Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me.
Parallel translations
- WEB Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock, and given them to me.
- KJV Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me.
- NKJV So God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me.
- NASB So God has taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me.
- NLT In this way, God has taken your father’s animals and given them to me.
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
Jacob declares that God has taken Laban's livestock and given them to him. He credits his wealth entirely to God.
Overview
Jacob explicitly attributes his prosperity to God's action, not to clever breeding techniques. This statement reframes the entire account of chapter 30, revealing God as the true cause of the marked offspring. It models giving God the glory for one's blessings rather than crediting human effort or schemes.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Gen 31:1Now 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.”
- Gen 31:16Surely 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.”
- Prov 13:22A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is passed to the righteous.
- Esth 8:1–2That 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.
- Ps 50:10for every beast of the forest is Mine—the cattle on a thousand hills.
- Matt 20:15Do I not have the right to do as I please with what is mine? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 31:9 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.