Genesis 31:27

Summary

Laban addresses Jacob with a rhetorical reproach for having fled secretly. The verse combines three questions about Jacob's concealment, flight, and silence, followed by a statement of what Laban would have done had he known: sending Jacob off with celebration, music, and instruments.

Key words

• nachbeta ("did you hide yourself", H2244) — Niphal perfect, giving the verb a passive/reflexive sense: the subject undergoes or performs the hiding on himself, not simply "hide" in an active sense.
• tignov ("did you steal", H1589) — Qal narrative form (vav-consecutive), linking this action sequentially to the previous one: "you hid... and then you stole."
• higgadta ("did you tell", H5046) — Hiphil perfect, a causative form meaning "to cause to know/declare," used here negated (lo, "not", H3808) to express Jacob's failure to inform Laban.
• 'ashallecha ("I sent away", H7971) — Piel narrative form, an intensive stem conveying a deliberate, formal act of sending off, contrasted with Jacob's furtive departure.
• simchah ("gladness", H8057) — feminine singular noun marking the manner (be-, "with") in which Laban claims he would have sent Jacob away.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the interrogative lamah ("why?", H4100 + H9005), governing a chain of three verbs describing Jacob's actions: hiding (nachbeta), fleeing (an infinitive, livroach, "to flee", H1272, dependent on the hiding), and stealing (tignov, connected by the narrative vav). This is followed by a fourth clause, negated, stating that Jacob did not tell (higgadta) Laban. The four verbal forms build a cumulative accusation: concealment leading to flight, then a further act ("stealing," referring to Rachel's departure without notice), then the absence of any declaration.

The final clause shifts to what Laban asserts he would have done: va'ashallechakha ("and I would have sent you away", H7971 with 2ms suffix), a Piel narrative form denoting a formal, willing send-off, in contrast to the secretive verbs used for Jacob. This is qualified by a series of prepositional phrases using be- ("with," H9003): "with gladness" (simchah), "with songs" (shirim), "with tambourine" (tof), "and with harp" (kinnor), listing musical elements one after another without a single collective verb summarizing them—each is introduced separately by u-ve- ("and with").

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the verse as a conditional statement ("if you had told me... I would have sent you away"), using εἰ ("if") rather than reproducing the three rhetorical questions found in the Hebrew ("why did you hide... why did you steal... why did you not tell"). The Vulgate follows a structure closer to the Hebrew's questioning tone (cur, "why") but compresses the hiding/fleeing/stealing sequence into "fugere voluisti" ("you wished to flee"), omitting an explicit rendering of tignov ("you stole") as a separate action against Laban. The Hebrew's threefold accusatory question structure is thus reduced to a twofold or conditional structure in the versions.