What Does Genesis 31:33 Mean in the King James?
And Laban went into Jacob’s tent, and into Leah’s tent, and into the two maidservants’ tents; but he found them not. Then went he out of Leah’s tent, and entered into Rachel’s tent.
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
Entry is not discovery: Laban moves through the tents, yet the thing he seeks remains unfound.
THE MEANING
A search can pass through several spaces without meeting what it seeks. Laban enters Jacob’s, Leah’s, and the maidservants’ tents, finds nothing, and carries the search into Rachel’s tent. The verse keeps access and finding distinct.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
An empty search is not proof that nothing remains to be found.
THE ROOT
מָצָא
matsa
GROWS FROM
מצא
To find, encounter, or come upon.
“found” in this verse is matsa. The root מצא means more than completing a search: it names the moment of encounter. Here, the repeated movement into tents does not become finding, the Hebrew says לֹא מָצָא (lo matsa), “he did not find.”
ALSO GROWS
nimtsa: Be found; be present or located.
נִמְצָא
The same root can describe something’s presence or its being discovered; here, the negation marks the failed encounter.
matsa chen: Find favor.
מָצָא חֵן
The root also describes encountering favor, showing that finding can be relational as well as locating an object.
THE PATTERN
What lies beneath the visible surface is not reached by sight alone, though what is hidden can be brought into view.
But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.THE THREAD
And she said to her father, Let it not displease my lord that I cannot rise up before thee; for the custom of women is upon me. And he searched, but found not the images.The same root, מָצָא (matsa, “find” or “encounter”), repeats as the search concludes: Laban searches, but still does not find the images. The repeated failure makes the distinction in this verse concrete, entering and searching do not yet amount to discovery.
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