Genesis 31:37 - Forerunner Commentary

Genesis 31:37

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.

Commentaries:

No entry exists in Forerunner Commentary for Genesis 31:37.

Genesis 31:36-42

Later when Jacob had fled with his household and Laban had pursued him angrily, there was a confrontation in which Jacob apparently spoke his mind for the first time in two decades. It is the most we are told that Jacob ever spoke on any one occasion. It had been bottled up in him for twenty years.

Laban was stunned by this speech, but he reacted with mere bluster. He said that the daughters, children, and flock were all his. What an obvious lie, but it is significant that he did not dispute Jacob’s claims to be self-sacrificing, upright, and industrious.

Now there is a third principle that contributed to Jacob’s prosperity. In Jacob’s impassioned speech before Laban in Genesis 31, Jacob trusted God for his prosperity and this of course is the most important of the principals and points.

Excerpted from Created to Do God's Will and Work by Martin G. Collins

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