Bible Strands
Genesis 31:30
Now you have gone off because you long for your father’s house. But why have you stolen my gods?”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Laban confronts Jacob after discovering the missing household idols, accusing him of departing to return to his family. The words — נִכְסַ֖פְתָּה (nikh.Saf.tah) translates as "you longed," and אָבִ֑י/ךָ ('a.Vi./kha) means "your father," marking the emotional driver behind Jacob’s departure. The thread — The theft originates in Genesis 31:19, where Rachel secretly removes them, and reappears in Judges 18:24, where Micah protests the loss of his crafted gods. Jeremiah 10:11 later contrasts these lifeless objects with the Creator who made the heavens and earth. Why it lands — The verse requires a reader to examine how legitimate desires can mask disobedience and demand direct confrontation of hidden sin.
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 now, though thou wouldest needs be gone, because thou sore longedst after thy father’s house, yet wherefore hast thou stolen my gods?
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 10:11 Thus you are to tell them: “These gods, who have made neither the heavens nor the earth, will perish from this earth and from under these heavens.”
- Genesis 31:19 Now while Laban was out shearing his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.
- Judges 18:24 He replied, “You took the gods I had made, and my priest, and went away. What else do I have? How can you say to me, ‘What is the matter with you?’”
- Exodus 12:12 On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn male, both man and beast, and I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.
- Numbers 33:4 who were burying all their firstborn, whom the LORD had struck down among them; for the LORD had executed judgment against their gods.
- Judges 6:31 But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Are you contending for Baal? Are you trying to save him? Whoever pleads his case will be put to death by morning! If Baal is a god, let him contend for himself with the one who has torn down his altar.”
- 1 Samuel 5:2 carried it into the temple of Dagon, and set it beside his statue.
- 2 Samuel 5:21 There the Philistines abandoned their idols, and David and his men carried them away.
- Isaiah 37:19 They have cast their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone—the work of human hands.
- Isaiah 46:1 Bel crouches; Nebo cowers. Their idols weigh down beasts and cattle. The images you carry are burdensome, a load to the weary animal.