If you afflict my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, no man is with us; behold, God is witness between me and you.”
Parallel translations
- KJV If thou shalt afflict my daughters, or if thou shalt take other wives beside my daughters, no man is with us; see, God is witness betwixt me and thee.
- BSB If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives, although no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me.”
- NKJV If you afflict my daughters, or if you take other wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us—see, God is witness between you and me!”
- NASB If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.”
- NLT If you mistreat my daughters or if you marry other wives, God will see it even if no one else does. He is a witness to this covenant between us.
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
Laban warns Jacob not to mistreat his daughters or take other wives, with God as witness. He seeks to protect his daughters' welfare.
Overview
Laban's concern for Rachel and Leah, though late and self-interested, leads him to invoke God as the unseen witness to Jacob's conduct. The clause guards the marriage covenant even amid a strained family treaty. It affirms that God watches over the vulnerable and holds husbands accountable for how they treat their wives.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Jer 42:5Then they said to Jeremiah, “May Yahweh be a true and faithful witness among us, if we don’t do according to all the word with which Yahweh your God shall send you to us.
- Jer 29:23because they have done foolish things in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and have spoken words in my name falsely, which I didn’t command them. I am he who knows, and am witness,” says Yahweh.
- Mic 1:2Hear, you peoples, all of you. Listen, O earth, and all that is therein: and let the Lord Yahweh be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.
- Judg 11:10The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “Yahweh will be witness between us. Surely we will do what you say.”
- Mal 2:14Yet you say, ‘Why?’ Because Yahweh has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion, and the wife of your covenant.
- Matt 19:5–6and said, ‘For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall join to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh?’
- Mal 3:5I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don’t fear me,” says Yahweh of Armies.
- 1 Th 2:5For neither were we at any time found using words of flattery, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness (God is witness),
- 1 Sam 12:5He said to them, “Yahweh is witness against you, and his anointed is witness today, that you have not found anything in my hand.” They said, “He is witness.”
- Lev 18:18“‘You shall not take a wife to her sister, to be a rival, to uncover her nakedness, while her sister is yet alive.
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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 31:50 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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