Genesis 31:34

34 Now Rachel had taken the divine images and put them into the camel's saddlebag and sat on them. Laban felt around in the whole tent but couldn't find them.

Genesis 31:34 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 31:34

Now Rachel had taken the images
Hearing her father inquire about them, and her husband having given leave to search for them, and to put to death whoever should be found to have them, took them from the place where she had before laid them: and put them into the camel's furniture;
perhaps the camel's furniture she rode on, and therefore it was in her tent, which some understand of the saddle on which she rode; rather, it seems to be the saddle cloth or housing, in which she might wrap the images and put them under her clothes; though some interpret it of the straw or litter of the camel, which is not so probable: and sat upon them;
the images, which, if she had the veneration for, as some suggest, she would never have used in such a manner: and Laban searched all the tent, but found [them] not;
excepting the place where Rachel sat; but Aben Ezra thinks she was not in the tent, but in some place without it, and if so, there needs no exception.

Genesis 31:34 In-Context

32 Whomever you find with your divine images won't live. Identify whatever I have that is yours, in front of your brothers, and take it." Jacob didn't know that Rachel had stolen them.
33 Laban went into Jacob's tent, Leah's tent, and her two servants' tent and didn't find them. So he left Leah's tent and went into Rachel's.
34 Now Rachel had taken the divine images and put them into the camel's saddlebag and sat on them. Laban felt around in the whole tent but couldn't find them.
35 Rachel said to her father, "Sir, don't be angry with me because I can't get up for you; I'm having my period." He searched but couldn't find the divine images.
36 Jacob was angry and complained to Laban, "What have I done wrong and what's my crime that you've tracked me down like this?
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