What Does Genesis 31:2 Mean in the King James?
And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban, and, behold, it was not toward him as before.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
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.
“countenance” in this verse is pĕnê. 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 thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad.The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,THE THREAD
And Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my present at my hand: for therefore I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with 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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