What Does Genesis 31:31 Mean?
And Jacob answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid, for I said, Lest you tear your daughters away from me.
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 answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid: for I said, Peradventure thou wouldest take by force thy daughters from me.THE KEY
The Hebrew verb behind “take by force” means “rob,” giving Jacob’s fear the sharp shape of dispossession.
THE MEANING
Jacob names a specific fear: Laban may seize his daughters from him. The feared act remains a possibility even as it shapes Jacob’s words. The word for the taking carries the sense of robbery, so the threat involves both force and loss.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Fear does not prove that the feared act is already underway; Jacob voices it as a possibility.
THE ROOT
תִּגְזֹל
tigzol
GROWS FROM
גזל
to seize, rob, or take by force
“tear away” in this verse is tigzol. The English phrase “take by force” carries the violence; גָּזַל (gazal, “rob” or “seize”) also brings in the sense of robbery. Jacob’s feared separation therefore carries the weight of dispossession.
ALSO GROWS
gazal: to rob, seize, or take by force
גָּזַל
This verb names the kind of taking Jacob fears.
gezelah: robbery; property taken by robbery
גְּזֵלָה
This noun names the same word-family as an act of dispossession.
יָרֵאתִי
yareti
GROWS FROM
ירא
to fear or stand in awe
“afraid” in this verse is yareti. The root can express fear or awe, with the context showing which shade is present. Here Jacob fears a person and a coercive threat, so the word carries the sense of danger.
ALSO GROWS
yare: to fear or be afraid
יָרֵא
This verb directly names Jacob’s state in the verse.
yirah: fear or awe
יִרְאָה
This noun shows that fear and awe belong to the same Hebrew word-family.
יַעֲקֹב
Ya'aqov
GROWS FROM
עקב
heel; to follow at the heel, and by extension to supplant
Jacob’s name carries the image of the heel and the act of supplanting. That name adds an echo of grasping beside his fear of another person’s seizure.
ALSO GROWS
ʿaqev: heel
עָקֵב
The noun gives the concrete image carried in Jacob’s name.
ʿaqav: to take by the heel or supplant
עָקַב
This verb-family adds the sense of grasping and outmaneuvering associated with the name.
THE PATTERN
Fear gives anticipated harm a voice before its outcome is known.
And the men of the place asked him about his wife. And he said, She is my sister; for he feared to say, She is my wife, lest, said he, the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she was fair to look upon.On the day I tremble, I lean my weight upon you.THE THREAD
And the men of the place asked him about his wife. And he said, She is my sister; for he feared to say, She is my wife, lest, said he, the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she was fair to look upon.The Hebrew “feared” here, יָרֵא (yare, “fear”), comes from the same root as Jacob’s “I was afraid,” יָרֵאתִי (yareti, “I feared”). In both verses, fear gathers around a specific anticipated harm: Isaac fears being killed over Rebekah, and Jacob fears Laban seizing his daughters.
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