The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” Then Jacob swore by the fear of his father, Isaac.
Parallel Translations
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The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” Then Jacob swore by the fear of his father, Isaac.
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The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge betwixt us. And Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac.
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The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge betwixt us.' And Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac.
Cross-references (14)
Passages linked to Genesis 31:53 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Genesis 31:42 Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night.”
- Genesis 16:5 Sarai said to Abram, “This wrong is your fault. I gave my servant into your bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, she despised me. May Yahweh judge between me and you.”
- Genesis 11:24-29 Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and became the father of Terah. Nahor lived one hundred nineteen years after he became the father of Terah, and became the father of more sons and daughters. Terah lived seventy years, and became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Now this is the history of the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran became the father of Lot. Haran died in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldees, while his father Terah was still alive. Abram and Nahor married wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, who was also the father of Iscah.
- Exodus 3:6 Moreover he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.
- Joshua 24:2 Joshua said to all the people, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘Your fathers lived of old time beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor. They served other gods.
- Genesis 11:31 Terah took Abram his son, Lot the son of Haran, his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife. They went from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan. They came to Haran and lived there.
- Genesis 14:22 Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted up my hand to Yahweh, God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth,
- Genesis 17:7 I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your offspring after you.
- Genesis 22:20-24 After these things, Abraham was told, “Behold, Milcah, she also has borne children to your brother Nahor: Uz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram, Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.
- Genesis 24:3-4 I will make you swear by Yahweh, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live. But you shall go to my country, and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac.”
- Genesis 26:28-31 They said, “We saw plainly that Yahweh was with you. We said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, even between us and you, and let’s make a covenant with you, that you will do us no harm, as we have not touched you, and as we have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace.’ You are now the blessed of Yahweh.” He made them a feast, and they ate and drank. They rose up some time in the morning, and swore an oath to one another. Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
- Genesis 28:13 Behold, Yahweh stood above it, and said, “I am Yahweh, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. I will give the land you lie on to you and to your offspring.
- Deuteronomy 6:13 You shall fear Yahweh your God; and you shall serve him, and shall swear by his name.
- Genesis 21:23-24 Now, therefore, swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son’s son. But according to the kindness that I have done to you, you shall do to me, and to the land in which you have lived as a foreigner.” Abraham said, “I will swear.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (8 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 53. The God of Abraham. It is indeed rightly…
53. The God of Abraham. It is indeed rightly and properly done, that Laban should adjure Jacob by the name of God. For this is the confirmation of covenants; to appeal to God on both sides, that he may not suffer perfidy to pass unpunished. But he sinfully blends idols with the true God, between whom there is nothing in common. Thus, truly, men involved in superstitions, are accustomed to confound promiscuously sacred things with profane, and the figments of men with the true God. He is compelled to give some honor to the God of Abraham, yet he lies plunged in his own idolatrous pollution; and, that his religion may not appear the worse, he gives it the color of antiquity. For in calling him the God of his father, he boasts that this God was handed down to him from his ancestors. Meanwhile Jacob does not swear superstitiously. For Moses expressly declares, that he sware only by “the fear of Isaac;” whence we learn that he did not assent to the preposterous form of oath dictated by his father-in-law; no too many do, who, in order to gain the favor of the wicked, pretend to be of the same religion with them. But when once the only God is made known to us, we wickedly suppress his truth, unless by its light all the clouds of error are dispersed.
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.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Behold, how the idolaters mingle the true God with…
Behold, how the idolaters mingle the true God with their feigned gods.
Meaning, by the true God whom Isaac worshipped.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Gen 31:53 The God of Abraham, and the God…
Gen 31:53 The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge betwixt us. And Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac.
Ver. 53. And Jacob swear by the Fear of his father.] The Chaldee Paraphrast sometimes useth the word fear, or terror, for God, for the reason above given. {Gen 31:42} Hence Jacob, coming from Syria, and being to swear to a Syrian, swears here by "the Fear of his father Isaac." Where note, that he riseth up no higher than his father, whereas Laban, the idolater, pretends antiquity, appeals to the gods of Abraham, of Nahor, and of their father Terah, who served strange gods. {Jos 24:2} Papists boast much of antiquity, as once the Gibeonites did of old shoes and mouldy bread. A gentleman being importuned by a Popish questionist, to tell where our religion was before Luther; answered, That our religion was always in the Bible, where your religion never was. Mine antiquity is Jesus Christ, saith Ignatius, and we with him. {a}
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{a} Eμοι αρχεια εστιν Iησους ο Cριστος - Ignat.
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 The God of Nahor, the God of their father.…
The God of Nahor, the God of their father. He joins idols with the true God, and secretly chargeth the religion of Jacob and Abraham with novelty, and prefers his own as the most ancient religion. See Jos 24:2. Whence we may learn that antiquity of itself is no certain argument of the true church or religion.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 53. The God of their father] As Laban…
Verse 53. The God of their father] As Laban certainly speaks of the true God here, with what propriety can he say that this God was the God of Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor? It is certain that Terah was an idolater; of this we have the most positive proof, Jos 24:2. Because the clause is not in the Septuagint, and is besides wanting in some MSS., Dr. Kennicott considers it an interpolation. But there is no need of having recourse to this expedient if we adopt the reading אביכם abichem, YOUR father, for אביהם abihem, THEIR father, which is supported by several of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., and is precisely the same form made use of by Laban, Ge 31:29, when addressing Jacob, and appears to me to be used here in the same way; for he there most manifestly uses the plural pronoun, when speaking only to Jacob himself. It is therefore to be considered as a form of speech peculiar to Laban; at least we have two instances of his use of it in this chapter.
Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac.] See Clarke on Ge 31:42.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain God of Nachor. Hebrew uses Elohim, which is often…
God of Nachor. Hebrew uses Elohim, which is often applied to idols, such as Nachor worshipped along with the true God. (Calmet) --- Jacob swears by the one only God, whom his father revered. (Menochius) --- The God of their father, is omitted in the Septuagint and is deemed an interpolation by Kennicott. The Samaritan reads again the God of Abraham. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 53. The God of Abraham … Nahor] The verb…
53. The God of Abraham … Nahor] The verb “judge” is in the plural. See note on Gen_20:13 for the rare use of the plural verb with “Elohim.” Laban speaks of the God of Abraham, i.e. of the Hebrews in Canaan, and of the God of Nahor, i.e. of the Hebrews in Haran, and as a Syrian may possibly have regarded them as distinct deities. The plural with Elohim is found in Gen_20:13, Gen_35:7.
the God of their father] R.V. marg. gods. These words are not found in the LXX and some Hebrew MSS., and are probably a gloss. If they are omitted, the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor were treated in the original form of the narrative as separate, not identical, deities.
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the Fear of his father Isaac] See note on Gen_31:42.
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 (53) Judge.—The verb is plural, “be he judges,” and…
(53) Judge.—The verb is plural, “be he judges,” and as Laban thus joins the name Elohim with a verb plural, it seems as if he regarded Abraham’s Elohim as different from the Elohim of Nahor. We ought, therefore, to translate the gods of their father. Apparently, he thought that Abraham took one of Terah’s Elohim, and Nahor another. His views were thus polytheistic and so, generally, the ancients regarded the gods as local beings, with powers limited to certain districts. Jacob swears by the one Being who was the sole object of Isaac’s worship. (See Note on Gen_20:13.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.