Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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18 and he carried away all his cattle, and all his goods which he had
gotten, the cattle of his getting, which he had gotten in Padan- aram, for to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan.
19 And Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the
images that were her father’s.
Here is, Jacob's flight from Laban. We may suppose he had been long considering of it, and casting about in his mind respecting it; but when now, at last, God had given him positive orders to go, he made no delay, nor was he disobedient to the heavenly vision. The first opportunity that offered itself he laid hold of, when Laban was shearing his sheep (Ge 31:19), that part of his flock which was in the hands of his sons three days' journey off. Now,
1. It is certain that it was lawful for Jacob to leave his service suddenly, without giving a quarter's warning. It was not only justified by the particular instructions God gave him, but warranted by the fundamental law of self-preservation, which directs us, when we are in danger, to shift for our own safety, as far as we can do it without wronging our consciences.
2. It was his prudence to steal away unawares to Laban, lest, if Laban had known, he should have hindered him or plundered him.
3. It was honestly done to take no more than his own with him, the cattle of his getting, Ge 31:18. He took what Providence gave him, and was content with that, and would not take the repair of his damages into his own hands. Yet Rachel was not so honest as her husband; she stole her father's images (Ge 31:19) and carried them away with her. The Hebrew calls them teraphim. Some think they were only little representations of the ancestors of the family, in statues or pictures, which Rachel had a particular fondness for, and was desirous to have with her, now that she was going into another country. It should rather seem that they were images for a religious use, penates, household-gods, either worshipped or consulted as oracles; and