The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 438

,ed quia in lwwYrem deorum imagines illaa afterwards passed into Leah's), and entered ,olebat ,· vel potius quod Deo sacra fa<:turua, into Rachel's tent-last, because she was the vertebat se ad illaa ima,ginea (cf. Exorl. favourite. Cf. eh. xxxiii 2, in which a simi- xxxii. 4; 1 Kings xii. 28). "This complaint lar partiRlity towards Rachel is exhibited by of Laban, that his 'gods were stolen,' sbow- Jacob (l7'ide Thomson's 'Land and Book,' ctn the vanity of such idolatry" (Ainsworth). i. 37C). Cf. Judges vi. 31; xvi. 24; Jer. x. 5, 11, 15. Ver. 34.-Now Rachel had taken the Vcrs. 31, 32.-And Jacob answera,1-" in images (teraphim), and put them in the an able and powerful speech" (Kalisch}- camel's furniture, - the camel's furniture and said to Laban (replying to his first was not stramenta cameli (Vulaate), "the interrogation as to why Jacob had stolen camel's straw" (Luther), but the camel's away unawares), Because I was afraid : for saddle (LXX., Onkelos, Syriac, Calvin, I said (sc. to myself), Peradventure (literally, Rosenmiiller, Keil, and others), here called lest, i. e. I must depart without informing 111, from i1f, an unused root signifying tl.tee lest) thou wouldest (or shouldest) take either to go round in a circle, hence to run by force-the verb signifies to strip off as (Gesenius), or to be firmly wound together, skin from flesh (vide Mic. iii. 2), and hence hence to be puffed up as a bolster (Fi\rst). to forcibly remove-thy daughters from me The woman's riding-saddlo was commonly (after which, in response to Laban's question made of wicker-work and had the appearance about his stolen gods, he proceeds). With of a basket or cradle. It was usually covered whomsoever thou fi.ndest thy gods, let him with carpet, and protected against wind, rain, not live. If Jacob meant he shall not live, and sun by means of a canopy and curtains, but I will slay him with mine own hand while light was admitted by openings in the (Aben Rzra), let God destroy him (Abarbanel), side (cf. Gesenius, sub voce; Kalisch in loco). I give him up to thee to put to death (Rosen- "'fhat which is now customary among the miiller), let him instantly die (Drusius), he Arabs consists of a large closed basket-work, was guilty of great unadvisedness in speech. with a place for sitting and reclining, and Accordingly, the import of his words has been a window at tl.te side ; one of this kind hangs mollified by regarding them simply as a pre- on each side of the camel" (Gerlach)-and diction, "he will not live," i. e. he will die sat upon them. "To us the picture of before his time (Jonathan), a prediction which, Rachel seated upon the camel furnihue is the Rab bins note, was fulfilled in Rachel true to life, for we have often seen its counter- (vide eh. xxxv. 16, 18); or by connecting part. The saddle-bags and cushions which them with clause following, " he will not were to be set upon the camel lay piled on live before our brethren," i. e. let him be the floor, while she sat upon them" (Yan henceforth cut off from the society of his Lennep, quoted by Inglis, p. 254). And kinsmen (LXX., Bush). Yet, even as thus Laban searched-the word means to feel out explained, the language of Jacob was precipi- or explore with the hands (cf. eh. x.xvii. 12; tate, since he ought first to have inquired Job xii. 25)-all the tent, but found them at his wives 11nd children before pronouncing not. so emphatically on a matter of which he Ver. 35.-And she said to her father,- was entirely ignornnt (Calvin). Before our " covering theft bv subtlety and untruth" brethren-not Jacob's sons, but Le.ban's (Kalisch), nnd tbus proving herself 11 true kinsmen (ver. 23)-disoern thou-literally, daughter of Labnn, as well as showing with e.xamine closely for thyself, the hiph. of,~~ how m nch imperfection her religious chnracter (to be strange) meaning to press stron~ly was tainted-Let it not displease my lord- into a thing, 1,, e. to perceivo it by findmg literally, let it not burn with anger (10~. out its distinguishing characteristics (vida from i"l~,:J, to glow, to burn) in the eyes of Fiirst, sub voce)-what is thine with me, my lord (Adoni)-that I caDJ1ot rise up before and take it to thee. For (literally, andl,- thee;-Oriento.l politeness required children J'aoob knew not that Raohel had stolen to rise up in the presence of their parent~ them-othorwise he would have spoken with (vide Levit. xix. 32; and cf. 1 Kings ii. 19). less heat and more caution. Hence Rachel's npology we.e not unnecessnry Ver. 83.-And Laban. wen.t into J'aoob's -for the custom of women-(liternlly, tht ten.t, and into Leah's tent, and into the two way of women; 11 periJ?hre.sis for menstru- maid-servants' tents ;-the clause affords an ation (cf. eh. xviii. 11) which, under the interesting glimpse into tho manners of the law, required females, as ceremonially unclean, times, showing that not only husbands and to bo put apart (Lovit. xv. 19). Thnt, prior wives, but also wives among themselves, to the law, this particnlnr statute concerning possessod separate esl:ablishments)-but he women was in force nmong tho Arnmro:ms ~ound them not. Then went he out of nppenrs from tho present instance ; nnd that Leah's tent (he probably commenced with it wus not exclusively Jowish, but shared in Jacob's nnll thoso of tho hand-maids, e.11d by other I\Rtioua of antiquity, is the opiniou  382 THE BOOK OF ttENESIS. [CH, XXXI. 22-44,