Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives on the camels,
World English Bible
This verse is examined in more than one Scripture Analysis section. Each lens is shown on its own terms, in the section's own words; GEBible reaches no verdict of its own.
Show this verse in
Show this verse in
Showing
WEB World English Bible Public Domain ✓
Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives on the camels,
World English Bible
Historical claims about the natural world, weighed against the scientific record.
The historical record: Genesis depicts the patriarchs using domesticated camels around 2000 BCE, more than a thousand years before that archaeological horizon. · 2 documented · 1 debated
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
This one is a three-way tangle. The Hebrew Bible narrates polygamy without condemnation across patriarchs, judges, and kings — Abraham, Jacob, Gideon, David, Solomon, Rehoboam all pile up wives.
Critical scholarship: Leans toward reconciliation.
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
Each section sets the viewpoints side by side; you weigh the evidence. Here, "critical scholarship" means academic study, not a value judgment. How this is built →
Within each section, grouped by shared field or question type — not a cross-section comparison.
This citation refers to this GEBible page — the verse and the analysis gathered here. To cite the underlying scholarship, cite those sources directly.
"Genesis 31:17 — Scripture Analysis" GEBible, https://gebible.app/analysis/verse/genesis/31/17?version=WEB (retrieved 27 August 2026).