Genesis 31:24

_AND GOD CAME TO LABAN THE SYRIAN IN A DREAM BY NIGHT, AND SAID UNTO HIM, TAKE HEED THAT THOU SPEAK NOT TO JACOB EITHER GOOD OR BAD._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

22-35 God can put a bridle in the mouth of wicked men, to restrain their malice, though he do not change their hearts. Though they have no love to God's people, they will pretend to it, and try to make a merit of necessity. Foolish Laban! to call those things his gods which could be stolen! Enemies may steal our goods, but not our God. Here Laban lays to Jacob's charge things that he knew not. Those who commit their cause to God, are not forbidden to plead it themselves with meekness and fear. When we read of Rachel's stealing her father's images, what a scene of iniquity opens! The family of Nahor, who left the idolatrous Chaldees; is this family itself become idolatrous? It is even so. The truth seems to be, that they were like some in after-times, who sware by the Lord and by Malcham, Zephaniah 1:5; and like others in our times, who wish to serve both God and mammon. Great numbers wi...

Verse Genesis 31:24. _AND GOD CAME TO LABAN_] God's caution to Laban was of high importance to Jacob -_Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob_ _either good or bad_; or rather, as is the literal meaning of the Hebrew, מטוב עד רע _mittob ad ra_, from _good_ to _evil_; for had he neither spoken _good nor evil_ to Jacob, they could have had no intercourse at all. The original is, therefore, peculiarly appropriate; for when people meet, the language at first is the language of _friendship_; the command therefore implies, "Do not begin with _Peace be unto thee_, and then proceed to _injurious_ _language_ and _acts of violence_." If this Divine direction were attended to, how many of those _affairs of honour_, so termed, which commence with, "I hope you are well" - "I am infinitely glad to see you" - "I am happy to see you well,...

- Jacob’s Flight from Haran 19. תרפים _t__e__rāpı̂ym_, Teraphim. This word occurs fifteen times in the Old Testament. It appears three times in this chapter, and nowhere else in the Pentateuch. It is always in the plural number. The root does not appear in Biblical Hebrew. It perhaps means “to live well,” intransitively (Gesenius, Roedig.), “to nourish,” transitively (Furst). The teraphim were symbols or representatives of the Deity, as Laban calls them his gods. They seem to have been busts (προτομαί _protomai_, Aquila) of the human form, sometimes as large as life 1 Samuel 19:13. Those of full size were probably of wood; the smaller ones may have been of metal. In two passages...

EXPOSITION GENESIS 31:22, GENESIS 31:23 AND IT WAS TOLD LABAN ON THE THIRD DAY—_i_._e_. the third after Jacob's departure, the distance between the two sheep-stations being a three days' journey (_vide_ Genesis 30:36)—THAT JACOB WAS FLED. AND HE TOOK HIS BRETHREN—_i_._e_._ _his kinsmen, or nearest relations (cf. Genesis 13:8; Genesis 29:15)—WITH HIM, AND PURSUED AFTER HIM (Jacob) s

AND GOD CAME TO LABAN THE SYRIAN IN A DREAM BY NIGHT,.... It is probable that Laban came to Mount Gilead late in the evening, and so had no sight of, or conversation with Jacob until the morning; and that night God came to him, and in a dream advised him as follows: or it may be rendered, "and God had come", c. f in one of the nights in which he had lain upon the road; though the former seems best to agree with Genesis 31:29; the Targum of Jonathan has it, an angel came; and the Jews g say it was Michael; by whom, if they understand the uncreated Angel, the Son of God, it is right: AND SAID UNTO HIM, TAKE HEED THAT THOU SPEAK NOT TO, JACOB EITHER GOOD OR BAD; not that he should keep an entire silence, and enter into no discourse with him on any account, but that he should say nothing to him about his return to Haran again; for it was the will of God he shoul

CHAPTER 31 JACOB'S SERVITUDE ENDED AND FLIGHT FROM LABAN _ 1. Laban's behavior and God's commandment (Genesis 31:1)_ 2. The dream vision to return to the land (Genesis 31:11) 3. Jacob's flight (Genesis 31:17) 4. Laban warned (Genesis 31:22) 5. Laban's accusation (Genesis 31:25) 6. Jacob's answer (Genesis 31:31) 7. The covenant between Jacob and Laban ...

GENESIS 31:22 TO GENESIS 32:2. AFTER MUTUAL RECRIMINATIONS, JACOB AND LABAN MAKE A COVENANT TO REFRAIN FROM AGGRESSION ON EACH OTHER'S TERRITORIES. The analysis is uncertain; Gunkel assigns Genesis 31:22; Genesis 31:26; Genesis 31:28_ a_ (to Laban), Genesis 31:32; Genesis 31:36_ b_,...

GOOD OR BAD. Hebrew from good to bad....

The Pursuit of Laban, &c. 23. _his brethren_ i.e. the men of his kindred and clan, as in Genesis 31:25_; Genesis 31:32_. Jacob is similarly attended; cf. Genesis 31:37_; Genesis 31:46; Genesis 31:54_, Genesis 24:60. _seven days" journey_ The distance from Haran to the land of Gilead for a company with flocks and herds would require a longer time. It is computed to be over 300 miles in a straight line. But we do not need to be ve