Bible Strands
Genesis 31:9
Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Rachel and Leah address their father Laban at the moment of departure, defending their claim to the wealth accumulated during Jacob’s service. They state that God directly intervened in the flock’s breeding cycle to transfer the livestock to them.
The words — The Hebrew יָצַל (ya.Tzel) translates literally as “he has taken away,” while נָתַן (na.Tan) means “he has given.” These paired verbs frame the livestock transfer as a completed divine action rather than a human achievement.
The thread — The redirection of wealth recurs in Genesis 31:1, where Laban’s sons accuse Jacob of taking their father’s property, and in Genesis 31:16, where the sisters claim that same wealth as their inheritance. Proverbs 13:22 later echoes the pattern that God transfers prosperity to the righteous.
Why it lands — The text explicitly states that God removed livestock from Laban and gave it to Jacob, establishing a factual record of divine provision. It requires the reader to acknowledge that economic outcomes in the narrative are determined by divine action, not human strategy.
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
Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me.
Cross-references
- Genesis 31:1 Now Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken away all that belonged to our father and built all this wealth at our father’s expense.”
- Genesis 31:16 Surely all the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. So do whatever God has told you.”
- Proverbs 13:22 A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is passed to the righteous.
- Esther 8:1 That same day King Xerxes awarded Queen Esther the estate of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai entered the king’s presence because Esther had revealed his relation to her.
- Psalms 50:10 for every beast of the forest is Mine—the cattle on a thousand hills.
- Matthew 20:15 Do I not have the right to do as I please with what is mine? Or are you envious because I am generous?’