25
¶ Then Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob
had pitched his tent in the mount: and Laban with his brethren pitched in the
mount of Gilead. 26 And Laban said to
Jacob, What hast thou done, that thou hast stolen away unawares to me, and
carried away my daughters, as captives taken with the sword? 27 Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and
steal away from me; and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away
with mirth, and with songs, with tabret, and with harp? 28 And hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and
my daughters? thou hast now done foolishly in so doing. 29 It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt:
but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed
that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad. 30 And now, though thou wouldest needs be gone,
because thou sore longedst after thy father’s house, yet wherefore hast thou
stolen my gods? 31 And Jacob answered
and said to Laban, Because I was afraid: for I said, Peradventure thou wouldest
take by force thy daughters from me. 32
With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let him not live: before our
brethren discern thou what is thine with me, and take it to thee. For Jacob
knew not that Rachel had stolen them. 33
And Laban went into Jacob’s tent, and into Leah’s tent, and into the two
maidservants’ tents; but he found them not. Then went he out of Leah’s tent,
and entered into Rachel’s tent. 34 Now
Rachel had taken the images, and put them in the camel’s furniture, and sat
upon them. And Laban searched all the tent, but found them not. 35 And she said to her father, Let it not
displease my lord that I cannot rise up before thee; for the custom of women is
upon me. And he searched, but found not the images.
Having caught up with Jacob, Laban confronts him.
Laban accuses Jacob of running off with HIS daughters like captives taken in
war. He makes it sound like he would have been okay with their leaving and
would have thrown them a party. A tabret
is a musical instrument. See the context? The same word is translated in some
places as a timbrel. This is like a
tambourine today. Jacob has denied Laban the privilege of kissing his children
and grandchildren goodbye, Laban complains. Then, while he admits that he has
the power to hurt Jacob, presumably to kill him, take his goods, and return his
daughters and grandchildren to his control, that the God of Jacob’s father warned
him not to do so, as we have seen.
In verse 30, Laban brings up the accusation that Jacob
has stolen his household gods, the images
that Rachel had stolen as per verse 19. These gods, these idols, as I noted
before, were particular to Laban’s family worship and their theft was a great
wrong done to him, in the context of the culture of the ancient world. This is
how degenerate the ancient world had become since the time of Noah, worship
perhaps brought with his wife or children from the pre-Flood world, perhaps.
Jacob replies, justifying his actions based on his
fear of Laban, and acknowledging the severity of the crime of stealing Laban’s
household gods and not knowing that it was Rachel who stole them, and promises
that whomever stole them will die.
He tells Laban that anything he finds that belongs to
him, to take it. Laban does a search but cannot find the images. Rachel has
hidden them in the equipment on which she sits, which belongs on her camel. She
is sitting on that in the tent. She makes the excuse that she cannot get up
because she is in her monthly period. This excuse is accepted and, of course,
no one would have suspected that one of Laban’s daughters stole the family
images. A woman in the ancient world, when married, left her family worship and
that would mean the family images, as well. She was to embrace fully the
religion of her husband’s family although she had no part in its inheritance
except through her eldest son. Rachel, like many Christians today, cannot let
go of the idols in which they place their trust.
No comments:
Post a Comment