Genesis 31:41

41 These twenty years I have been in your house. ¹I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and ²you have changed my wages ten times.

Genesis 31:41 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 31:41

Thus have I been twenty years in thy house
Attended with these difficulties, inconveniencies, and hardships; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters;
Rachel and Leah; first seven years for Rachel; and having Leah imposed upon him instead of her, was obliged to serve seven years more, which he did for her sake; whereas he ought to have given them, and a dowry with them, to one who was heir to the land of Canaan, and not have exacted servitude of him: and six years for thy cattle,
to have as many of them for his hire, as were produced from a flock of white sheep, that were speckled, spotted, or ringstraked, or brown: and thou hast changed my wages ten times; (See Gill on Genesis 31:7);

Genesis 31:41 In-Context

39 What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself. From my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.

40 There I was: by day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes.

41 These twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.

42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night."

43 Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, "The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day for these my daughters or for their children whom they have borne?

Cross References

• 1. Genesis 29:27, 28
• 2. ver. 7