Bible Strands
Genesis 31:33
So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, then Leah’s tent, and then the tents of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Laban searches Jacob’s household tents to locate his stolen household gods, moving systematically from Jacob’s tent through Leah’s and the maidservants’ tents before reaching Rachel’s. This occurs during the confrontation where Laban demands the return of his teraphim while Jacob remains unaware of Rachel’s concealment (Genesis 31:32).
The words — The verb וַיָּבֹא (va-yavo) translates literally as “and he went,” marking Laban’s deliberate progression through each dwelling. The noun אֹהֶל (ohel) denotes “tent,” specifying the mobile household structures Laban inspects.
The thread — The inspection of tents recurs in Genesis 24, where Rebekah’s tent and Sarah’s tent function as markers of household authority and divine provision. These earlier tent narratives establish the domestic space as the locus of covenantal transitions.
Why it lands — The text records Laban’s exhaustive search and failure to locate the idols, demonstrating the limits of human investigation against concealed reality. A reader must acknowledge that divine sovereignty operates independently of human scrutiny, requiring trust rather than control.
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 Laban went into Jacob’s tent, and into Leah’s tent, and into the two maidservants’ tents; but he found them not. Then went he out of Leah’s tent, and entered into Rachel’s tent.
Cross-references
- Genesis 24:28 The girl ran and told her mother’s household about these things.
- Genesis 24:67 And Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah and took Rebekah as his wife. And Isaac loved her and was comforted after his mother’s death.