Genesis 31:19

19 Laban had gone to clip the wool from his sheep. While he was gone, Rachel stole the statues of family gods that belonged to her father.

Genesis 31:19 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 31:19

And Laban went to shear his sheep
Which were under the care of his sons, and were three days' distance from Jacob's flocks; this gave Jacob a fair opportunity to depart with his family and substance, since Laban and his sons were at such a distance, and their servants with them also: and Rachel had stolen the images that [were] her father's;
afterwards called gods, which he made use of in an idolatrous and superstitious manner, one way or other: they seem to be a kind of "penates", or household gods; in the Hebrew they are called "teraphim"; and which De Dieu thinks were the same with "seraphim" F26; and were images of angels, consulted on occasion, and placed in the house for the protection of it, and to increase the substance thereof: some take them to be plates of brass describing the hours of the day, a sort of sundials; or were such forms, that at certain times were made to speak, and show things to come: but they rather seem to be images of an human form, as say the Jewish writers, and as seems from ( 1 Samuel 19:13-16 ) ; and which it is supposed were made under certain constellations, and were a sort of talismans, and were consulted as oracles, and in high esteem with the Chaldeans and Syrians, a people given to astrology, and by which they made their divinations; (See Gill on Hosea 3:4) and also (See Gill on Zechariah 10:2); and therefore Rachel took them away, that her father might not consult them, and know which way Jacob fled, as Aben Ezra; but this looks as if she had an opinion of them, and that they had such a power of discovering persons and things that were attributed to them: and indeed some think she took them away from an affection and veneration for them, supposing she should not be able to meet with such in Canaan in Isaac's family; and what is observed in ( Genesis 35:2 ) seems to countenance this; but one would think she had been better instructed by Jacob during his twenty years' conversation with her; and besides, had she been tinctured with such sort of superstition and idolatry, she would never have used them so indecently, as to have sat upon them in the circumstances in which she was, ( Genesis 31:34 Genesis 31:35 ) ; it is more to her credit and character to say with Jarchi, that she did this to take off her father from the idolatrous worship of them, and to convince him that they were no gods; since they could not inform him of the designs of Jacob, and of his flight, nor secure themselves from being carried away by her; unless it can be thought that she took them because of the metal of which they were made, gold or silver, being willing to have something of her father's goods as her portion, which she thought she had a right unto, or in recompence of her husband's service. Dr. Lightfoot F1 thinks she took them for a civil use, to preserve the memory of some of her ancestors, of which these were the pictures, and Laban had idolized; but whether pictures were so early is questionable.


FOOTNOTES:

F26 So Hyde, Hist. Relig. Ver. Pers. c. 20. p. 272.
F1 Works, vol. 1. p. 696.

Genesis 31:19 In-Context

17 Then Jacob put his children and wives on camels.
18 He drove all of his livestock ahead of him. He also took with him everything he had gotten in Paddan Aram. He left to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.
19 Laban had gone to clip the wool from his sheep. While he was gone, Rachel stole the statues of family gods that belonged to her father.
20 And that's not all. Jacob tricked Laban the Aramean. He didn't tell him he was running away.
21 So Jacob ran off with everything he had. He crossed the Euphrates River. And he headed for the hill country of Gilead.
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