Глава 31

Gen.31:7–8. “And your father lied to me and changed my reward ten times. But God did not let him harm me. If he said: “Behold, speckled cattle will be your reward,” then all cattle were born speckled. And if he said: “Cattle of the same color will be your reward,” then all the cattle were born of the same color.” In place of the words I put “changed my reward ten times,” the Seventy Interpreters put “[replaced my reward] with ten lambs.” I don’t know what considerations they were guided by, because the Hebrew word moni ( מֹנִ ֑ ים ) means number rather than lambs. Ultimately, and based on the words that follow in the same passage, one can find more confirmation of this understanding that with each new offspring Laban changed the terms of the contract. If he saw that cattle were born motley, then after the birth of new offspring he would say: “I want motley animals to be born for me from now on.” And again, when he saw that the cattle were born of the same color (of course, Jacob, having heard about Laban’s such desire, no longer put branches in the ditches), he told the cattle to bring into the world future offspring of the same color. What can I say?! Up to ten times (!) Laban continually changed the terms of the agreement, either regarding his livestock, or regarding Jacob’s livestock. And everything that he thought of as being born for him changed its color to the opposite. And so that it does not seem incredible to anyone that there were ten offspring in six years, let him read Virgil (Georgics II, 150), who says: “twice [a year] the idle sheep.” And there is information that the natural properties of sheep in Italy and Mesopotamia are the same. Gen.31:19. "And Rachel stole her father's idols." Where we now read "idols", the Hebrew text says theraphim (תְּרָפִ ֖ים). Aquila translates this as μορϕώματα, that is, "images" or "images". This information allows us to understand what the word theraphim means in the Book of Judges (17:5). Gen.31:21. “And he crossed the river and came to Mount Gilead.” The mountain is called by this name not because it was already called Gilead at that time. Here, as I have already noticed more than once, a name that arose later is attached to earlier events. Gen.31:41. “And you replaced my reward with ten lambs.” The same mistake as before, that is, instead of “[ten] lambs,” you should read “[ten] times.” Gen.31:46. “And Jacob said to his brothers: Let us gather stones. And having collected stones, they made a hill and dined on it. And Laban called it the hill of testimony, and Jacob called it the hill of witness.” Hill in Hebrew is gal (גָ ֑ ל) and testimony is aad (העֵ ֛ ד). While in Syriac the hill is pronounced as igar (יְגַ ֖ר) and the testimony as sedutha (כהֲדוּתָ ֑ א). Therefore, Jacob called the hill of testimony in Hebrew galaad (גַּלְעֵ ֽ ד), and Laban pronounced the same thing, that is, “hill of testimony,” in the language of his tribe as igar sedutha. After all, he was a Syrian and had already managed to change the ancient language of his ancestors in accordance with the dialect of the area in which he lived.