Genesis 31:29
◄  Genesis 31:29  ►
New International Version (©2011)
I have the power to harm you; but last night the God of your father said to me, 'Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.'

New Living Translation (©2007)
I could destroy you, but the God of your father appeared to me last night and warned me, 'Leave Jacob alone!'

English Standard Version (©2001)
It is in my power to do you harm. But the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"It is in my power to do you harm, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, 'Be careful not to speak either good or bad to Jacob.'

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
I could do you great harm, but last night the God of your father said to me: 'Watch yourself. Don't say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.'

International Standard Version (©2012)
It's actually in my power to do some serious evil to you, but last night the God of your father told me, 'Be careful what you say to Jacob whether good or evil.'

NET Bible (©2006)
I have the power to do you harm, but the God of your father told me last night, 'Be careful that you neither bless nor curse Jacob.'

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
I have the power to harm you. Last night the God of your father said to me, 'Be careful not to say anything at all to Jacob.'

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the God of your father spoke unto me last night, saying, Take heed that you speak not to Jacob either good or bad.

American King James Version
It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, Take you heed that you speak not to Jacob either good or bad.

American Standard Version
It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take heed to thyself that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.

Douay-Rheims Bible
It is in my power to return thee evil: but the God of your father said to me yesterday: Take heed thou speak not any things harshly against Jacob.

Darby Bible Translation
It would be in the power of my hand to do you hurt; but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, Take care that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.

English Revised Version
It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take heed to thyself that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.

Webster's Bible Translation
It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the God of your father spoke to me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.

World English Bible
It is in the power of my hand to hurt you, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, 'Take heed to yourself that you don't speak to Jacob either good or bad.'

Young's Literal Translation
my hand is to God to do evil with you, but the God of your father yesternight hath spoken unto me, saying, Take heed to thyself from speaking with Jacob from good unto evil.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

31:22-35 God can put a bridle in the mouth of wicked men, to restrain their malice, though he do not change their hearts. Though they have no love to God's people, they will pretend to it, and try to make a merit of necessity. Foolish Laban! to call those things his gods which could be stolen! Enemies may steal our goods, but not our God. Here Laban lays to Jacob's charge things that he knew not. Those who commit their cause to God, are not forbidden to plead it themselves with meekness and fear. When we read of Rachel's stealing her father's images, what a scene of iniquity opens! The family of Nahor, who left the idolatrous Chaldees; is this family itself become idolatrous? It is even so. The truth seems to be, that they were like some in after-times, who sware by the Lord and by Malcham, Zep 1:5; and like others in our times, who wish to serve both God and mammon. Great numbers will acknowledge the true God in words, but their hearts and houses are the abodes of spiritual idolatry. When a man gives himself up to covetousness, like Laban, the world is his god; and he has only to reside among gross idolaters in order to become one, or at least a favourer of their abominations.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt,.... Jacob and his family, wives, children, and servants, who were not able to stand against Laban and the men he brought with him; and so the Jerusalem Targum paraphrases it,"I have an army and a multitude;''a large force, which Jacob could not withstand: or, "my hand could have been for a god" (h) to me: you could have no more escaped it, or got out of it, or withstood me, than you could God himself: such an opinion had he of his superior power and strength, and that this would have been the case:

but the God of your father spoke unto me yesternight; the night past, or the other night, some very little time ago, since he came from home at least: by his father he means either his father Isaac, or his grandfather Abraham, whose God the Lord was, and who came to Laban and told him who he was. This serves to strengthen the opinion that Laban was an idolater, and adhered to the gods of his grandfather Terah, from whom Abraham departed, and which Laban may have respect to; intimating that he abode by the religion of his ancestors at a greater remove than Jacob's: however, though he does not call him his God, he had some awe and reverence of him, and was influenced by his speech to him:

saying, take heed that thou spake not to Jacob either good or bad: this, though greatly to Jacob's honour, and against Laban's interest, yet his conscience would not allow him to keep it a secret; though, doubtless, his view was to show his superior power to Jacob, had he not been restrained by Jacob's God.

(h) "esset mihi pro deo manus mea", Schmidt.

Genesis 31:29 Parallel Commentaries

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Laban Pursues Jacob
…28And have not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters? you have now done foolishly in so doing. 29It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, Take you heed that you speak not to Jacob either good or bad. 30And now, though you would needs be gone, because you sore longed after your father's house, yet why have you stolen my gods? …

Genesis 24:50 Laban and Bethuel answered, "This is from the LORD; we can say nothing to you one way or the other.
Genesis 31:5 He said to them, "I see that your father's attitude toward me is not what it was before, but the God of my father has been with me.
Genesis 31:7 yet your father has cheated me by changing my wages ten times. However, God has not allowed him to harm me.
Genesis 31:24 Then God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, "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, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you."
Micah 2:1 Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning's light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it.