Genesis 31:18

Summary

Genesis 31:18 narrates that Jacob drove away all his livestock and all the possessions he had acquired, specifically the livestock gained through his acquisition in Paddan-aram, in order to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan. The verse closes the account of Jacob's departure from Laban's household with a summary of what he took with him.

Key words

• yinhag ("he drove", H5090A) — qal narrative verb form, opening the clause and setting the main action of the sentence.
• mikneh ("livestock", H4735) — masculine singular construct noun, appearing twice, each time governing a following genitive ("livestock of...").
• rekhush ("possession[s]", H7399) — masculine singular construct noun, paired with mikneh to broaden the scope from animals to goods generally.
• rakhash ("he had accumulated", H7408) — qal perfect verb, repeated twice in the verse, marking completed prior action relative to the main narrative verb.
• qinyan ("acquisition", H7075) — masculine singular construct noun, forming a chain with mikneh ("livestock of his acquisition").

What the text says

The sentence is built around one main verb, yinhag ("he drove", H5090A), followed by two direct objects marked with 'et (H0853): "all his mikneh" (H4735) and "all his rekhush" (H7399). Each object noun is in construct form with a possessive suffix ("his"), and the second object is further specified by a relative clause introduced by 'asher ("which", H0834A) with the perfect verb rakhash ("he had accumulated", H7408). This relative clause is then echoed almost verbatim in a second construct phrase, mikneh qinyano ("livestock of his acquisition"), followed by a second 'asher rakhash clause locating the acquisition "in Paddan Aram." This doubling of mikneh...rekhush...asher rakhash and mikneh qinyano...asher rakhash produces a summarizing, almost inventory-like restatement of the same possessions, a feature not preserved as repetition in most translations.

The purpose of the movement is given by the infinitive construct lavo' ("to go", H0935G) with the preposition le- ("to/in order to"), expressing intent: "in order to go to Isaac his father." The final phrase, 'artsah kena'an ("toward the land of Canaan"), uses the directional he suffix (H9011) on 'erets ("land", H0776G) to mark motion toward a destination, a grammatical feature not distinguishable in translation from a simple prepositional "to."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders mikneh (H4735) as τὰ ὑπάρχοντα ("belongings") rather than a livestock-specific term, and collapses the second mikneh qinyano clause into the general phrase πάντα τὰ αὐτοῦ ("all that was his"), losing the Hebrew's repeated construct chain. The LXX also renders Paddan Aram as ἐν τῇ Μεσοποταμίᾳ ("in Mesopotamia"), a geographic equivalence not present in the Hebrew toponym. The Vulgate similarly compresses the two Hebrew relative clauses ('asher rakhash) into a single phrase, "quidquid in Mesopotamia acquisierat," omitting the second mikneh qinyano construct altogether. The SBLIBRE Spanish translation reorders the final destination clause and adds "a la casa de su padre Isaac" ("to the house of his father Isaac"), inserting "casa" ("house"), a word absent from the Hebrew text.