Genesis 31:3

Gen 31:3 And the LORD said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee.

Ver. 3. Return unto the land of thy fathers.] Laban’s frowns were a grief to Jacob; the Lord calls upon him therefore to look homeward. Let the world’s affronts, and the change of men’s countenances, drive us to him who changeth not, and mind us of heaven, where is a perpetual serenity and sweetness.

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 31:3-4. The Lord said unto Jacob, Return — God, who orders all things aright, having blessed Jacob with greater substance in the house of Laban than he could have obtained in his father’s house, without great inconveniences, perhaps irreconcilable, fatal hatred between him and his brother Esau, now orders him to return. For, though Jacob had met with very hard usage, yet he would not quit his place till God bid him. The direction he had from Heaven is more fully related to his wives afterward. Unto the land of thy fathers — Not which was properly theirs, but only that in which they had sojourned, and which was promised to them in their seed. And, as Jacob was an inheritor of the promise, it was proper that he should sojourn in the land, to keep alive the hopes of it in his posterity. Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah to the field — That he might discourse with them more privately.

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

31:3 The land of your father and grandfather was the land of Canaan, to which Abraham had previously been called (12:1-7; 17:8). • Return . . . I will be with you: See study notes on 26:2-5; 28:12-15. God protected Jacob (“Israel,” 32:28) as he brought his family back to the land that was promised to them. God later brought Israel back to Canaan after long years of service in Egypt. That great return had many elements similar to this passage: God defeated foreign gods and beliefs, used dreams for rescue and protection, gave victory over those who threatened them, and established boundaries between nations and tribes (see Deut 32:8).

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

the Lord said . . . Return unto the land of thy fathers--Notwithstanding the ill usage he had received, Jacob might not have deemed himself at liberty to quit his present sphere, under the impulse of passionate fretfulness and discontent. Having been conducted to Haran by God (Gen 28:15) and having got a promise that the same heavenly Guardian would bring him again into the land of Canaan, he might have thought he ought not to leave it, without being clearly persuaded as to the path of duty. So ought we to set the Lord before us, and to acknowledge Him in all our ways, our journeys, our settlements, and plans in life.

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

Verse 3. And the Lord said unto Jacob, Return - and I will be with thee.] I will take the same care of thee in thy return, as I took of thee on thy way to this place. The Targum reads, My WORD shall be for thy help, see Ge 15:1. A promise of this kind was essentially necessary for the encouragement of Jacob, especially at this time; and no doubt it was a powerful means of support to him through the whole journey; and it was particularly so when he heard that his brother was coming to meet him, with four hundred men in his retinue, Ge 32:6. At that time he went and pleaded the very words of this promise with God, Ge 32:9.

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

3. And the Lord said unto Jacob. The timidity of the holy man is here more plainly seen; for he, perceiving that evil was designed against him by his father-in-law, still dared not to move a foot, unless encouraged by a new oracle. But the Lord, who, by facts, had shown him already that no longer delay was to be made, now also urges him by words. Let us learn from this example, that although the Lord may incite us to duty by adversity, yet we shall thereby profit little, unless the stimulus of the word be added. And we see what will happen to the reprobate; for either they become stupefied in their wickedness, or they break out into fury. Wherefore, that the instruction conveyed by outward things may profit us, we must ask the Lord to shine upon us in his own word. The design, however, of Moses chiefly refers to this point, that we may know that Jacob returned to his own country, under the special guidance of God. Now the land of Canaan is called the land of Abraham and Isaac, not because they had sprung from it; but because it had been divinely promised to them as their inheritance. Wherefore, by this voice the holy man was admonished, that although Isaac had been a stranger, yet, in the sight of God, he was the heir and lord of that land, in which he possessed nothing but a sepulcher.

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.

(3) The Lord said unto Jacob.—This is probably the revelation, more exactly described in Gen_31:10-13, as given to Jacob in a dream. It is there ascribed to Elohim, but here to Jehovah. The narrator’s purpose in this, probably, is to show that while Jacob regarded the providence that watched over him as the act of Elohim, it was really in His character of Jehovah, the covenant-God, that He thus guarded him. (See Note on Gen_26:29.)

Thy kindred.—Heb., thy birthplace, as in Gen_12:1; Gen_24:4; Gen_24:7, &c.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. And the Lord said] In a dream; cf. Gen_31:11.

the land of thy fathers] i.e. Canaan, as the country of Abraham and Isaac.

I will be with thee] The renewal of the promise of the Divine Presence made to Jacob in Gen_28:15; cf. Gen_21:22, Gen_26:24.

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.

And the Lord said unto Jacob,.... In answer to a prayer of his; or seeing what difficulties and discouragements Jacob laboured under, he appeared unto him for his encouragement and instruction how to proceed:

return unto the land of thy fathers; the land of Canaan, given to Abraham and Isaac by promise:

and to thy kindred: his father and mother, and brother, who all dwelt in the land of Canaan at this time, or as many as were living: or "to thy nativity" (w), the place where he was born, and to which he must have a natural desire to return: and

I will be with thee; to protect him from any injury that might be attempted to be done unto him, either by Laban or Esau.

(w) "ad natale solum", Tigurine version; "ad nativitatem tuam", Vatablus, Drusius.

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

3. Return — This word of Jehovah was as truly a divine call as that which led Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees. It came to him in the field and evidently made a deep impression on Jacob, so that he at once sent for his two wives, and told them all.

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

And the Lord Jehovah; since the entire journey to Padanaram had been conducted under his special care, (vide, Gen_28:15) (Hengstenberg) and not because the first three verses of this chapter have been inserted or modified by the Jehovist (Tuch, Block, et al.)said unto Jacob, probably in a dream (cf. vers. 5, 10, 11). Return unto the land of thy fathers (i.e. Canaan), and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee. So Jehovah had promised at Bethel twenty years before. (Gen_28:15)

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

The Lord said unto Jacob, Return and I will be with thee - though Jacob had met with very hard usage, yet he would not quit his place 'till God bid him. He came thither by orders from heaven, and there he would slay 'till he was ordered back. The direction he had from heaven is more fully related in the account he gives of it to his wives, where he tells them of the dream he had about the cattle, and the wonderful increase of those of his colour; and how the angel of God in that dream instructed him that it was not by chance, nor by his own policy, that he obtained that great advantage but by the providence of God, who had taken notice of the hardships Laban had put upon him, and in performance of his promise.

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

שוב אל ארץ אבותיך RETURN UNTO THE LAND OF THY FATHERS — and there I will be with thee; but as long as you are associated with the unclean Laban it is impossible to make my Divine Presence (Shechina) rest upon you (Midrash Tanchuma, Vayetzei 10).

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.

'ויאמר ה, the angel is called by the name of his Master, i.e. G’d. The reason is that he delivers his message in the name of his Sender, i.e. in the name of G’d.

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.