Genesis 31:32

Gen 31:32 With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let him not live: before our brethren discern thou what [is] thine with me, and take [it] to thee. For Jacob knew not that Rachel had stolen them.

Ver. 32. Let him not live.] This was a rash sentence. Hasty speech may work much woe. How sorry would Jacob have been if Laban had found the images under Rachel, and taken him at his word! What a snare befell Jephthah by his rash speaking! It is a proverb among the Arabians, Cave ne feriat lingua tua collum tuum .{ a} "He is a perfect man that offends not in word," saith St James; for "the tongue is an unruly evil". {Jas 3:2; Jas 3:8} Sooner may a man teach a camel to dance upon a rope, than bridle his tongue from evil speaking. Pareus {b} reckons up five virtues of the tongue that perfect a man: but Peraldus {c} recounts twenty-four various vices of it, that, if not restrained, will work his ruth (distress) and ruin. It should seem by that of our Saviour {Mat 12:37} that a man’s most and worst sins are his words. And St Paul, making the anatomy of a natural man, stands more upon the organ of speaking than on all the other members: {Rom 3:9-18} Let therefore thy words be few, true, and ponderous. An open mouth is a purgatory to the master. Carry a pair of balances betwixt thy lips. Nescit poenitenda loqui, qui proferenda prius suo tradidit examini , saith Cassiodone. {d} Jacob might have learned of the heathen Romans, to speak warily in passing sentence on, or giving testimony of, another. Romani semper Videri in sententiis, in testimoniis Arbitrari, dicebant, saith Cicero.

{a} Scal., Prov. Arab., cent. i. Pro 75.

{b} Veracitas, constantia, docilitas, taciturnitas, urbanitas . - Pareus on James iii. 5.

{c} Perald., tom. i., p. 264.

{d} Cassiod., lib. x., Eph 4:1-32.

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.

31:32 Jacob, so convinced that he didn’t have the gods, used an oath that unwittingly put Rachel under a death sentence.

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

Or, let him die.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 32. Let him not live] It appears that anciently theft was punished by death; and we know that the patriarchs had the power of life and death in their hands. But previously to the law, the punishment of death was scarcely ever inflicted but for murder. The rabbins consider that this was an imprecation used by Jacob, as if he had said, Let God take away the life of the person who has stolen them! And that this was answered shortly after in the death of Rachel, Ge 35:16-19.

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

32. That Rachel had stolen them. Moses relates the manner in which Rachel had concealed her theft; namely, by sitting on the idols, and pretending the custom of women as her excuse. It is a question, whether she did this through shame or pertinacity. It was disgraceful to be caught in the act of theft; she also dreaded the severe sentence of her husband. Yet to me it appears probable that fear did not so much influence her as the obstinate love of idolatry. For we know how greatly superstition infatuates the mind. Therefore, as if she had obtained an incomparable treasure, she thinks that she must attempt anything rather than allow herself to be deprived of it. Moreover, she chooses rather to incur the displeasure of her father and her husband, than to relinquish the object of her superstition. To her stratagem she also adds lying words, so that she deserves manifold censure.

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.

32. our brethren] Cf. Gen_31:23.

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.

Now Rachel had taken the images,.... Hearing her father inquire about them, and her husband having given leave to search for them, and to put to death whoever should be found to have them, took them from the place where she had before laid them:

and put them into the camel's furniture; perhaps the camel's furniture she rode on, and therefore it was in her tent, which some understand of the saddle on which she rode; rather, it seems to be the saddle cloth or housing, in which she might wrap the images and put them under her clothes; though some interpret it of the straw or litter of the camel, which is not so probable:

and sat upon them; the images, which, if she had the veneration for, as some suggest, she would never have used in such a manner:

and Laban searched all the tent, but found them not; excepting the place where Rachel sat; but Aben Ezra thinks she was not in the tent, but in some place without it, and if so, there needs no exception.

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

Slain. Homer says, "the father judges his children and wives;" and thus Jacob pronounces sentence. The Rabbins pretend it and its effect soon after in the death of Rachel, chap. xxxv. 18. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Let him not live; I give my consent that he shall die by the hands of justice. A rash and inconsiderate sentence.

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

לא יחיה LET HIM NOT LIVE — In consequence of this curse Rachel died on the journey (Genesis Rabbah 74:9).

מה עמדי WHAT IS WITH ME that belongs to you.

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.