What Does Genesis 31:2 Mean?
Jacob saw the face of Laban, and behold, it was not toward him as it was yesterday and the day before.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban, and, behold, it was not toward him as before.THE KEY
“Countenance” is פְּנֵי (pĕnê), the face: Jacob sees that Laban’s regard has changed direction.
THE MEANING
You can recognize a change in someone’s regard before it is put into words: a face can show which way someone is turned toward you. Jacob sees that Laban’s countenance is no longer toward him as before.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a changed relationship is unknowable until someone says so: here, the change is already visible in a face.
THE ROOT
פְּנֵי
pĕnê
GROWS FROM
פנה
panah
To turn, turn toward, or face.
The face-word belongs to a family that also names turning, so Jacob reads not only a look but the direction of Laban’s regard. Jacob (יַעֲקֹב, Yaʿaqov, “heel-grasper/supplanter”) and Laban (לָבָן, Lavan, “white”) carry their own name-images; the verse’s hinge is the altered face.
ALSO GROWS
panim: Face; presence.
פָּנִים
The face is where another person’s regard becomes visible.
panah: To turn; turn toward or away.
פָּנָה
This verb makes the face’s direction explicit: Jacob notices Laban is no longer turned toward him as before.
THE PATTERN
A face makes the direction of regard visible, whether it turns away, brightens, or is set toward a path.
And she said, Let your handmaid find favor in your eyes. So the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer hers.The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth.And it came to pass, when the days of his being taken up were filling full, he firmly set his face to go to Jerusalem.THE THREAD
And Jacob said, No, please. If now I have found favor in your eyes, then take my gift from my hand, for I have seen your face as one sees the face of God, and you have accepted me.The same Hebrew face-word appears when Jacob says Esau’s face is like seeing the face of God. Here Jacob reads estrangement in Laban’s face; there, a face turned toward him carries welcome.
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