Why the Bible Says Jacob 'Stole Laban's Heart' (Genesis 31:17–24)

Jacob stole Laban's heart

Jacob deceived Laban by leaving without a word, and the Hebrew of Genesis 31:20 calls that stealing Laban's heart, with the same verb used one verse earlier for Rachel stealing the idols. The verb is ganav (H1589), to steal. The BSB gives the meaning, "Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was running away" (Genesis 31:20), and the Hebrew behind it reads vayignov Yaakov et-lev Lavan, Jacob stole Laban's heart.

The lev (H3820), the heart, is where a Hebrew speaker thinks, understands and decides. Moses told Israel, "the LORD has not given you a mind to understand" (Deuteronomy 29:4), and the word for mind there is lev. To steal a man's heart was to take away what he knew and keep him from knowing. Absalom did it at the city gate, and "In this way he stole the hearts of the men of Israel" (2 Samuel 15:6).

Once you hear ganav, it runs through the whole chapter. Laban said "You have deceived me" (Genesis 31:26), and the Hebrew is you stole my heart. He said "Why did you run away secretly" (Genesis 31:27), and the Hebrew adds and stole me. Then he asked, "why have you stolen my gods?" (Genesis 31:30). An English reader meets deceived, secretly and stolen and never hears that one verb named Rachel's theft, Jacob's silence and Laban's grievance. An Israelite heard the eighth commandment in it, "You shall not steal" (Exodus 20:15), lo tignov. Jacob's household left on God's word with that verb on both of them, and God still went with them.

Gods that cannot speak

The idols Rachel stole were teraphim (H8655), household gods: carved figures kept in the home and consulted for guidance. Laban was a man who used divination; he had told Jacob, "I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you" (Genesis 30:27). Centuries later the king of Babylon stood at a fork in the road and "consults the idols" (Ezekiel 21:21), and the word there is teraphim. Tablets from Nuzi, a town in the same region, tie a family's gods to who led the household after the father died. Scholars still debate how much that explains Rachel, and Scripture never says what she wanted them for.

What Scripture does say about teraphim speaking is short. Zechariah wrote, "For idols speak deceit" (Zechariah 10:2), and his Hebrew word is teraphim again. The teraphim gave Laban no true answer, and on the night of Genesis 31:24 the God he had not asked came to him in a chalom (H2472), a dream, and told him exactly what to do.

From good to bad

The phrase "either good or bad" (Genesis 31:24) is the Hebrew mi-tov ad-ra, from good to bad, and it means: do not try to move Jacob in any direction at all. Tov (H2896) and ra (H7451) together cover everything in between, the flattering offer and the threat alike. When Absalom refused to speak to Amnon at all, Scripture says he "never said a word to Amnon, either good or bad" (2 Samuel 13:22).

Laban had used this pair himself, long before. When Abraham's servant asked for Rebekah, Laban and his father answered, "This is from the LORD; we have no choice in the matter" (Genesis 24:50). The BSB gives the sense; the Hebrew says we cannot speak to you bad or good. As a young man Laban said the LORD's plan left him nothing to add. Now, an old man chasing his sister's son, he heard God say the same words back to him, and he could not get around them.

The gods beyond the River

The first readers of Genesis heard Rachel's idols as their own story, because Joshua stood Israel at Shechem and told them to put away the very same gods. Genesis 31:21 says Jacob "crossed the Euphrates"; the Hebrew says simply the nahar (H5104), the River. At Shechem Joshua spoke for God: "Long ago your fathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates and worshiped other gods" (Joshua 24:2). Then he called them to "cast aside the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates and in Egypt, and serve the LORD" (Joshua 24:14).

Shechem was the town where Jacob had buried his household's idols. Before he went up to Bethel he said, "Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you" (Genesis 35:2), and "Jacob buried them under the oak near Shechem" (Genesis 35:4). Generations later Joshua said nearly the same Hebrew sentence in the same town: "get rid of the foreign gods among you and incline your hearts to the LORD" (Joshua 24:23). Israel heard that their mother Rachel had carried gods across the River, and that their father Jacob had put them in the ground in the place where they now stood. The gods of their own houses were the same test, and they had heard it read aloud in Jacob's story before they ever faced it. Even in Hosea's day the people were still keeping teraphim (Hosea 3:4).

And Joshua did one more thing there: "Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God" (Joshua 24:26). The people who were called away from silent gods were given a written record of what the speaking God had said.

The God who answered

God speaks and idols do not, and that difference is the whole reason we can know Him. When Jacob called his family to Bethel he named God as the one "who answered me in my day of distress. He has been with me wherever I have gone" (Genesis 35:3). That night in Gilead was distress of that kind, and God answered it in Laban's dream before Laban said a word to Jacob.

John ended his first letter where Jacob's road to Bethel led, to knowing God and putting idols away. "We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true" (1 John 5:20), and then, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols" (1 John 5:21). Laban had his understanding stolen; in Jesus God gives us understanding so that we can know Him.

So hold on to what He says. When God speaks to you through Scripture or an encouragement someone shares, record it in the Doxa app as Joshua recorded the covenant at Shechem, and read it back when something else offers you guidance. Jacob's household left its gods in the ground under an oak at Shechem. The God who came to Laban in the night still speaks, and He answers His people in the day of distress.

This goes with today's Doxa Daily Lift: Rachel Stole Her Father's Gods and God Stopped Laban (Genesis 31:17–24)