Genesis 31:14

Gen 31:14 And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, [Is there] yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house?

Ver. 14. Is there yet any portion,] q.d., We have all we are like to have. In setting forth their father’s ill usage of them, they offend not in some respect - viz., in that they speak the truth. Only herein they were to blame, that they speak the truth with more passion, and with less respect to their father than was fit.

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.

Gen_31:14

Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our fathers house

Inheritance for us

So asked Rachel and Leah of Jacob.

And we see how suggestive these historical touches in Old Testament story are, when vitalized by the spirit of the gospel. We think at once of the Saviour, who is the open door to the great Fathers house. There are multitudes who have lost their portions, and some are very sad and weary. Prodigal meets prodigal, and recounts the story of the painful way. Ruins always touch us with sadness; and human hearts get ruinous in so much less time than stone walls do!

I. THE CRY IS PERSONAL. Men do not ask, Is there hope for the lost--the profligate, the vile? but, Is there hope for me? The soldier lying wounded in the battle-field thinks of the home harvest-fields far away, and the soul amid its wounds and woes whispers, I will arise and go to my Father. There is a home-returning way for me!

II. THE CRY IS ANXIOUS. Is there yet? Once the soul was ready to surmise there might be! But is there now? when sin has consolidated into habit, when the door has been shut so often in the marred face of the Man of Sorrows! My sin is ever before me, is the great cry of conscience. We sympathize with human anxiety. We watch with moistened eyes the widow who asks, Is there yet a table in the wilderness for me and my little ones? In reply to the yet, let us answer, Though thy sins be as scarlet, He shall make them white as wool; He shall blot out thy transgressions as a cloud, and thine iniquities as a thick cloud; He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him.

III. THE CRY IS CHILDLIKE. My Fathers house! For we are, in one sense, all of us Gods offspring. True, we have lost likeness to Him and peace with Him; and only by faith can we become the spiritual sons of God. But there is memory of the lost estate in every heart. Man was made for God, and He is the only home of the soul. God gave us our earthly homes and relationships, to be parables of that great central truth. No word thrills us like home; no picture on Academy walls touches us like Proviss interiors. And this is natural. For let home be dark or deserted, let the dove of peace leave that, let those sweet sanctities be desecrated, and no outside joys, no travels, no pursuits can make compensation! And to know the value of a home, you must lose one.

IV. THE CRY IS ANSWERED. Yes! in many parables, in many promises, in deeds of love and sacrifice. Faith leads all along the way, from justification to glory. But it were wrong to conceive of the inheritance as all future. Heaven does begin on earth, because the heavenly principles, purposes, and pleasures may be ours now. CONCLUSION. We close with the remembrance that there is welcome for us, room for us, reward for us. Have you ever stood outside a flower-show in the summer-time, and seen carriage after carriage drive up, with rustling silks and dazzling liveries and crested panels, pride and pomp entering in; and then caught the wistful face of a poor child at the gate, with another child in her arms, shut out from seeing Gods beautiful flowers? The poor, the blind, the maim, the halt, the prodigals of every type are welcome. What, does He want me? does He wait for me? has He asked for me? (W. M. Statham, M. A.)

A worldly-spirited reply

We have seen some things in the history of these women which have induced us to hope well of them, notwithstanding their many failings; but though in this case it was their duty to comply with the desire of their husband, and to own the hand of God in what had taken place between their father and him; yet there is something in their manner of expressing themselves that looks more like the spirit of the world, than the spirit which is of God. A right spirit would have taught them to remember that Laban, whatever was his conduct, was still their father. They might have felt it impossible to vindicate him; but they should not have expatiated on his faults in such a manner as to take pleasure in exposing them. Such conduct was but too much like that of Ham towards his father. And as to their acknowledging the hand of God in giving their fathers riches to their husband, this is no more than is often seen in the most selfish characters, who can easily admire the Divine providence when it goes in their favour. The ease, however, with which all men can discern what is just and equitable towards themselves, renders the love of ourselves a proper standard for the love of others, and will sooner or later stop the mouth of every sinner. Even those who have no written revelation have this Divine law engraven on their consciences: they can judge with the nicest accuracy what is justice to them, and therefore cannot plead ignorance of what is justice from them to others. (A. Fuller.)

Lessons

1. It becometh wives, especially in good families, to listen unto advice of husbands from God.

2. God can make them that disagree in a family sweetly to concur to do His work.

3. It is unnatural for children to find no portions in their fathers house, when they abound.

4. Such brands of cruelty are left upon unnatural fathers by the Spirit (Gen_31:14).

5. It is cruel for fathers to use their children as slaves and make merchandize of them.

6. It is savage for parents to consume the substance of children for whom they should provide.

7. Such unnatural dealings, in Gods justice, alienate hearts of children from parents (Gen_31:15).

8. It is fit to consider how God recompenseth cruelties of unnatural parents in depriving them of their children.

9. What God giveth to parents and children may be justly owned by them.

10. Good women will be free and helpful to their husbands to go and do whatever is the will of God unto them (Gen_31:16). (G. Hughes, B. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gen 31:14-15. Is there any portion — Any hope of benefit; for us in our father’s house? — They both agree in acknowledging that his behaviour had been extremely ungenerous and sordid, even to them, his own children. Are we not counted of him strangers? — Dealt with as strangers, rather than children: for he hath sold us — To thee for fourteen years’ service. And hath quite devoured (wholly converted to his own use) our money — That which in equity was due to us for our portions, and for our husband’s service. Whereas Jacob looked upon the wealth which God had transferred from Laban to him as his wages, they look upon it as their portions; so that, both ways, God forced Laban to pay his debts, both to his servant and to his daughters.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

31:14-16 The women responded immediately that they would go with Jacob because God had blessed him. They were very willing to leave Laban, who had squandered their wealth (the property that would have provided for them). They knew that what God had given to Jacob would also be theirs.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Rachel and Leah answered--Having heard his views, they expressed their entire approval; and from grievances of their own, they were fully as desirous of a separation as himself. They display not only conjugal affection, but piety in following the course described--"whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do" [Gen 31:16]. "Those that are really their husbands' helpmeets will never be their hindrances in doing that to which God calls them" [HENRY].

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

14. And Rachel and Leah answered. Here we perceive that to be fulfilled which Paul teaches, that all things work together for good to the children of God. (Romans 8:28.) For since the wives of Jacob had been unjustly treated by their father, they so far act in opposition to the natural tenderness of their sex, that at the desire of their husband, they become willing to follow him into a distant and unknown region. Therefore, if Jacob is compelled to take many and very bitter draughts of grief, he is now cheered by the most satisfying compensation, that his wives are not separated from him by their attachment to their father’s house: but rather, being overcome by the irksome nature of their sufferings, they earnestly undertake to join him in his flight. “There is nothing,” they say, “which should cause us to remain with our father; for daughters adhere to their fathers, because they are esteemed members of his family; but what a cruel rejection is this, not only that he has passed us off without dowry, but that he has set us to sale, and has devoured the price for which he sold us?” By the word money (Genesis 31:15), I understand the price of sale. For they complain that, at least, they had not received, instead of dowry, the profit which had been unjustly extorted from their husband, but this gain also had been unjustly suppressed by their covetous father. Therefore the particle גם(gam) is inserted, which is used for the purpose of amplification among the Hebrews. For this increased not a little the meanness of Laban, that, as an insatiable whirlpool, he had absorbed the gain acquired by this most dishonorable traffic. And it is to be noted, that they were then devoted to their husband, and were therefore free to depart from their father; especially since they knew that the hand of God was stretched out to them. There is also no doubt, seeing they were persuaded that Jacob was a faithful prophet of God, but that they freely embraced the heavenly oracle from his mouth; for at the close of their reply, they show that they did not so much yield to his wish as to the command of 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.

14. Is there yet] i.e. “we have no reason any longer to expect.” Leah and Rachel had both been alienated from their father by his disregard of their feelings and by his mean grasping policy.

portion or inheritance] A proverbial phrase: see 2Sa_20:1; 1Ki_12:16.

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.

Are we not accounted of him strangers?.... He had not treated them as children, nor even as freeborn persons; but as if they were foreigners that he had taken in war, or bought of others; or at least, that they were born bondmaids in his house, and so had a right to sell them as he had:

for he hath sold us; he had sold them to Jacob for fourteen years' service, as if they had been his slaves, instead of giving dowries with them as his children:

and hath quite devoured also our money; that which he got by the servitude of Jacob, instead of giving it to them as their portion; he spent it on himself and his sons, and there was nothing left for them.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

We can expect no further benefit from him, but deceit, and oppression, and injury, and therefore are willing to leave him. This was the fruit of his unnatural and unworthy carriage to them, that it did eat out their natural affection to him.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

And Rachel and Leah (vide on ver. 4) answered and said unto him (Kalisch overdoes his attempt to blacken Jacob"s character and whitewash Laban"s when he says that Rachel and Leah were so entirely under their husband s influence that they spoke about their father with severity and boldness bordering on disrespect." It rather seems to speak badly for Laban that his daughters eventually rose in protest against his heartless cruelty and insatiable greed), Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father"s house? The interrogative particle indicates a spirited inquiry, to which a negative response is anticipated cf. Gen_30:2; vide Ewald, "Hebrews Synt.," Kalisch obviously regards it as preposterous that Rachel and Leah should have expected anything, since "married daughters in the East never had any such claim where there were sons." But Laban had not treated Jacob"s wives even as daughters. Are we not counted of him strangers? for he hath sold us (however much they loved Jacob they could not but resent the mercenary meanness of Laban, by which they, the free-born daughters of a chieftain, had been sold as common serfs), and hath quits devoured also our money literally, and hath eaten up, yes, even eating up, our money, the inf. abs., lwOa; after the finite verb, expressing the continuance (Keil) and intensity (Kalisch) of the action (vide Ewald, "Hebrews Synt.," For yKi is by some interpreters rendered but (Jarchi), so that (Keil), indeed (Kalisch), though there is no sufficient reason for departing from the usual meaning "for" (Rosenmall the riches which God hath taken from our father, thus Rachel and Leah also recognize the hand of God (Elohim) in Jacob"s unusual prosperitythat is ours, and our children"s (Rachel and Leah mean to say that what Jacob had acquired by his six years of service with their father was no more than would have naturally belonged to him had they obtained their portions at the first): now then, Whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do. It is clear that, equally with himself, they were prepared for breaking off connection with their father Laban.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The two wives naturally agreed with their husband, and declared that they had no longer any part or inheritance in their father's house. For he had not treated them as daughters, but sold them like strangers, i.e., servants. "And he has even constantly eaten our money," i.e., consumed the property brought to him by our service. The inf. abs. אכול after the finite verb expresses the continuation of the act, and is intensified by גם "yes, even." כּי in Gen 31:16 signifies "so that," as in Deu 14:24; Job 10:6.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

Rachel and Leah answered and said to him

This does not mean they talked at the same time. It emphasizes they agreed with each other.

Is there any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house?

Rachel and Leah use a question to emphasize that there is nothing left for their father to give. AT: "There is absolutely nothing left for us to inherit from our father!" (See: Rhetorical Question)

Are we not treated by him as foreigners?

They use a question to show their anger about how their father treats them. This can be stated in active form. AT: "Our father treats us like a foreign women instead of daughters!" (See: Rhetorical Question and Active or Passive)

For he has sold us

This can be made more explicit. AT: "He has sold us for his own gain" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

has also completely devoured our money

Laban completely using up the money that he should have given to his daughters is spoken of as if he were a wild beast that ate the money as if it were food. AT: "he completely used up our money" (See: Metaphor)

are now ours and our children's

"belongs to us and to our children"

Now then

Here "Now" does not mean "at this moment," but is used to draw attention to the important point that follows.

whatever God has said to you, do it

"do all that God has told you"

translationWords

Rachel

Leah

inherit

alien

devour

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

העוד לנו IS THERE YET ANY FOR US? — Why should we prevent you from returning? Can we at all hope to inherit anything belonging to our father together with his sons?

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Do we still have a portion. Why do you think it will be difficult for us to part from our father?

Sforno on the Tanakh — English translation: “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

ותען רחל ולאה, here too the younger sister speaks first, just as in Exodus 10,3 ויאמר משב ואהרן, although Moses was the younger. Seeing that Rachel loved Yaakov as intensely as he loved her, she responded first.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.