Genesis 31:3-11

31:3 The Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers ¹  and to your relatives. I will be with you.” ²  31:4 So Jacob sent a message for Rachel and Leah ³  to come to the field ⁴  where his flocks were. ⁵  31:5 There he said to them, “I can tell that your father’s attitude toward me has changed, ⁶  but the God of my father has been with me. 31:6 You know that I’ve worked for your father as hard as I could, ⁷  31:7 but your father has humiliated ⁸  me and changed my wages ten times. But God has not permitted him to do me any harm. 31:8 If he said, ⁹  ‘The speckled animals ¹⁰  will be your wage,’ then the entire flock gave birth to speckled offspring. But if he said, ‘The streaked animals will be your wage,’ then the entire flock gave birth to streaked offspring. 31:9 In this way God has snatched away your father’s livestock and given them to me.

31:10 “Once ¹¹  during breeding season I saw ¹²  in a dream that the male goats mating with ¹³  the flock were streaked, speckled, and spotted. 31:11 In the dream the angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ ‘Here I am!’ I replied.

[31:3]  ¹ tn Or perhaps “ancestors” (so NRSV), although the only “ancestors” Jacob had there were his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac.

[31:3]  ² sn I will be with you. Though Laban was no longer “with him,” the Lord promised to be.

[31:4]  ³ tn Heb “sent and called for Rachel and for Leah.” Jacob did not go in person, but probably sent a servant with a message for his wives to meet him in the field.

[31:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “the field.” The word is an adverbial accusative, indicating that this is where Jacob wanted them to meet him. The words “to come to” are supplied in the translation for clarification and stylistic reasons.

[31:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “to his flock.”

[31:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “I see the face of your father, that he is not toward me as formerly.”

[31:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “with all my strength.”

[31:7]  ⁸ tn This rare verb means “to make a fool of” someone. It involves deceiving someone so that their public reputation suffers (see Exod 8:25).

[31:8]  ⁹ tn In the protasis (“if” section) of this conditional clause, the imperfect verbal form has a customary nuance – whatever he would say worked to Jacob’s benefit.

[31:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “speckled” (twice this verse). The word “animals” (after the first occurrence of “speckled”) and “offspring” (after the second) have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. The same two terms (“animals” and “offspring”) have been supplied after the two occurrences of “streaked” later in this verse.

[31:10]  ¹¹ tn The sentence begins with the temporal indicator, “and it happened at the time of.”

[31:10]  ¹² tn Heb “in the time of the breeding of the flock I lifted up my eyes and I saw.”

[31:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “going up on,” that is, mounting for intercourse.