Genesis 31:29

Summary

Laban tells Jacob that he possesses the power to harm him, but that the God of Jacob's father intervened the previous night with a warning not to speak against Jacob "from good to evil" — a Hebrew merism meaning "in any way at all."

Key words

• yesh-le'El yadi ("there is to the power of my hand", H3426/H0410L/H3027H) — an idiomatic construction using 'El ("power/might") in construct with yad ("hand"), literally "there exists to-the-power-of my hand," expressing capability or strength.
• 'Emesh ("last night", H0570) — a temporal noun marking when the divine warning occurred, distinct from a general "now."
• hishamer ("take heed", H8104J) — niphal imperative, second person masculine singular, giving a direct command with reflexive/passive nuance ("guard yourself").
• midabber ("from speaking", H1696G) — piel infinitive construct preceded by the preposition min ("from"), producing the sense "from speaking," i.e., "so as not to speak."
• mittov 'ad-ra' ("from good unto bad", H2896A/H5704/H7451A) — a merism pairing opposite adjectives with the prepositions min ("from") and 'ad ("unto"), forming an idiom covering the entire range between the two poles.

What the text says

The verse opens with the idiom yesh-le'El yadi, built from the existential particle yesh ("there is") plus le'El yadi ("to the power of my hand"), a construct chain in which 'El ("power/might") governs yad ("hand") with a first-person suffix. This construction expresses ability or capacity, here followed by the infinitive la'asot ("to do") plus 'immakhem ra' ("with you harm"), yielding "I have the power to do harm to you."

The second half shifts to reported speech. 'Elohei 'avikhem ("the God of your father") is the subject of 'amar ("he said"), a qal perfect verb, occurring 'emesh ("last night") — a specific temporal marker for the prior night, not a vague "now." The speech is introduced by le'mor ("saying"), a common infinitive marker for direct discourse. Within that discourse, hishamer lekha ("take heed for yourself") is a niphal imperative with reflexive force, followed by middaber — the preposition min attached to the piel infinitive dabber ("to speak"), producing "from speaking." The object is 'im-Ya'akov ("with Jacob"), and the manner is qualified by the merism mittov 'ad-ra' ("from good unto bad"), pairing tov ("good") and ra' ("bad") with min...'ad to express the full range of possible speech — a formula covering both praise and blame, not merely negative words.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the opening clause as ἰσχύει ἡ χείρ μου ("my hand is strong"), omitting the idiomatic 'El ("power") element found in the Hebrew construct chain, and reads νῦν ("now") rather than reflecting 'Emesh ("last night") explicitly at that point. In the final clause, the LXX has λαλήσῃς... πονηρά ("you should speak... evil things"), reproducing only the negative pole (ra', "bad") and dropping the merism mittov 'ad-ra' ("from good unto bad"). The Vulgate similarly narrows this to quidquam durius ("anything harsher"), likewise omitting the "good" side of the Hebrew pairing.