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The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 29:33
And she conceived again, and bare a son (probably the following year); and said, Because the Lord hath heard that I was hated (the birth of Reuben had obviously not answered Leah's expectations in increasing Jacob's lov…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 29:34
And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto me,— לָוָה, to join, is the root from which comes לֵוִי. (Levi), her son's name—because I have borne him three sons: theref…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 29:35
And she conceived again, and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise the Lord. Well she might; for this was the ancestor of the promised seed (Murphy). There cannot be a doubt that her excellence of character as wel…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 30:1-13
Rachel envied her sister: envy is grieving at the good of another, than which no sin is more hateful to God, or more hurtful to our neighbours and ourselves. She considered not that God made the difference, and that in…
Increase of Jacob's Family. (b. c. 1745.)
INCREASE OF JACOB'S FAMILY. (B. C. 1745.) We have here the bad consequences of that strange marriage which Jacob made with the two sisters. Here is, I. An unhappy disagreement between him and Rachel (Genesis 30:1-2), oc…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 30:14-24
The desire, good in itself, but often too great and irregular, of being the mother of the promised Seed, with the honour of having many children, and the reproach of being barren, were causes of this unbecoming contest…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 30:14-24
Here is, I. Leah fruitful again, after she had, for some time, left off bearing. Jacob, it should seem, associated more with Rachel than with Leah. The law of Moses supposes it a common case that, if a man had two wives…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 30:25-43
The fourteen years being gone, Jacob was willing to depart without any provision, except God's promise. But he had in many ways a just claim on Laban's substance, and it was the will of God that he should be provided fo…
Jacob's Bargain with Laban. (b. c. 1745.)
JACOB'S BARGAIN WITH LABAN. (B. C. 1745.) We have here, I. Jacob's thoughts of home. He faithfully served his time out with Laban, even his second apprenticeship, though he was an old man, had a large family to provide…
Jacob's Ingenious Policy. (b. c. 1745.)
JACOB'S INGENIOUS POLICY. (B. C. 1745.) Here is Jacob's honest policy to make his bargain more advantageous to himself than it was likely to be. If he had not taken some course to help himself, it would have been a bad…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 31:1-21
The affairs of these families are related very minutely, while (what are called) the great events of states and kingdoms at that period, are not mentioned. The Bible teaches people the common duties of life, how to serv…
Jacob's Departure. (b. c. 1739.)
JACOB'S DEPARTURE. (B. C. 1739.) Jacob is here taking up a resolution immediately to quit his uncle's service, to take what he had and go back to Canaan. This resolution he took up upon a just provocation, by divine dir…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 31:1-21
Jacob's flight from Laban. I. THE HOMEWARD DESIRE. The longing to revisit Canaan, which six years previously Laban's exactions and Joseph's birth (Genesis 30:25) had combined to inspire within the heart of Jacob, return…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 31:1-21
EXPOSITION
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 31:1
And he—Jacob had now served twenty years with Laban, and must accordingly have been in his ninety-seventh or seventy-seventh year (vide Genesis 27:1)—heard the words of Laban's sons,—who were not at this time only small…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 31:2
And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban, and, Behold, it (i.e. either Laban or his countenance) was not toward him (literally, with him) as before—literally, as yesterday and the day before. The evident change in Laba…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 31:3
And the Lord—Jehovah; since the entire journey to Padan-aram had been conducted under his special care, vide Genesis 28:15 (Hengstenberg), and not because the first three verses of this chapter have been inserted or mod…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 31:4
And Jacob went—being unwilling to approach the house lest Laban should discover his design (Rosenmüller)—and called Rachel and Leah—Rachel may be placed first as the beloved wife of Jacob (Wordsworth, Lange), scarcely a…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 31:5
And said unto them, I see your father's countenance, that it is not toward me as before (vide supra); but the God of my father—literally, and the Elohim of my father, the term Elohim employed by Jacob not being due to "…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 31:6
And ye know that with all my power I have served your father. The term Jacob here uses for power is derived from an unused onomatopoetic root, signifying to pant, and hence to exert one's strength. If, therefore, the as…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 31:7
And your father hath deceived me,— הֵתֵל, the hiph. of תָּלַל, means to rob or plunder (Furst), or to cause to fall, as in the cognate languages, whence to deceive (Gesenius)—and changed my wages ten times;—i.e. many ti…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 31:8
If he (i.e. Laban) said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages;—by the original contract Jacob had been promised all the parti-colored animals (Genesis 30:32);" here it seems as if Laban, struck with the remarkable incre…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 31:9
Thus—literally, and (as the result of this)—God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me. In ascribing to God what he had himself effected by (so-called) fraud, this language of Jacob appears to s…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 31:10
And it came to pus at the time that the cattle conceived (this obviously goes back to the commencement of the six years' service), that I lifted up mine eyes, and saw in a dream, and, behold, the rams— עַתֻּדים, he-goat…