translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: GEN

label: NET study note

text: The Hebrew word translated “gotten rich” ( כָּבוֹד , cavod ) has the basic idea of “weight.” If one is heavy with possessions, then that one is wealthy ( 13:2 ). Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph all became wealthy when they left the promised land. Jacob’s wealth foreshadows what will happen to Israel when they leave the land of Egypt ( Exod 12:35-38 ).


text: I will be with you . Though Laban was no longer “with him,” the Lord promised to be.


text: You anointed the sacred stone . In Gen 28:18 the text simply reported that Jacob poured oil on top of the stone. Now that pouring is interpreted by the Lord as an anointing. Jacob had consecrated the place.


text: And made a vow to me . The second clause reminds Jacob of the vow he made to the Lord when he anointed the stone ( Gen 28:20-22 ). God is now going to take him back to the land, and so he will have to fulfill his vow.


text: Yet why did you steal my gods? This last sentence is dropped into the speech rather suddenly. See C. Mabee, “Jacob and Laban: The Structure of Judicial Proceedings,” VT 30 (1980): 192-207, and G. W. Coats, “Self-Abasement and Insult Formulas,” JBL 91 (1972): 90-92.


text: The Hebrew word for “pile” is גַּל ( gal ), which sounds like the name “Galeed” ( גַּלְעֵד , gal ’ ed ). See v. 48 .


text: Jegar Sahadutha . Laban the Aramean gave the place an Aramaic name which means “witness pile” or “the pile is a witness.”


text: Galeed also means “witness pile” or “the pile is a witness,” but this name is Canaanite or Western Semitic and closer to later Hebrew. Jacob, though certainly capable of speaking Aramaic, here prefers to use the western dialect.


text: The name Mizpah ( מִצְפָּה , mitspah ), which means “watchpost,” sounds like the verb translated “may he watch” ( יִצֶף , yitsef ). Neither Laban nor Jacob felt safe with each other, and so they agreed to go their separate ways, trusting the Lord to keep watch at the border. Jacob did not need this treaty, but Laban, perhaps because he had lost his household gods, felt he did.


text: Beginning with 31:55 , the verse numbers in the English Bible through 32:32 differ by one from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text ( BHS ), with 31:55 ET = 32:1 HT, 32:1 ET = 32:2 HT, etc., through 32:32 ET = 32:33 HT. From 33:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.