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.
Parallel Translations
-
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.
-
Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle: and thou hast changed my wages ten times.
-
These twenty years have I been in thy house: I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy flock; and thou hast changed my wages ten times.
Cross-references (6)
Passages linked to Genesis 31:41 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Genesis 31:7 Your father has deceived me, and changed my wages ten times, but God didn’t allow him to hurt me.
- Genesis 29:18-30 Jacob loved Rachel. He said, “I will serve you seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter.” Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you, than that I should give her to another man. Stay with me.” Jacob served seven years for Rachel. They seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had for her. Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in to her.” Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast. In the evening, he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to Jacob. He went in to her. Laban gave Zilpah his servant to his daughter Leah for a servant. In the morning, behold, it was Leah! He said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Didn’t I serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?” Laban said, “It is not done so in our place, to give the younger before the firstborn. Fulfill the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you will serve with me for seven more years.” Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week. He gave him Rachel his daughter as wife. Laban gave Bilhah, his servant, to his daughter Rachel to be her servant. He went in also to Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him seven more years.
- Genesis 30:33-40 So my righteousness will answer for me hereafter, when you come concerning my hire that is before you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the sheep, that might be with me, will be considered stolen.” Laban said, “Behold, let it be according to your word.” That day, he removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons. He set three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks. Jacob took to himself rods of fresh poplar, almond, and plane tree, peeled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. He set the rods which he had peeled opposite the flocks in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink. They conceived when they came to drink. The flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks produced streaked, speckled, and spotted. Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the black in Laban’s flock. He put his own droves apart, and didn’t put them into Laban’s flock.
- Genesis 31:38 “These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not cast their young, and I haven’t eaten the rams of your flocks.
- 1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was given to me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
- 2 Corinthians 11:26 I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers;
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (6 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Gen 31:41 Thus have I been twenty years in…
Gen 31:41 Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle: and thou hast changed my wages ten times.
Ver. 41. I served thee fourteen years, &c.] If all this, to be son-in-law to Laban; what should not we do, or suffer gladly, to be the sons of God?
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.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And Laban answered and said unto Jacob,.... Not denying…
And Laban answered and said unto Jacob,.... Not denying the truth of what he had said, nor acknowledging any fault he had been guilty of, or asking forgiveness for it, though he seemed to be convicted in his own conscience of it:
these daughters are my daughters: though thy wives, they are my own flesh and blood, and must be dear to me; so pretending strong natural affections for them:
Read full note →
and these children are my children; his grandchildren, for whom also he professed great love and affection:
and these cattle are my cattle; or of my cattle, as the Targum of Jonathan, sprung from them, as indeed they did:
and all that thou seest is mine; all this he observed in a bragging way, that it might be thought that he was generous in not insisting upon having it, but giving all back to Jacob again:
and what can I do this day unto these my daughters, or unto their children which they have born? I cannot find in my heart to do them any hurt, or wrong them of anything, and am therefore willing all should be theirs.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 41. Twenty years] See the remarks at the…
Verse 41. Twenty years] See the remarks at the end. See Clarke on Ge 31:55.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 41. ten times] Cf. Gen_31:7.
41. ten times] Cf. Gen_31:7.
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.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (41) Thus have I been . . . —Heb.,…
(41) Thus have I been . . . —Heb., This for me twenty years in thy house, but taken in connection with the preceding this, in Gen_31:38, the meaning is “During the one twenty years that I was with thee, thy ewes, &c.,” upon which follows “During the other twenty years that were for me in thy house, I served thee, &c.” (See Note on Gen_29:27, and Excursus on the Chronology of Jacob’s Life.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Jacob continues to speak to Laban.
Read full note →
These twenty years
"These last 20 years" (See: Numbers)
fourteen years
"14 years" (See: Numbers)
changed my wages ten times
"changed what he said he would pay me ten times." See how you translated "my wages" in Genesis 31:7.
Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the one Isaac fears, had been with me
Jacob is referring to the same God not to three different gods. AT: "If the God of Abraham and Isaac, my father, had not been with me"
the God of my father
Here the word "father" refers to his parent, Isaac.
the one Isaac fears
Here the word "fears" refers to the "fear of Yahweh," which means to deeply respect him and show that respect by obeying him.
empty-handed
This stands for having nothing. AT: "with absolutely nothing" (See: Metonymy)
God has seen my oppression and how hard I worked
The abstract noun "oppression" can be stated as "oppressed." AT: "God has seen how hard I worked and how you oppressed me" (See: Abstract Nouns)
translationWords
year
household
flocks
God
ancestor
Abraham
Isaac
fear
oppress
rebuke
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.