What Does Genesis 31:20 Mean in the King James?
And Jacob stole away unawares to Laban the Syrian, in that he told him not that he fled.
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
The Hebrew says Jacob “stole Laban’s heart,” making his silence itself the theft.
THE MEANING
Jacob leaves while Laban remains unaware, and the verse names that withheld truth as a taking from Laban’s inner awareness. Deliberate silence changes what another person can know about what is happening.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that deliberate silence is empty or harmless: here, not telling is itself named as taking.
THE ROOT
וַיִּגְנֹב
wayyignov
GROWS FROM
גנב
To steal, take secretly.
“stole away” in this verse is wayyignov. The Hebrew says Jacob “stole Laban’s heart,” not only that he left unseen. The root’s ordinary sense of taking is attached to Laban’s inner awareness, so the secrecy itself becomes the taking.
ALSO GROWS
genevah: Theft.
גְּנֵבָה
This noun keeps the root’s concrete sense of taking beside the verse’s image of a stolen heart.
gannav: Thief.
גַּנָּב
The root names a taker, giving force to the verse’s description of concealed departure.
יַעֲקֹב
Ya'aqov
GROWS FROM
עקב
Heel-taking; in Genesis’ wordplay, supplanting or outmaneuvering.
Genesis links Jacob’s name with taking hold of a heel and with supplanting. That name-nature echoes the concealed exit here, while remaining a different root from the word for stealing.
ALSO GROWS
aqev: Heel.
עָקֵב
Genesis 25:26 connects this word with Jacob’s name through the image of his hand holding Esau’s heel.
aqav: To supplant or outmaneuver.
עָקַב
Genesis 27:36 uses this wordplay for Jacob’s pattern of getting ahead through a concealed act.
לֵב
lev
GROWS FROM
לבב
The inner person: heart, thought, and intention.
“Heart” reaches beyond emotion to the inner seat of thought and intention. Paired with “steal,” it pictures Laban’s awareness as what the secrecy takes from him.
ALSO GROWS
lev: Heart, inner person.
לֵב
This is the word the Hebrew makes the object of the theft.
levav: Heart, inner self.
לְבָב
The fuller form appears in Laban’s accusation in Genesis 31:26, repeating the heart image.
THE PATTERN
Concealment can take from another person the knowledge that would let them see what is happening.
And he said, Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing.The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?THE THREAD
And Laban said to Jacob, What hast thou done, that thou hast stolen away unawares to me, and carried away my daughters, as captives taken with the sword?Laban’s accusation repeats the Hebrew theft-and-heart wording: Jacob has stolen his heart by leaving without telling him. The next verse makes explicit what Genesis 31:20 holds inside the phrase “stole away unawares.”
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