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Genesis 31:22
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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 aheaded toward the mountains of Gilead.  

Laban Pursues Jacob

22 And Laban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled.
23 Then he took ahis brethren with him and pursued him for seven days’ journey, and he overtook him in the mountains of Gilead.  
24 But God ahad come to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night, and said to him, “Be careful that you bspeak to Jacob neither good nor bad.”  
25 So Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountains, and Laban with his brethren pitched in the mountains of Gilead.
26 And Laban said to Jacob: “What have you done, that you have stolen away unknown to me, and acarried away my daughters like captives taken with the sword?  
27 Why did you flee away secretly, and steal away from me, and not tell me; for I might have sent you away with joy and songs, with timbrel and harp?
28 And you did not allow me ato kiss my sons and my daughters. Now byou have done foolishly in so doing.  
29 It is in my power to do you harm, but the aGod of your father spoke to me blast night, saying, ‘Be careful that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.’  
30 And now you have surely gone because you greatly long for your father’s house, but why did you asteal my gods?”  
31 Then Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was aafraid, for I said, ‘Perhaps you would take your daughters from me by force.’  
32 With whomever you find your gods, ado not let him live. In the presence of our brethren, identify what I have of yours and take it with you.” For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.  
33 And Laban went into Jacob’s tent, into Leah’s tent, and into the two maids’ tents, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent.
34 Now Rachel had taken the1 household idols, put them in the camel’s saddle, and sat on them. And Laban searched all about the tent but did not find them.  
35 And she said to her father, “Let it not displease my lord that I cannot arise before you, for the manner of women is with me.” And he searched but did not find the1 household idols.  
36 Then Jacob was angry and rebuked Laban, and Jacob answered and said to Laban: “What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have so hotly pursued me?  
37 Although you have searched all my things, what part of your household things have you found? Set it here before my brethren and your brethren, that they may judge between us both!
38 These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried their young, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock.
39 aThat which was torn by beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it. bYou required it from my hand, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.  
40 There I was! In the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep departed from my eyes.
41 Thus I have been in your house twenty years; I aserved you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and byou have changed my wages ten times.  
42 aUnless the God of my father, the God of Abraham and bthe Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. cGod has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and drebuked you last night.”  

Laban’s Covenant with Jacob

43 And Laban answered and said to Jacob, “These daughters are my daughters, and these children are my children, and this flock is my flock; all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to these my daughters or to their children whom they have borne?
44 Now therefore, come, alet us make a covenant, byou and I, and let it be a witness between you and me.”  
45 So Jacob atook a stone and set it up as a pillar.  
46 Then Jacob said to his brethren, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there on the heap.
47 Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.  
48 And Laban said, a“This heap is a witness between you and me this day.” Therefore its name was called Galeed,  
49 also aMizpah, because he said, “May the Lord watch between you and me when we are absent one from another.  
50 If you afflict my daughters, or if you take other wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us—see, God is witness between you and me!”
51 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Here is this heap and here is this pillar, which I have placed between you and me.
52 This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not pass beyond this heap to you, and you will not pass beyond this heap and this pillar to me, for harm.
53 The God of Abraham, the God of Nahor, and the God of their father ajudge between us.” And Jacob bswore by cthe Fear of his father Isaac.  
54 Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and called his brethren to eat bread. And they ate bread and stayed all night on the mountain.
55 And early in the morning Laban arose, and akissed his sons and daughters and bblessed them. Then Laban departed and creturned to his place. 
Book Notes:
Barnes' Book Notes



Introduction to Genesis

The Book of Genesis can be separated into eleven documents or pieces of composition most of which contain additional subordinate divisions. The first of these has no introductory phrase; the third begins with ּ tôledâh zeh sēpher , "this is the book of the generations" ; and the others with tôledâh ̀ēleh , "these are the generations."

However, the subordinate pieces of which these primary documents consist are as distinct from each other as they are complete in themselves. And, each portion of the composer is as separate as the wholes which they go to constitute. The history of the fall Gen. 3, the family of Adam Gen. 4, the description of the vices of the antediluvians Genesis 6:1-8, and the confusion of tongues Genesis 11:1-9 are as distinct efforts of composition and as perfect in themselves as any of the primary divisions. The same holds true throughout the entire Book of Genesis. Even these subordinate pieces contain still smaller passages, having an exact and self-contained finish which enables the critic to lift them out and examine them and makes him wonder if they have not been inserted in the document as in a mold which was previously fitted for their reception. The memoranda of each day' s creative work, of the locality of Paradise, of each link in the genealogy of Noah, and the genealogy of Abraham are striking examples of this. They sit, each in the narrative, like a gem in its setting.

Whether these primary documents were originally composed by Moses, or whether they came into his hands from earlier sacred writers and were revised by him and combined into his great work, we are not informed. By revising a sacred writing, we mean replacing obsolete or otherwise unknown words or modes of expressing as were in common use at the time of the reviser, and then putting in an explanatory clause or passage when necessary for people of a later day. The latter of the above suppositions is not inconsistent with Moses being reckoned as the responsible "author" of the whole collection. We think that such a position is more natural, satisfactory, and consistent with the phenomena of all Scripture. It is satisfactory to have the recorder (if not an eye-witness) to be as near as possible to the events recorded. And it seems to have been a part of the method of the Divine Author of the Scripture to have a constant collector, conservator, authenticator, reviser, and continuator of that book which He designed for the spiritual instruction of successive ages. We may disapprove of one writer tampering with the work of another, but we must allow the Divine Author to adapt His own work from time to time to the necessities of coming generations. However, this implies writing was in use from the origin of man.

We are not able to say when writing of any kind was invented or when syllabic or alphabetic writing came into use. But we meet with the word sêpher , "a writing," from which we have our English "cipher," as early as Gen. 5. And many things encourage us to presume a very early invention of writing. It is, after all, only another form of speech, another effort of the signing faculty in man. Why may not the hand gesticulate to the eye, as well as the tongue articulate to the ear? We believe that the former was concurrent with the latter in early speech as it is in the speech of all nations to the present day. Only one more step is needed for the writing mode. Let the gestures of the hand take a permanent form by being carved in lines on a smooth surface and we have a written character.

This leads us to the previous question of human speech. Was it a gradual acquisition after a period of brute silence? Apart from history, we argue that it was not! We conceive that speech leaped at once from the brain of man as a perfect thing - as perfect as the newborn infant - yet capable of growth and development. This has been the case with all inventions and discoveries. The pressing necessity has come upon the fitting man, and he has given forth a complete idea which can only develop after ages. The Bible record confirms this theory. Adam comes to be, and then by the force of his native genius speaks. And in primitive times we have no doubt that the hand moved as well as the tongue. Hence, we hear so soon of "the book."

On the supposition that writing was known to Adam Gen. 1-4, containing the first two of these documents, it formed the "Bible" of Adam' s descendants (the antediluvians). Gen. 1:1-11:9, being the sum of these two documents and the following three documents, constitutes the "Bible" of the descendants of Noah. The whole of Genesis may be called the "Bible" of the posterity of Jacob; and, we may add, that the five books of the Law, of which the last four books (at least) are immediately due to Moses. The Pentateuch was the first "Bible" of Israel as a nation.

Genesis is purely a historical work. It serves as the narrative preamble to the legislation of Moses. It possesses, however, a much higher and broader interest than this. It is the first volume of the history of man in relation with God. It consists of a main line of narrative, and one or more collateral lines. The main line is continuous and relates to the portion of the human race that remains in communication with God. Side by side with this is a broken line, rather, several successive lines, which are linked not to one another but to the main line. Of these, two lines come out in the primary documents of Genesis; namely, Genesis 25:12-18 and Gen. 36, containing the respective records of Ishmael and Esau. When these are placed side by side with those of Isaac and Jacob, the stages in the main line of narrative are found to be nine, that is, two less than the primitive documents.

These great lines of narrative, in like manner, include minor lines, whenever the history falls into several threads which must all be taken up one after another in order to carry on the whole concatenation of events. These come out in paragraphs and even shorter passages which necessarily overlap one another in point of time. The striking uniqueness of Hebrew composition is aptly illustrated by the successive links in the genealogy of Gen. 5, where the life of one patriarch is brought to a close before that of the next is taken up, though they actually run parallel for the greater part of the predecessor' s life. It furnishes a key to much that is difficult in the narrative.

This book is naturally divided into two great parts - the first which narrates the creation; the second which narrates the development of the things created from the beginning to the deaths of Jacob and Joseph.

The first part is equal in value to the whole record of what may take place to the end of time, and therefore to the whole of the Bible, not only in its historical part, but in its prophetic aspect. A created system of things contains in its bosom the whole of what may be unfolded from it.

The second great part of Genesis consists of two main divisions - the one detailing the course of events before the deluge, the other recounting the history after the flood. These divisions may be distributed into sections in the following way: The stages of the narrative marked off in the primary documents are nine in number. However, in consequence of the transcendent importance of the primeval events, we have broken up the second document into three sections, and the fourth document into two sections and have thus divided the contents of the book into twelve great sections. All these matters of arrangement are shown in the following chart:

Table of Contents

I. CREATION:

A. Creation Gen. 1:1-2:3

II. DEVELOPMENT:

A. Before the Deluge

II. The Man Gen. 2:4-25

III. The Fall Gen. 3:1-24

IV. The Race Gen. 4:1-26

V. Line to Noah Gen. 5:1-6:8

B. Deluge

VI. The Deluge Gen. 6:9-8:22

C. After the Deluge

VII. The Covenant Gen. 9:1-29

VII. The Nations Gen. 10:1-11:9

IX. Line to Abram Gen. 11:10-26

X. Abraham Gen. 11:27-25:11

XI. Isaac Gen. 25:19-36:34

XII. Jacob Gen. 37:10-50:26

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