Laban had gone to shear his flock, and Rachel stole the household idols that were her father’s.
Parallel translations
- WEB Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep: and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father’s.
- KJV And Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father’s.
- BSB Now while Laban was out shearing his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.
- NKJV Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel had stolen the household idols that were her father’s.
- NLT At the time they left, Laban was some distance away, shearing his sheep. Rachel stole her father’s household idols and took them with her.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
While Laban shears his sheep, Rachel secretly steals his household idols (teraphim). Her theft will create danger and tension on the journey.
Overview
Rachel's taking of the teraphim, likely valued as household gods or tokens of inheritance, reveals lingering attachment to pagan objects in Jacob's family. Her secret act will nearly cost her life and forces a later cleansing of foreign gods (Genesis 35:2-4). The episode shows that even the covenant family struggled to leave idolatry fully behind, highlighting the need for wholehearted devotion to the Lord.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 1 Sam 19:13Michal took the teraphim, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats’ hair at its head, and covered it with clothes.
- Hos 3:4For the children of Israel shall live many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without sacred stone, and without ephod or idols.
- Gen 31:30Now, you want to be gone, because you greatly longed for your father’s house, but why have you stolen my gods?”
- Gen 35:2Then Jacob said to his household, and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, change your garments.
- Ezek 21:21For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination. He shook the arrows back and forth. He consulted the teraphim. He looked in the liver.
- Judg 18:14–24Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Laish answered, and said to their brothers, “Do you know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and an engraved image, and a molten image? Now therefore consider what you have to do.”
- Judg 17:4–5When he restored the money to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver, and gave them to a silversmith, who made an engraved image and a molten image out of it. It was in the house of Micah.
- Gen 31:34Now Rachel had taken the teraphim, put them in the camel’s saddle, and sat on them. Laban felt around all the tent, but didn’t find them.
- Gen 31:32Anyone you find your gods with shall not live. Before our relatives, discern what is yours with me, and take it.” For Jacob didn’t know that Rachel had stolen them.
- Judg 18:31So they set up for themselves Micah’s engraved image which he made, and it remained all the time that God’s house was in Shiloh.
- Josh 24:2Joshua said to all the people, “Yahweh says, the God of Israel, ‘Your fathers lived of old time beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor: and they served other gods.
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 31:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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