The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 429

EXPOSITION. Ver. 25. -And it cnIDe to pan, when Raohel Ver. 28.-And i>.e said, Appoint me thy had born J'oseph,-either at or about the wages. Literally, distinctly specify (from expiry of the second tern\ of seven years. a root signifying to· bore, honco to declcm J acob's family now consist.cd in all of eleven accurately) thy hire upon me, i. e. which 1 sons and oue daught.cr, unless Dinah's birth will tako upon me as binding. Laban's occurred later in the next term of service caution to be clear and specific in defining (Keil). Since those were all born within the tenns of any engagement he 111io-ht enter se"l"en years, the chronological cannot be the into was much 1,ceded, and would doubtless order obseITed by the historian in recording not be neglected by Jacob, whose past ex• the e"l"ents of the preceding paragraphs. perience must ha,ve taught him he was deal- Rather the births of the children are arranged mg with one who, in respect of covenants in connection with the mothers from whom and contracts, was eminently treacherous. they sprang. Hence the possibility of acquir- And I will give it. • ing"so large a family in so short a time. The Ver. 29.-And he (Jacob) said unto him six sons of Leah might be born in the seven (Laban), Thou knowest how (literally, what) years, allowing one year's complete cessation I have served thee, and how thy cattle was from pregnancy, viz., the fifth; Bilhah's in with me-literally, and 1ohat thy cattle has the third and fourth years ; Zilpah's in th~ been (or become) with me, i. e. to what a. beginning of tho sixth and seventh ; and number they have grown. Rachel's toward the en,J of the seventh, Ver. 30.-For it was little which thou Jeanng Dinah to be born later (cf. Keil in hadst ·before I came,-literally, for little loco)--that J'acob said unto Laban (if not (it was) which was. to thee before me; i. c. immediately, certainly soon, after J oseph's not in place, lvavriov lµov (LXX.), but birth), Send me away (meaning that Laban in time, i. e. before my arrival-and it iii should permit him to depart), that I may now increased-literally, broken forth (cf. go (literally, and I will go) unto mine own ver. 43)-unto a multitude; and the Lord place, and to my country-to Canaan in (Jehovah) hath blessed thee since my coming general, and to that part of it in particular • (literally, at my foot,· i. e. wherever I have where he had fonnerly resided (cf. eh, rviii. gone among your flocks) : and now when 33 ; xxri 55). shall I provide (litc1-ally, do) for mine own Ver. 26.-Give me (Sllffer me to take) my house also 1 wives and my children, for whom I have Ver. 31.-And he (Laban, unwilling l9 served thee, and let me go (literally, and I part with so profitable an assistant) said, will go): for thou knowest my service which What shall I give thee1 He was apparently I have done thee-implying that he had prepared to detain Jacob at his own terms. faithfully implemented his engagement, and And Jacob said, Thou shalt not give me that Laban was aware of the justness of his anything. Jacob did not design to serve demand to be released from further servitude. Laban gratuitously, but chose rather to trust Ver. 27. - And Laban said unto him God than Laban for recompense (Wordsworth, (having learnt by fourteen years' acquaint- Gosman in Lange); or ho may have meant ance with Jacob to know the value of a good that he would have no wages of La.ban's shepherd), I pray thee, if I ~ve. f~und setting but . only of· his own proposing favour in thine eyes (the clause is elliptical, (Hugh;s). If thou wilt do this thing for the A. V. rightly supplying), ta!T}' : for me (accede to this stipulation), I will again (this word also is not in the original), I have feed and keep thy flock-. literally, I will learned by experience - literally, I have twrn, I will tend thy flock, I will keep divined (11:l~,, from ~r:9, to hiss as a ser- (8C. it). pent hence· to augur) ; not necessarily by Ver. 32. - I will pass through all thy mca~s of serpents (Gescnius, Wordsworth, 11.ock to-day,-wrongly renuered 1rapEX6frw 'Speaker's Commentary'), or eve~ by con- 1ravra rd 1rpaflc'r.ra aov (LXX.), gyra pe1 sulting his gods (Delitzsch, Kalisch), but omnes grege8 tuos (Vulgate), as if Jacob pro-· perhaps by close observation and minute posed that the sepamtion of the flocks should inspection (Murphy, Bush). The LXX;. be effected by Laban, o.nd ll;~t by himsolf-;-; rnnder oio,v1r11iµ71v; the Vulgate by e:xperi- removing from thence-no~ remove tl~ou, mento didici-that the Lord-Jehovah. as if tho verb were imperative (Rosenmvller, Nominally a worshipper of tho true God, Murphy, Kalisch), but "to romovc," the Laban was in practice addicted to heathen verb being in the inf. (Keil; cf. Ewald, 'Heb. superstitions (cf. eh. xxxi. l 9, 32)-hath Synt. ,' § 279)-all the speckled and spotted blessed me (with material prosperity) for cattle, and all the brown cattle among the thy 6ake. sheep, and the spotted ~11,cl speckled among CH. XXX. 25--43.] THE BOOK OF GENESIS. en the go&ts. Sin co in Oriental countries sheep were ringstre.ked (striped or banded) and nre commonly white nnd goats black, the spotted, and all the she-goats that were number of speckled nnd spotted animals speckled and spotted, and every one that (i. e. sheep with little spots and large had some white in it, and all the brown iatchcs of black, and goats with little or among the aheep,-four sorts of animals were large points of white, in their hair) wonld be unusually smnll And of such shall be to be removed: (1) the dotted, (2) the patched, (3) the ring-marked or striped, my hire-i. e. the dark-spotted or entirely and (4) the black or brown-and gave them black sheep and white or white-speckled into the hand of his (Laban's or Jacob's, ut goats were to be Jacob's rewarcl (Knobel, supra) sons. Delitzsch, Keil, Lange), which was to be Ver. 36.-And (as if to insure the impossi- subsequently increased by whatever speckled ~ility of the two flocks mingling and brced- animals might appear among the one-coloured mg) he set three days' journey betwixt him- flocks ; bnt it seems more probable that self (with his sons and the parti-coloured Jacob only claimed the latter, and, both to animals) and Ja.cob: and Jacob fed the rest make the bargain more attractive to Laban of Laban's .:flocks-out of which he was to and to show that he wanted nothing from pay himself as best he conld in accordance Laban but only what God might be pleased with the contract. in accordance with this arrangement to be- stow, he suggested that the flocks and herds Ver. 37.-And Jacob took him rods of should be purged of all such speckled and green poplar-literally, a rod (the singular spotted animals to begin with ('l'uch, Baum- being used collectively for rods) of np\ 0