Bible Strands
Genesis 31:24
But that night God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream and warned him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God appears to Laban the Aramean during his seven-day pursuit of Jacob, delivering a warning at night in Gilead. The intervention occurs precisely between Laban overtaking Jacob’s camp and the morning confrontation.
The words — בַּ/חֲלֹ֣ם (ba./cha.Lom, "in [the] dream of") and הַ/לָּ֑יְלָה (ha./La.ye.lah, "the night") anchor the divine communication to a specific, concealed timeframe. These terms emphasize that the revelation bypassed natural observation and operated through nocturnal vision.
The thread — This dream-warning pattern mirrors God’s prior intervention with Abimelech in Genesis 20:3 and echoes Laban’s later acknowledgment of the same warning in Genesis 31:29. It also recalls the earlier divine restraint noted in Genesis 24:50, where Laban and Bethuel recognize God’s sovereign control over family outcomes.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that human pursuit and territorial claims are subject to divine boundary-setting. It requires the reader to see that God’s word, delivered in a dream, functions as a legal and moral restraint on human action.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night, and said unto him, Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.
Cross-references
- Genesis 24:50 Laban and Bethuel answered, “This is from the LORD; we have no choice in the matter.
- Genesis 20:3 One night, however, God came to Abimelech in a dream and told him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman.”
- Genesis 31:29 I have power to do you great harm, but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’
- Genesis 31:42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely by now you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, and last night He rendered judgment.”
- Numbers 24:13 that even if Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not do anything of my own accord, good or bad, to go beyond the command of the LORD? I must speak whatever the LORD says.
- 2 Samuel 13:22 And Absalom never said a word to Amnon, either good or bad, because he hated Amnon for violating his sister Tamar.
- Matthew 27:19 While Pilate was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him this message: “Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered terribly in a dream today because of Him.”
- Genesis 28:5 So Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.
- Genesis 31:10 When the flocks were breeding, I saw in a dream that the streaked, spotted, and speckled males were mating with the females.
- Genesis 40:5 both of these men—the Egyptian king’s cupbearer and baker, who were being held in the prison—had a dream on the same night, and each dream had its own meaning.