Genesis 31:36

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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.”

Commentaries:

Adam Clarke

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Genesis 31:36

And Jacob was wroth, and chode with Laban - The expostulation of Jacob with Laban, and their consequent agreement, are told in this place with great spirit and dignity. Jacob was conscious that though he had made use of cunning to increase his flocks, yet Laban had been on the whole a great gainer by his services. He had served him at least twenty years, fourteen for Rachel and Leah, and six for the cattle; and some suppose he had served him twenty years besides the above, which is not unlikely: see the remarks at the conclusion of this chapter. (See Clarke at Genesis 31:55 (note)) Forty or even twenty years of a man' s life, devoted to incessant labor and constantly exposed to all the inclemencies of the weather, (see Genesis 31:40), deserve more than an ordinary reward. Laban' s constitutional sin was covetousness, and it was an easily besetting sin; for it appears to have governed all his conduct, and to have rendered him regardless of the interests of his children, so long as he could secure his own. That he had frequently falsified his agreement with Jacob, though the particulars are not specified, we have already had reason to conjecture from Genesis 31:7, and with this Jacob charges his father-in-law, in the most positive manner, Genesis 31:41. Perhaps some previous unfair transactions of this kind were the cause why Jacob was led to adopt the expedient of outwitting Laban in the case of the spotted, spangled, ring-streaked, and grisled cattle. This if it did take place, though it cannot justify the measure, is some palliation of it; and almost the whole of Jacob' s conduct, as far as relates to Laban, can be better excused than his injuring Laban' s breed, by leaving him none but the weak, unhealthy, and degenerated cattle.

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