Genesis 30:26

30:26 Let me take my wives and my children whom I have acquired by working for you. ¹  Then I’ll depart, ²  because you know how hard I’ve worked for you.” ³ 

Genesis 31:6

31:6 You know that I’ve worked for your father as hard as I could, ⁴ 

Genesis 29:25

29:25 In the morning Jacob discovered it was Leah! ⁵  So Jacob ⁶  said to Laban, “What in the world have you done to me! ⁷  Didn’t I work for you in exchange for Rachel? Why have you tricked ⁸  me?”

[30:26]  ¹ tn Heb “give my wives and my children, for whom I have served you.” In one sense Laban had already “given” Jacob his two daughters as wives (Gen 29:21, 28). Here Jacob was asking for permission to take his own family along with him on the journey back to Canaan.

[30:26]  ² tn Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.

[30:26]  ³ tn Heb “for you, you know my service [with] which I have served you.”

[31:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “with all my strength.”

[29:25]  ⁷ tn Heb “and it happened in the morning that look, it was Leah.” By the use of the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”), the narrator invites the reader to view the scene through Jacob’s eyes.

[29:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he said”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[29:25]  ⁹ tn Heb What is this you have done to me?” The use of the pronoun “this” is enclitic, adding emphasis to the question: “What in the world have you done to me?”

[29:25]  ¹⁰ sn The Hebrew verb translated tricked here (רָמָה, ramah) is cognate to the noun used in Gen 27:35 to describe Jacob’s deception of Esau. Jacob is discovering that what goes around, comes around. See J. A. Diamond, “The Deception of Jacob: A New Perspective on an Ancient Solution to the Problem,” VT 34 (1984): 211-13.