all his livestock and all his possessions which he had gained, his acquired livestock which he had gained in Padan Aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.

¹⁹ Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel had stolen the household idols that were her father’s.

²⁰ And Jacob stole away, unknown to Laban the Syrian, in that he did not tell him that he intended to flee.

²¹ So he fled with all that he had. He arose and crossed the river, and headed toward the mountains of Gilead.

Laban and his sons were becoming greatly concerned. What had seemed like an extremely good contract at the time they made it had taken a most surprising and distressing turn. Jacob had kept his part of the bargain faithfully, but some how his flock was prospering and theirs was suffering. Laban’s sons, in particular, who could see their inheritance slipping away from them (Laban was an old man by this time, no doubt), became unreasonably bitter, accusing Jacob of a thieving appropriation of their father’s wealth. — Morris, page 478.

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Knowing that he would not be allowed by Laban to leave openly with his flocks and family, Jacob realized he would have to leave unannounced. He knew that Laban would, if he could, take all his possessions from him before he would allow him to leave (Genesis 31:42). …

To secretly inform his wives about his plan, Jacob had to send for them to come out into the fields, where he was keeping the flocks. … He told them their father no longer felt toward him as he formerly did, because of his increasing prosperity. He recounted numerous instances when Laban had deceived him and when he had changed his wages for no reason except to hinder Jacob’s increase in wealth. When he saw the cattle were producing speckled cattle, he would tell Jacob he had decided only the striped would be his wages. Then, when the cattle would produce striped offspring, he would change it again. In every case, however, the Lord had kept blessing Jacob. No matter what Laban had tried to do to him, God had protected and prospered him. During all this time, Jacob had continued to serve Laban to the very best of his ability, trying to keep his own word. … Jacob also knew Leah and Rachel were aware of this, and they could hardly fail to have been deeply impressed with the way the Lord was miraculously prospering their husband in spite of all their father could do to prevent it. Jacob made no claim that it was by his own ability or ingenuity that he had acquired such wealth; he gave all the credit to the Lord. — Morris, page 479.

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God revealed in a dream, through His angel, that the reason He had [prospered Jacob] was His awareness of what Laban was attempting to do to Jacob. He reminded Jacob that He had spoken to him at Bethel, twenty years before. In the vow, made at that time, when he had set up and anointed a pillar in commemoration of God’s promise, Jacob had contemplated someday returning to his father’s house in peace. Now the time had come, and God told him to be on his way, returning to his homeland. — Morris, page 480.

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Rachel and Leah revealed in their words here that they had long resented the way that their father had essentially “sold” them to Jacob. He had treated them as “strangers” or “foreigners,” rather than as his own daughters. The exorbitant price which Jacob had paid for them—fourteen years of free service to Laban—made them love Jacob but resent their father. Rather than treating this payment like a dowry, to provide a financial base for his daughters’ future well-being and security, as should have been done, he had “devoured” it all himself, using it probably to build up his own holdings, and had given nothing to them personally. They rightly felt that, since their husband had been responsible for the great prosperity of their father, and since this was in effect what Jacob had given in order to marry, them, these possessions by all rights should have come to them. … Consequently, they felt justified in interpreting God’s dealings with Laban, in causing his flocks to gradually become those of Jacob, as imply taking what had rightly belonged to them and their children and restoring it to them. — Morris, page 481.

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The vast majority of new animals born to Laban’s flocks [were stripped, speckled, and spotted], thus greatly enhancing Jacob’s wealth at the expense of Laban’s. Though this may seem to contradict Laban’s affirmation in the previous chapter that God had blessed him on Jacob’s account (see Genesis 30:27), a careful reading bears out that this new turn of circumstances is completely consistent with (and an early example of) God’s accompanying covenant promise to “curse the one who slights you” (Genesis 12:3); for as Jacob tells his wives Rachel and Leah, “Your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times.” From his ensuing statement it is clear that this refers to the time following their agreement of Genesis 30:31-34, according to which Jacob was to have all the stripped, speckled, and spotted sheep and goats. [No matter how Laban changed the deal] observes Jacob, “God has taken away Laban’s livestock and given them to me” — bearing out not only the covenant paradigm of “cursing for slighting,” but also raising the expectation that He will often curse the cursor in much the same way as he/they sought to curse the covenant family. … He does not (and nor should we) attribute the accumulation of stripped, speckled, and spotted livestock to anything but the activity of God. — Wechsler, pages 235-236.

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Jacob lost no time in preparing to depart. … The entire assemblage, when ready, must have made quite a large caravan. … Rachel, before leaving, and quite unknown to Jacob, had slipped into Laban’s tent and stolen his “images” (literally, teraphim, or small idol figurines used in divination and as household deities supposed to bring good luck to the owner). Their use frequently cropped up on later Israelite history, but was definitely idolatrous and contrary to the true faith of Jehovah. … Laban had become an idolater, though he did know about Jehovah in a general way. … It is also possible, as implied in some of the Nuzu tablets excavated around 1930, that the teraphim were associated with the inheritance and property rights of their owner. — Morris, pages 482-483.

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A key verb which underscores, both explicitly and implicitly, the theological immaturity and sin of all of the three major (human) figures in this episode—i.e., Jacob, Rachel, and Laban— is the verb “to steal,” which is here employed eight times (vs. 19, 20, 26, 27, 30, 32, 39 [twice])—the same verb employed by God to describe the prohibited action of the eighth commandment (see Exodus 20:15).  Rachel stole Laban’s household idols, and in the next verse we are told that Jacob stole Laban’s heart. There is a subtle and sophisticated semantic irony here, for by the immediately following statement “by not telling him that he was fleeing” the reader might naturally assume that the “stealing” of Laban’s “heart” centered in the surreptitious removal of his daughters and grandchildren (i.e., the “sons” of v.28), as Laban himself seems to suggest in vs.26-27; yet the parallelism of this reference to “stealing” Laban’s “heart in v.20a with the reference to “stealing” Laban’s “idols” in v.19b, suggests in fact that his heart was more attached to his idols than his own flesh and blood ( part of the reason, perhaps, that Rachel chose to steal them)! And indeed it is with recovering his idols that Laban demonstrates a clear preoccupation in the ensuing verses. — Wechsler, page 237.

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Jacob and his party forded the River Euphrates (the river is sufficiently shallow at certain points near its source for this) and headed for Mount Gilead, for to the southwest. Mount Gilead is actually a mountainous region east of the Jordan River. Its northern edges are nearly three hundred miles from Haran; so a long journey stretched ahead of them. … Once they began moving the flocks along, they would be able to make only fifteen or twenty miles a day. Thus, once they started driving the cattle, it would take them probably ten days or so to reach the Mount Gilead region. — Morris, page 483.

²⁵ And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my country.

²⁶ Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service which I have done for you.”

²⁷ And Laban said to him, “Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.”

²⁸ Then he said, “Name me your wages, and I will give it.”

²⁹ So Jacob said to him, “You know how I have served you and how your livestock has been with me.

³⁰ For what you had before I came was little, and it has increased to a great amount; the Lord has blessed you since my coming. And now, when shall I also provide for my own house?”

³¹ So he said, “What shall I give you?” And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flocks:

³² Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and these shall be my wages.

³³ So my righteousness will answer for me in time to come, when the subject of my wages comes before you: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the lambs, will be considered stolen, if it is with me.”

³⁴ And Laban said, “Oh, that it were according to your word!”

³⁵ So he removed that day the male goats that were speckled and spotted, all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had some white in it, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons.

³⁶ Then he put three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.

³⁷ Now Jacob took for himself rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods.

³⁸ And the rods which he had peeled, he set before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, so that they should conceive when they came to drink.

³⁹ So the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted.

⁴⁰ Then Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the brown in the flock of Laban; but he put his own flocks by themselves and did not put them with Laban’s flock.

⁴¹ And it came to pass, whenever the stronger livestock conceived, that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods.

⁴² But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s.

⁴³ Thus the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

By this time, Jacob had more than fulfilled his contract with Laban. He was with Laban a total of twenty years altogether (Genesis 31:38), including the fourteen years he had served for Leah and Rachel. — Morris, page 470

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Jacob went to Laban and announced his decision to return to his home. … Laban, however, was very reluctant to see him go. He had prospered greatly because of Jacob’s abilities and faithfulness, and he was willing to make almost any bargain that would keep him working for him. Laban even acknowledged that the Lord was with Jacob, and that it was of the Lord that he had profited so much through Jacob. …

The phrase “learned by experience” (v. 27) … represents the Hebrew word nachash, and means literally “learned by enchantments.” He [apparently] had in some way either carried out certain divination practices of his own, or else consulted some kind of soothsayer or oracle. — Morris, page 471.

Wechsler comments on Laban’s “enchantments.”

Though recognizing the fact that the Lord has blessed him, Laban’s affirmation is based not on personal faith in the sovereignty of the True God, but rather (in addition to simple observation of his material wealth) on divination, in which the reference is not merely to “discerning” something, as the English verb “to divine” is often used, but in fact to the pagan religious practice (e.g., “reading” livers, observing the flight of birds, etc.) that is elsewhere specifically condemned by God (cf. Leviticus 19:26; Deuteronomy 18:10; 2 Kings 17:17). Nonetheless, God’s promise of blessing for those who bless His covenant family is not dependent on the nature of one’s faith. — Wechsler, pages 234-235.

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It was reasonable that Jacob, having fulfilled all his commitments to Laban, should begin to provide for his own family. Laban again, therefore, asked what he could give him to make him stay. Jacob did not wish Laban to “give” him anything. … Instead, he agreed to shepherd and supervise Laban’s flocks, exactly as he had been doing, and his pay would consist of those animals yet unborn that would be less desirable to Laban because of their markings. It would thus be entirely up to God as to how many animals would become Jacob’s. 

Only those future animals that would be born speckled or striped or spotted, or abnormally colored in some way, would become Jacob’s wages. The dominant color traits in Laban’s flocks and herds were evidently white among the sheep, black among the goats, and brown among the cattle. …

Jacob further proposed that, not only would none of the living speckled animals be taken by him, but they would not even be used for breeding purposes. He would separate them into a separate flock, and keep them away from the normal-colored animals. Only such spotted and speckled animals as would be born in the future from the normal-colored animals would become his. … This arrangement clearly was highly favorable to Laban and of very doubtful value to Jacob. …

Laban … immediately jumped at the chance to seal such a bargain. He would lose nothing that now belonged to him, and it appeared very unlikely that Jacob would acquire any future animals by this process either.

Laban decided not to trust Jacob to keep the two sets of flocks separate. He himself, probably aided by his sons, went through the flocks, culling out all the striped and spotted goats, the brown sheep, and other odd-colored animals, and he put them into a separate flock. … Then, to make it quite impossible in the future for there to be any mixing, he gave the speckled flock into the hands of his sons, and told them always to keep them at least three days journey away from the main body of animals which would be tended by Jacob — Morris, pages 472-474.

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Even though a species of animal may have certain “dominant” traits (such as the white color in this type of sheep), there are, in each generation, certain individual animals that manifest one or more “recessive” traits (such as the brown color among sheep). … Jacob believed that he could simply trust God to increase the statistical proportion of animals in future generations of Laban’s flocks that would appear with these recessive traits. …

Many commentators have suggested that Jacob deceived Laban by making this bargain, and that he used unfair means to increase the proportion of spotted and striped animals. It should not be forgotten, however, that Jacob was given the opportunity by Laban to set his own wages. … He made the bargain as difficult for himself, and as generous to Laban, as it could possibly have been. There is no basis at all for any criticism of Jacob’s conduct in this regard.

It may be that Jacob had learned certain things [about the transmission of hereditary factors] which modern biologists have not yet even approached. … It is surely very unlikely that an external image can be transmitted through the visual apparatus to the brain and thence in some way as a signal to the DNA structure to specify certain characteristics to be triggered in the embryo, [but] it is nevertheless true that certain chemicals can and do have a significant prenatal influence if they can reach the embryo or, prior to conception, the DNA in the germ cells. … If nothing else, water treated thus may have served as an aphrodisiac and fertility promoter among the cattle. At least one such chemical substance found in these threes has been used for such a purpose in both ancient and modern times. … This in fact seems indicated by v.38, in which the word translated “conceive” in the KJV is actually the Hebrew yacham, meaning “to be hot” [or “in heat”]. … Jacob wanted to speed up the reproduction process and to induce the animals to have as many offspring as possible in the shortest time possible. …

When the animals did conceive and bear, Jacob was possibly quite surprised to note that a larger proportion than he had expected were ring-streaked, speckled, and spotted. He placed these animals in a group by themselves, after they were weaned, no doubt, and thus had the beginning of a flock of his own. …

A further measure was taken by Jacob to ensure that the flocks so produced would be composed of strong animals. He divided the flocks into two shifts, composed of stronger and weaker animals, respectively. He used the rods in the troughs when the stronger animals drank, but not when the weaker ones came there. Thus the stronger animals were stimulated to mate, and the others were not. This measure, likewise, to the extent it would be effective, constituted a sound practice of animal husbandry, and should have been of as great benefit to Laban as to Jacob. It would ensure that, statistically at least, most of the newborn lambs and kids, whether solid color or spotted, would be sturdy and healthy. However, there continued to be produced an abnormally large proportion of spotted and speckled young. This meant that a greater and greater percentage of the animals in Jacob’s flock were strong animals, and an increasing percentage in Laban’s were weaker animals. 

It was not until later that Jacob came to understand the providential intervention that caused the unusual percentage of streaked and spotted animals to be born (see Genesis 32:10). In the meantime, within the space of only a few years … Jacob’s flock had grown so large, and he had prospered from it so greatly, that he had to employ many servants, both male and female, and had purchased many camels and asses. He had quickly become a very prosperous rancher. — Morris, pages 474-477.

Wechsler has a different take on Jacob’s handling of the flocks.

Jacob—still not trusting in the sufficiency of God’s covenant provision—continues his behavioral pattern of seeking to better his circumstances through his own machinations and maneuverings. It is in this connection that the elaborate process of intermittently setting up freshly peeled rods of poplar, almond, and plane trees should be understood—that is, to emphasize the degree of Jacob’s human striving to attain what God has otherwise promised to bestow in His own sovereign power and grace. — Wechsler, page 235.

I don’t know. The preponderance of commentaries treat Jacob as a schemer and, therefore, in the wrong. But in the absence of any Scriptural support for the view, I’m reserving judgment and inclining toward Morris’ viewpoint.

30 Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die!”

² And Jacob’s anger was aroused against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”

³ So she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, and she will bear a child on my knees, that I also may have children by her.”

⁴ Then she gave him Bilhah her maid as wife, and Jacob went in to her.

⁵ And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.

⁶ Then Rachel said, “God has judged my case; and He has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan.

⁷ And Rachel’s maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.

⁸ Then Rachel said, “With great wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and indeed I have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali.

⁹ When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took Zilpah her maid and gave her to Jacob as wife.

¹⁰ And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son.

¹¹ Then Leah said, “A troop comes!” So she called his name Gad.

¹² And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son.

¹³ Then Leah said, “I am happy, for the daughters will call me blessed.” So she called his name Asher.

¹⁴ Now Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

¹⁵ But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?” And Rachel said, “Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.”

¹⁶ When Jacob came out of the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have surely hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” And he lay with her that night.

¹⁷ And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.

¹⁸ Leah said, “God has given me my wages, because I have given my maid to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar.

¹⁹ Then Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son.

²⁰ And Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun.

²¹ Afterward she bore a daughter, and called her name Dinah.

²² Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb.

²³ And she conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach.”

²⁴ So she called his name Joseph, and said, “The Lord shall add to me another son.”

Rachel, of course, could hardly have been unmoved by the fact that her sister had been blessed with four sons while she remained barren. She could also [maybe] see Jacob’s love gradually shifting from her to Leah because of this. Her envy finally surfaced in a petulant outburst to her husband: “Give me children, or else I die.”

Possibly she felt that, if Jacob would spend more time in her own bed, and not so much with Leah, she would be more likely to conceive. Otherwise her remonstrance was merely an emotional exclamation, since she certainly realized that it was not Jacob who was sterile. Jacob himself no doubt had been deeply disappointed also in the fact that Rachel had not been able to produce children, since it was she whom he had loved and had chosen to be the mother of the seed God had promised in the first place.

Her outburst … angered him. He struck back at her with a strong suggestion that there was something wrong in her own life, since God had not judged her worthy of being blessed with children. — Morris, page 465.

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Rachel prevailed on Jacob to “go in unto Bilhah.” … This was an accepted social custom of the day. In fact, it is quite possible that it was for this very purpose—as a guard against barrenness—Laban gave each of his daughters a personal maid. … It is not clear whether or not the statement, “she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her” is to be taken literally, though as a symbolic gesture of proxy childbirth, the maid may well have been actually delivered of the child while lying on the lap of her mistress. In any case, Bilhah was immediately successful, and she bore Jacob a son, whom Rachel named Dan, meaning “Justice,” testifying through this name that God had heard her prayer and justified her in her husband’s sight.

Bilhah … soon became pregnant with a second son. This one Rachel named Naphtali, which means “Wrestlings.” This unusual name was a reference to her long-continued rivalry with her sister. — Morris, page 466.

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Leah, however, was not yet ready to accept defeat. Though she herself had stopped bearing, she also had a maid, and she reasoned that what had worked for Rachel would work for her too. Therefore she prevailed upon Jacob to take Zilpah, her maid, also as his wife, that she might have additional children by her. …

The matter or productivity was apparently of such overriding concern that the question of physical jealousy of their maids did not enter much into it. … As far as Jacob was concerned, he seems to have been rather pliant, going indiscriminately to whichever bed was most conveniently available at the time. …

Leah’s maid, Zilpah, also had two sons in quick succession, once Jacob had gone into her. Leah named them Gad and Asher, meaning “Fortunate” and “Happy,” respectively. — Morris, page 467.

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Jacob now had eight sons, and presumably from six to eight years had elapsed since his marriage. The eldest son, Reuben, was thus probably about seven years old by this time. He was at least old enough to play by himself in the field. One day during the season of the wheat harvest, Reuben chanced to discover mandrakes growing in the field. He plucked them and brought them home to Leah.

The mandrake is a small orange-colored berrylike fruit, much esteemed in ancient times as an aphrodisiac and inducer of fertility. It has been called the “love-apple” and, in Western countries, the “May-apple.” It has also been used as a narcotic and emetic, especially its large roots. It was no doubt because of its supposed value in promoting fertility that both Leah and Rachel desired it. 

When Rachel saw what Reuben had brought his mother, she wanted them herself, hoping that they might solve her problem of barrenness. … Rachel finally acquired them from Leah by making a bargain which must have been unpleasant for her. She agreed to insist that Jacob lie with Leah that night. — Morris, page 468.

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Leah earnestly desired to have a son of her own again, and prayed to that end. God, in grace, heard her prayer, and once again Leah conceived. She named her own fifth son Issachar, meaning “Reward.” … She soon had another son, whom she named Zebulun, meaning “Dwelling.” This, she said, was in testimony of God’s gracious gift to her, assuring her that her husband now would be willing to dwell with her.

At this point, Jacob’s first daughter was born to Leah. Later, Jacob had other daughters (Genesis 37:35; 46:7, 15), but the only one whose name and whose mother’s name is given is Dinah, meaning “Judgment.” — Morris, page 469.

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Finally, after many years, the Lord answered Rachel’s prayers, and she also conceived. … The name she chose for her son when he was born, Joseph, can be derived both from “Taken Away” and “May He Add,” thus indicating both her thanksgiving and her faith that God would give her yet another son. — Morris, page 470.