Genesis 31:30

Summary

Laban addresses Jacob, acknowledging that Jacob has indeed departed and did so out of a genuine longing for his father's household. He then confronts Jacob with a direct question about the theft of his gods (household idols).

Key words

• ha.Lokh ("certainly ", H1980G) — infinitive absolute paired with the following finite verb to intensify the action: "you have surely gone."
• ha.Lakh.ta ("you have gone", H1980G) — qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular, completed action; combined with the infinitive absolute above.
• nikh.Sof ("certainly ", H3700) — niphal infinitive absolute, intensifying the verb that follows; the niphal stem here carries a reflexive/passive nuance of being overcome by longing.
• nikh.Saf.tah ("you longed", H3700) — niphal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular, paired with its infinitive absolute for emphasis.
• ga.Nav.ta ("did you steal", H1589) — qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular, the main verb of Laban's accusatory question.

What the text says

The verse divides into two grammatical movements. The first is a concessive or acknowledging statement built on two matching pairs of infinitive absolute + finite verb: halokh halakhta ("you have surely gone", H1980G) and nikhsof nikhsaphtah ("you have surely longed", H3700). This doubling construction, where an infinitive absolute precedes a finite verb from the same root, is a common Biblical Hebrew device to intensify or emphasize the certainty of the action — here rendering something like "you have indeed gone" and "you indeed longed" rather than a simple past statement. The niphal stem of nikhsof/nikhsaphtah frames the longing as something that happened to Jacob, an internal state he underwent, rather than a simple active choice.

The object of this longing is expressed through the construct chain le-veit 'avikha ("for the household of your father", H1004M + H0001G + H9021), where veit ("household of", H1004M) stands in construct relation to 'avikha ("your father", H0001G + H9021), forming a single phrase "your father's house."

The second movement shifts to direct interrogation: lamah ganavta 'et-'elohai ("why did you steal my gods", H4100 + H1589 + H0430J + H9020). The interrogative lamah ("why?", H4100) introduces a qal perfect verb ganavta ("did you steal", H1589), followed by the object marker 'et (H0853, untranslated) and the construct noun 'elohai ("my gods", H0430J + H9020), which is plural in form.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the first clause as πεπόρευσαι ("you have journeyed/departed"), a single perfect verb without the doubled emphasis structure visible in the Hebrew infinitive absolute construction. Similarly, for nikhsof nikhsaphtah, the LXX uses ἐπιθυμίᾳ...ἐπεθύμησας ("with desire you desired"), which reproduces the Hebrew's emphatic doubling through a dative noun plus cognate verb, a Greek strategy for conveying the same intensification. The Vulgate simplifies both emphatic constructions into single verbs: cupiebas ("you were desiring") and desiderio erat tibi ("there was desire to you"), losing the doubled-root intensification present in the Hebrew.