Genesis 31:27

Gen 31:27 Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me; and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth, and with songs, with tabret, and with harp?

Ver. 27. That I might have sent thee away with mirth.] A likely matter! but it is the hypocrite’s best now, to say the best. He durst do no other; for God had overawed him, and put his hook into his nostrils. Hypocrites are likened to "bulrushes," {Isa 58:5} which are green and smooth; and he is curious to a miracle, that can find a knot in them; but within is nothing but a useless and spongy pith. Compared they are also to "vipers," {Mat 3:7} that are painted, as it were, without, but poisonful within: they have their teeth also buried in their gums, saith Pliny, so that one would think them to be harmless beasts, and that they could not bite. So hypocrites seem most innocent. Who would have thought otherwise of Laban, that had not known him, considering his dispute here with Jacob, his protests, afterwards, of deep and dear love to his daughters, and lastly, his attestation and taking God to witness for their good usage, and his heap of stones to witness (together with his heap of words to small purpose), calling it first Jegar-sahadutha, as a witness betwixt man and man; and then Mizpeh, as a watch-tower or witness between God and man? Who could take Laban for less now, than a loving father, yea, and an honest man? But, as the historian {a} saith of another, so may we of him; Palam compositus pudor, intus summa adipiscendi libido . All this was but blanched hypocrisy, and coloured covetousness, as St Paul calls it. {1Th 2:5}

“ Astutam vapido servat sub pectore vulpem .” - Pers.

{a} Tacit., De Sejano.

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 31:27. I might have sent thee away with mirth and with songs — Not as Rebekah was sent away out of the same family above one hundred and twenty years before, with prayers and blessings, but with sport and merriment; which was a sign that religion was much decayed in the family.

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

Verse 27. I might have sent thee away with mirth] בשמחה, besimchah, with rejoicing, making a feast or entertainment on the occasion; and with songs, beshirim, odes either in the praise of God, or to commemorate the splendid acts of their ancestors; with tabret, bethoph, the tympanum used in the east to the present day, and there called [Arabic] diff, a thin broad wooden hoop, with parchment extended over one end of it, to which are attached small pieces of brass, tin, c., which make a jingling noise it is held in the air with one hand, and beat on with the fingers of the other. It appears to have been precisely the same with that which is called the tambourine and which is frequently to be met with in our streets. And with harp, בכנור bekinnor, a sort of stringed instrument, a lute or harp; probably the same as the Greek κινυρα kinura, a harp; the name being evidently borrowed from the Hebrew. These four things seem to include all that was used in those primitive times, as expressive of gladness and satisfaction on the most joyous occasions.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

27. steal away from me] Heb. didst steal me; cf. Gen_31:20.

sent thee away] The same word as in Gen_12:20, “And they brought him on the way.” The suggestion of a musical accompaniment is rhetorical. The “tabret” (tôph) is the “timbrel” or “tambourine.”

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.

It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt,.... Jacob and his family, wives, children, and servants, who were not able to stand against Laban and the men he brought with him; and so the Jerusalem Targum paraphrases it,"I have an army and a multitude;''a large force, which Jacob could not withstand: or, "my hand could have been for a god" (h) to me: you could have no more escaped it, or got out of it, or withstood me, than you could God himself: such an opinion had he of his superior power and strength, and that this would have been the case:

but the God of your father spoke unto me yesternight; the night past, or the other night, some very little time ago, since he came from home at least: by his father he means either his father Isaac, or his grandfather Abraham, whose God the Lord was, and who came to Laban and told him who he was. This serves to strengthen the opinion that Laban was an idolater, and adhered to the gods of his grandfather Terah, from whom Abraham departed, and which Laban may have respect to; intimating that he abode by the religion of his ancestors at a greater remove than Jacob's: however, though he does not call him his God, he had some awe and reverence of him, and was influenced by his speech to him:

saying, take heed that thou spake not to Jacob either good or bad: this, though greatly to Jacob's honour, and against Laban's interest, yet his conscience would not allow him to keep it a secret; though, doubtless, his view was to show his superior power to Jacob, had he not been restrained by Jacob's God.

(h) "esset mihi pro deo manus mea", Schmidt.

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

27. I might have sent thee away with mirth — His previous conduct had given no hopes of any such kind treatment, as Jacob freely intimates, when he comes to respond.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I might have sent thee away with mirth and with songs, with tabret and with harp - Not as Rebekah was sent away out of the same family above one hundred and twenty years before, with prayers and blessings, but with sport and merriment; which was a sign that religion was much decayed in the family.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

"So I might have conducted thee with mirth and songs, with tabret and harp," i.e., have sent thee away with a parting feast.

Gen 31:28

עשׂו: an old form of the infinitive for עשׂות as in Gen 48:11; Gen 50:20.

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.)

ותגנב אתי — means thou didst steal away my mind (as in Genesis 5:26).

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.

למה נחבאת, why did you hide it from me, and,

ותגנוב אותי, and you misled me,

ואשלחך, had you informed me I would have let you go in joy.

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.