Genesis 31:19

Summary

The verse reports two simultaneous actions: Laban's departure to shear his flock, and Rachel's theft of the teraphim ("household idols/teraphim", H8655) belonging to her father. The Hebrew syntax presents these as parallel clauses connected through the narrative structure.

Key words

• ha.Lakh ("he had gone", H1980G) — qal perfect, marking Laban's departure as a completed action, setting the temporal background against which Rachel's action occurs.
• g.Zoz ("shear", H1494) — qal infinitive construct, following the preposition li ("to", H9005), expressing purpose: Laban went "to shear" — the goal of his going.
• tig.No ("she stole", H1589) — qal narrative form (vayyiqtol), the standard Hebrew storytelling tense meaning "and then she stole," advancing the plot after the perfect-tense background clause.
• te.ra.Fim ("teraphim", H8655) — masculine plural noun with definite article ha. ("the", H9009), the specific object stolen; the plural form is retained untranslated in some versions as a technical term.
• 'a.Sher ("which", H0834A) — relative particle introducing the clause that identifies the teraphim as belonging to the father, connected via le. ("[belonged] to", H9005).

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with ve. ("and", H9002) plus the subject La.Van ("Laban", H3837A) placed before the verb ha.Lakh ("he had gone", H1980G), a word order (subject before verb) that in Biblical Hebrew narrative often signals a background or circumstantial clause rather than the main storyline. This perfect-tense clause — "Laban had gone to shear his sheep" — sets the scene temporally and spatially: he is away.

The narrative then shifts to the vav-consecutive form tig.No ("she stole", H1589), the typical mechanism Biblical Hebrew uses to mark sequential main-line events. This construction implies that Rachel's theft occurs precisely during the window created by Laban's absence, though the Hebrew does not use a subordinating conjunction like "while" — the simultaneity is conveyed through the perfect/vayyiqtol contrast rather than explicit grammatical subordination.

The object of the theft, te.ra.Fim ("teraphim", H8655), is further specified by the relative clause 'a.Sher le.'a.Vi.ha ("which belonged to her father"), using the construct-like possessive construction with le. ("to", H9005) plus 'a.Vi. ("father", H0001G) plus the suffix ha ("her", H9024).

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders the Hebrew perfect ha.Lakh with a pluperfect construction ("Eo tempore ierat Laban... et Rachel furata est"), making the simultaneity/priority explicit with "Eo tempore" ("at that time"), a temporal marker not present in the Hebrew text itself. The LXX uses δὲ ("de") twice, one connecting particle per clause, creating a parallel structure similar to the Hebrew's two clauses. The Hebrew te.ra.Fim (H8655) is translated by the LXX as τὰ εἴδωλα ("the idols"), a general term, while the Vulgate uses "idola," both opting for a generic rendering rather than transliterating the specific term "teraphim" as some modern versions (e.g., BSB's "household idols") do.