Genesis - 31:7



7 Your father has deceived me, and changed my wages ten times, but God didn't allow him to hurt me.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Genesis 31:7.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me.
Yea, your father also hath overreached me, and hath changes my wages ten times: and yet God hath not suffered him to hurt me.
And your father has mocked me, and has changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me.
and your father hath played upon me, and hath changed my hire ten times; and God hath not suffered him to do evil with me.
But your father has not kept faith with me, and ten times he has made changes in my payment; but God has kept him from doing me damage.
Even so, your father has circumvented me, and he has changed my wages ten times. And yet God has not permitted him to harm me.
At pater vester mentitus est mihi, et mutavit mercedem meam decem vicibus: sed non permisit ei Deus, ut malefaceret mihi.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

Changed my wages ten times - There is a strange diversity among the ancient versions, and ancient and modern interpreters, on the meaning of these words. The Hebrew is עשרת מנים asereth monim, which Aquila translates δεκα αριθμους ten numbers; Symmachus, δεκακις αριτμῳ, ten times in number; the Septuagint δεκα αμνων, ten lambs, with which Origen appears to agree. St. Augustine thinks that by ten lambs five years' wages is meant: that Laban had withheld from him all the party-coloured lambs which had been brought forth for five years, and because the ewes brought forth lambs twice in the year, bis gravidae pecudes, therefore the number ten is used, Jacob having been defrauded of his part of the produce of ten births. It is supposed that the Septuagint use lambs for years, as Virgil does aristas.
En unquam patrios longo post tempore fines,
Pauperis et tuguri congestum cespite culmen,
Post aliquot mea regna videns mirabor aristas?
Virg. Ec. i., ver. 68.
Thus inadequately translated by Dryden:
O must the wretched exiles ever mourn;
Nor, after length of rolling years, return?
Are we condemn'd by Fate's unjust decree,
No more our harvests and our homes to see?
Or shall we mount again the rural throng,
And rule the country, kingdoms once our own?
Here aristas, which signifies ears of corn, is put for harvest, harvest for autumn, and autumn for years. After all, it is most natural to suppose that Jacob uses the word ten times for an indefinite number, which we might safely translate frequently; and that it means an indefinite number in other parts of the sacred writings, is evident from Leviticus 26:26 : Ten women shall bake your bread in one oven. Ecclesiastes 7:19 : Wisdom strengtheneth the wise more than Ten mighty men the city. Numbers 14:22 : Because all these men have tempted me now these Ten times. Job 19:3 : These Ten times have ye reproached me. Zac 8:23 : In those days - Ten men shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew. Revelation 2:10 : Ye shall have tribulation Ten days.

And your father hath deceived me,.... In the bargain he had made with him about his wages for keeping his cattle the six years past, after the fourteen years' servitude were ended:
and changed my wages ten times; that is, either very often, many times, as the number ten is sometimes. Used for many, see Leviticus 26:26; or precisely ten times, since he repeats it afterwards in the same form to Laban's face, Genesis 31:41; he had now served him six years upon a new bargain; that he should have all that were of such and such different colours, which were produced out of his flock of white sheep. Laban was at first highly pleased with it, as judging it would be a very good one to him, as he might reasonably think indeed: and it is highly probable he did not attempt any alteration the first year, but observing Jacob's cattle of the speckled sort, &c. prodigiously increasing, he did not choose to abide by the any longer. Now it must be observed, that the sheep in Mesopotamia, as in Italy (x), brought forth the young twice a year; so that every yeaning time, which was ten times in five years, Laban made an alteration in Jacob's wages; one time he would let him have only the speckled, and not the ringstraked; another time the ringstraked, and not the speckled; and so changed every time, according as he observed the prevailing colour was, as may be concluded from Genesis 31:8,
but God suffered him not to hurt me; to hinder his prosperity, or having justice done him for his service; for whatsoever colour Laban chose for Jacob to have the next season of yeaning, there was always the greatest number of them, or all of them were of that colour, whether speckled or ringstraked, &c.
(x) "Bis gravidae pecudes.----", Virgil. Georgic. l. 2.

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