Genesis 31:38

Gen 31:38 This twenty years [have] I [been] with thee; thy ewes and thy she goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten.

Ver. 38. The rams of thy flock have I not eaten.] A lively picture of a careful pastor. {2Co 11:9} He fats not himself, but feeds the flock; he seeks not theirs, neither fleece nor flesh, but them and their welfare. He takes not to him "the instruments of a foolish shepherd"; {Zec 11:15} that is, forcipes et mulctram, that he may carry away lac et lanam; but feeds the flock of God, and takes care of the cure, as Peter bids; "not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind," &c. {1Pe 5:2} About the year of Christ 1260, the people and clergy of England, the Pope’s ass, as it was called, opposed themselves to the legate’s exactions. And when Rustandus, the legate, alleged that all churches were the Pope’s, Leonard, a learned man of those times, answered, Tuitione, non fruitione; defensione, non dissipatione. {a}

{a} Jac. Revius, De Vitis Pontif., p. 178.

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.

Or, been barren.

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

The rams of thy flock have I not eaten--Eastern people seldom kill the females for food except they are barren.

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

38. This twenty years] Jacob’s indignant protest proclaims (1) his length of service, (2) his perfect honesty, (3) his uncomplaining endurance of hardship, in spite of capricious changes in his wage. And now that he has left Haran, it was only because of God’s mercy, and not through Laban’s kindness, that he did not go empty-handed.

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.

Thus I was,.... In such a situation, as well as in the following uncomfortable plight and condition:

in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night: the violent heat in the daytime scorched him, and the severe frosts in the night pinched him: that is, in the different seasons of the year, the heat of the day in the summertime, and the cold of the night in the wintertime; for it cannot well be thought that there should be excessive heat in the day and sharp frosts in the night, in the same season of the year: it looks as if Laban did not allow Jacob the proper conveniencies of clothes, and of tents to secure him from the inclemency of the weather, which other shepherds usually had:

and my sleep departed from mine eyes; through diligent care and watchfulness of the flocks in the night season, which on some occasions were necessary; see Luk 2:8.

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

Thy she-goats have not cast their young, which thou owest in a great measure to my care and diligence in ordering them, and principally to God’s blessing given to thee for my sake, by thy own confession, Gen 30:27.

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

General Information:

Jacob continues to speak to Laban.

twenty years

"20 years" (See: Numbers)

ewes

female sheep

have not miscarried

This means they have not had a pregnancy end early and unexpectedly with the lamb or kid born dead.

What was torn by beasts I did not bring to you

This can be stated in active form. AT: "When a wild animal killed one of your animals I did not bring it to you" (See: Active or Passive)

Instead, I bore the loss of it

For Jacob to count Laban's dead animals as a loss from his own flock is spoken of as if it was a burden he would bear on his shoulders. AT: "Instead of counting it a loss from your flock, I counted it as a loss from my flock" (See: Metaphor)

There I was; in the day the heat consumed me, and the frost by night

Suffering in the hot and cold temperatures is spoken of as if the temperatures were animals that were eating Jacob. AT: "I stayed with your flocks even during hottest part of the day and the coldest part of the night" (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

year

goat

ewe

flocks

consume

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

לא שכלו means HAVE NOT MISCARRIED — Similar are: (Hosea 9:14) ‘‘a miscarrying (משכיל) womb”; (Job 21:10) “his cow calveth and casteth (תשכל) not her calf”.

ואילי צאנך AND THE RAMS OF THY FLOCK — From this phrase they (the Rabbis) inferred (Bava Kamma 65b) that a male sheep even when one day old is called a ram; for if this be not so, how was this creditable to him? Did he mean that he had not eaten rams (i. e. the larger animals), but that he had eaten the smaller sheep? If so, he was a thief! (39).

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.

זה עשרים שנה...לא שכלת, because of G’d’s blessing for me.

ואילי צאנך לא אכלתי. I did not eat from a single one of the male sheep. The letter מ in front of the word אילי is missing, just as it is missing in Samuel II 23,24 in the line אלחנן בן דודו בית לחם where we would have expected מבית לחם. Another example of such a missing prefix מ is found In Joshua 10,13 עד יקום גוי אויביו, where we would have expected עד יקום גוי מאויביו, “until a nation arises from its enemies.” There are more such examples throughout Scripture. The reason Yaakov made a point of saying that he had not eaten of any of the male sheep was that it was widely accepted that the shepherds who were far from home would eat the meat of such animals. Yaakov made the point that far from following accepted practice, he had only eaten things that had belonged to him outright. Male sheep are worth less in the marketplace than their female counterparts. Their meat is also less tasty.

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.