Now, you want to be gone, because you greatly longed for your father’s house, but why have you stolen my gods?”
Parallel Translations
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Now, you want to be gone, because you greatly longed for your father’s house, but why have you stolen my gods?”
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And now, though thou wouldest needs be gone, because thou sore longedst after thy father’s house, yet wherefore hast thou stolen my gods?
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And now that thou art surely gone, because thou sore longest after thy father's house, wherefore hast thou stolen my gods?'
Cross-references (11)
Passages linked to Genesis 31:30 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Jeremiah 10:11 “You shall say this to them: ‘The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.’ ”
- Genesis 31:19 Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep; and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father’s.
- Judges 18:24 He said, “You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and have gone away! What more do I have? How can you ask me, ‘What ails you?’ ”
- Exodus 12:12 For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. I am Yahweh.
- Numbers 33:4 while the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whom Yahweh had struck among them. Yahweh also executed judgments on their gods.
- Judges 6:31 Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? He who will contend for him, let him be put to death by morning! If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because someone has broken down his altar!”
- 1 Samuel 5:2-6 The Philistines took God’s ark, and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon. When the people of Ashdod arose early on the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before Yahweh’s ark. They took Dagon and set him in his place again. When they arose early on the following morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before Yahweh’s ark; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off on the threshold. Only Dagon’s torso was intact. Therefore neither the priests of Dagon nor any who come into Dagon’s house step on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day. But Yahweh’s hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod, and he destroyed them and struck them with tumors, even Ashdod and its borders.
- 2 Samuel 5:21 They left their images there; and David and his men took them away.
- Isaiah 37:19 and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them.
- Isaiah 46:1-2 Bel bows down. Nebo stoops. Their idols are carried by animals, and on the livestock. The things that you carried around are heavy loads, a burden for the weary. They stoop and they bow down together. They could not deliver the burden, but they have gone into captivity.
- Jeremiah 43:12 I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt. He will burn them, and carry them away captive. He will array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd puts on his garment; and he will go out from there in peace.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (8 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 30. Wherefore hast thou stolen my gods? The second…
30. Wherefore hast thou stolen my gods? The second head of accusation which is alleged against Jacob is, that he had not departed through love to his country, nor for any just and probable cause; but that, in fact, he was implicated in an act of robbery. Heavy and disgraceful charge, of which Jacob was far from being guilty! But we learn hence, that no one can live so innocently in the world, but he must sometimes bear undeserved reproach and marks of infamy. Whenever this may happen to us, let that precious promise sustain us, that the Lord, in his own time, will bring forth our innocence as the morning light. (Psalm 37:6.) For by this artifice Satan attempts to seduce us from the practice of well-doing, when, without any fault of ours, we are traduced by false calumnies. And since the world is ungrateful, it often makes the very worst return for acts of kindness. Some, indeed, are found, who, with heroic magnanimity, despise unfavourable reports, because they esteem the testimony of a good conscience more highly than depraved popular opinion. But it behoves the faithful to look to God, that their conscience may never fail them. We see that Laban calls his gods תרפים(teraphim,) not because he thought the Deity was enclosed within them; but because he worshipped these images in honor of the gods. Or rather, because, when he was about to pay homage to God, he turned himself to those images. At this day, by the sole difference of a word, the Papists think they skilfully effect their escape, because they do not attribute to idols the name of gods. But the subterfuge is frivolous, since in reality they are altogether alike; for they pour forth before pictures or statues whatever honor they acknowledge to be due to the one God. To the ancient idolaters the pretext was not wanting, that by a metonymy they styled those images gods, which were formed for the sake of representing God.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Gen 31:30 And now, [though] thou wouldest needs be…
Gen 31:30 And now, [though] thou wouldest needs be gone, because thou sore longedst after thy father’s house, [yet] wherefore hast thou stolen my gods?
Ver. 30. Why hast thou stolen my gods?] Goodly gods that could not save themselves from the thief! See Jer 10:5; Jer 10:11; Jer 10:15. But Jacob, a just man, is here made a thief of. The best must look to be blasted; "as deceivers, and yet true". {2Co 6:8} Wicked men’s "throats are open sepulchres," {Psa 5:9} wherein the good names of God’s innocent ones too oft lie buried: their breath, as fire, shall devour them, saith the prophet. {Isa 33:11} Joseph suffered as a dishonest person; Elisha, as a troubler of the state; Jeremiah, as a traitor; Luther, as the trumpet of rebellion. {a} Nay, in one of his Epistles to Spalatinus, Prorsus Satan est Lutherus, saith he; sed Christus vivit et regnat, Amen. He adds his Amen to it; so little was he moved at it. He had learned, and so must we, to pass through "good and evil report," with Paul. {2Co 6:8} Epiphanius saith, somewhere, that the Jews give out that St Paul turned Christian for spite, because he could not obtain the high priest’s daughter in marriage. We are made "the filth of the world, the sweepings of all things," {περιψηματα; 1Co 4:13} saith St Paul of himself and his companions; who yet were the very "glory of Jesus Christ". {2Co 8:23} Phagius reports the story of an Egyptian who said, The Christians were a company of most filthy lecherous people. And for the keeping of the Sabbath, he saith, they had a disease upon them, and were therefore fain to rest the seventh day.
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{a} Tuba rebellionis.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Laban could not be so senseless as to take…
Laban could not be so senseless as to take those for true gods which could be stolen away; but he called them gods, because they were the means or representations whereby he worshipped his gods.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let him not…
With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let him not live,.... This is the answer to his last question, as what goes before is to his first: Jacob knew nothing of their being taken away by any, and thought himself safe in saying what he did, being confident that no one with him could ever take them; but it was too rashly spoken by him, giving leave to Laban to put to death the person with whom they should be found, or imprecating death on him by the hand of God; "may he not live", but die, die immediately or before his time, as the Targum of Jonathan: hence the Jewish writers (m) observe, that Rachel died in giving birth in consequence of this imprecation, but without any foundation:
before our brethren discern thou what is thine with me, and take it to thee: not only his gods, but any of his goods or cattle, whatsoever he could find in his tents, or in his flocks, that were his property, he was welcome to take; and this he declared before the men that Laban brought with him, whom he also calls his brethren, being his kinsfolks and neighbours; and these he appeals to as witnesses of his honesty, integrity, and fair dealing; being conscious to himself that he had took nothing but what was his own:
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for Jacob knew not that Rachel had stolen them; the images or gods; or he would have been more careful of his expression, in love and tenderness to his most beloved wife.
(m) Jarchi in loc. Pirke Eliezer, c. 36.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Wherefore hast thou stolen my gods? - Foolish man!…
Wherefore hast thou stolen my gods? - Foolish man! to call those his gods that could be stolen! Could he expect protection from them that could neither resist nor discover their invaders? Happy are they who have the Lord for their God. Enemies may steal our goods, but not our God.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Gen 31:30. Wherefore hast thou stolen my gods? —…
Gen 31:30. Wherefore hast thou stolen my gods? — Foolish man! to call those his gods that could be stolen! Could he expect protection from them that could neither resist nor discover their invaders? Happy are they who have the Lord for their God. Enemies may steal our goods, but not our God.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 30. My gods — This theft he finally charges…
30. My gods — This theft he finally charges as the most aggravating thing of all.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 30. though thou wouldest needs be gone] Lit. “thou…
30. though thou wouldest needs be gone] Lit. “thou art actually gone.”
my gods] “My Elohim, or god,” here in the sense of the figures of the household gods, as in Jdg_18:24, and possibly in Exo_21:6; Exo_22:7-8; Exo_32:1.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.