Genesis 31:53

Summary

Laban invokes the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor — identified also as the God of their common father — to act as arbiter between himself and Jacob. Jacob then responds by swearing an oath, not by "God," but by the pachad ("fear/dread", H6343) associated with his father Isaac.

Key words

• 'elohei ("God of", H0430) — masculine plural construct noun, repeated three times (Abraham, Nahor, and "their father"); grammatically plural in form though used to designate a single deity in each construct phrase.
• yishpetu ("may they judge", H8199) — qal imperfect, third person masculine plural, not singular; the verb form agrees in number with the compounded divine references rather than treating them as one grammatical subject.
• vayyishava ("and he swore", H7650) — niphal stem, narrative form; the niphal here carries the reflexive sense of "swearing," a stem regularly used for oath-taking in Biblical Hebrew.
• pachad ("fear/dread of", H6343) — masculine singular construct noun; unlike 'elohei, this word is singular and denotes "dread," used here as the object by which Jacob swears.

What the text says

The verse divides into two parts. In the first, Laban names three divine references in construct chains: 'elohei 'Avraham ("God of Abraham"), 'elohei Nachor ("God of Nahor"), and 'elohei 'avihem ("God of their father"). The verb governing these, yishpetu, is plural in form, matching the plural construct noun 'elohei rather than treating the referent as a single, grammatically singular subject. The phrase 'elohei 'avihem stands after the verb, functioning as an appositional clarification rather than a third subject requiring separate judgment.

The second part shifts to narrative with vayyishava, introducing Jacob's action. Jacob's oath is sworn "by" (be-, H9003) pachad 'avi Yitzchak — literally "the dread of his father Isaac." The construct chain here uses pachad ("fear/dread") rather than 'elohei ("God of"), a lexical choice distinct from the terminology Laban just used. The Hebrew text thus records two different formulas within the same verse: one built on 'elohei, the other on pachad, both functioning as ways of referencing what is sworn upon.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew verb yishpetu is plural ("may they judge"), while the LXX gives κρινεῖ (singular, "he will judge") and the Vulgate gives judicet (singular subjunctive). The LXX text provided ends after "judge between us," without rendering the phrase 'elohei 'avihem ("God of their father") or the clause about Jacob's oath, both of which appear in the Hebrew and Vulgate. Regarding pachad, the Vulgate renders it as timorem ("fear," lowercase), and modern translations differ in capitalization — BSB gives "the Fear of his father Isaac" as a proper title, while RV1909's "el temor de Isaac su padre" leaves it lowercase, an difference not resolvable from the Hebrew construct form alone.