Genesis 31:55

Summary

The verse narrates the closing action of the Laban-Jacob encounter: Laban rises early in the morning, kisses his sons and daughters, blesses them, and then departs to return to his own place. The sentence is built as a chain of five consecutive narrative actions performed by Laban.

Key words

• va-yashkem ("he rose early", H7925) — hiphil (causative) narrative form; the causative stem suggests Laban actively "made himself rise early," not merely waking.
• va-yenashek ("he kissed", H5401A) — piel (intensive) narrative form; the piel stem often marks repeated or emphatic action, here rendering the act of kissing as deliberate and full.
• le-vanav ("to his sons", H1121G) — masculine plural construct noun with pronominal suffix "his"; construct form ties the noun to the implied relationship (his own sons).
• li-venotav ("to his daughters", H1323G) — feminine plural construct noun with suffix "his," paired with le-vanav to form the merism "sons and daughters."
• va-yavarekh ("he blessed", H1288) — piel (intensive) narrative form of the same root used for covenantal blessing elsewhere; intensive stem marks the act as formal or complete rather than casual.

What the text says

The verse is structured as an unbroken sequence of five narrative verbs (va-yashkem, va-yenashek, va-yavarekh, va-yelekh, va-yashov), each introduced by the narrative vav (H9001), which chains actions in temporal succession: "and he rose... and he kissed... and he blessed... and he went... and he returned." This chain form is typical of Hebrew narrative prose and produces a rapid, sequential report of Laban's final acts before departure, without subordination or elaboration.

The double object — le-vanav ("to his sons") and li-venotav ("to his daughters") — is marked by parallel construct plural nouns with matching third-person masculine singular suffixes ("his"), forming a balanced pair that functions as a merism for "all his descendants" present at the scene. The verb va-yavarekh ("he blessed") takes these same people as its object via the direct object marker 'et (H0853) plus suffix -hem ("them", H9038), summarizing the prior pair under one collective pronoun.

The final two verbs, va-yelekh ("he went", H1980G) and va-yashov ("he returned", H7725G), both qal (simple) stem, describe departure and return using two different roots in sequence — first general departure, then specific arrival "to his own place" (li-mekomo, from maqom, H4725, construct with suffix "his").

Differences between versions

The Hebrew names Laban explicitly twice (v.3 and v.23), reinforcing him as sole subject throughout the chain of five verbs. The LXX (Swete text) uses participles (ἀναστὰς, "having risen"; ἀποστραφεὶς, "having turned back") rather than a fully sequential finite verb chain, and adds a transitional note "καὶ Ἰακὼβ ἀπῆλθεν" ("and Jacob departed") not present in the Hebrew verse itself, apparently marking a chapter transition. The Vulgate renders ba-boker ("in the morning") as "de nocte" ("at night"), diverging from the Hebrew's specification of morning. Some modern translations (BSB, SBLIBRE) render banav ("his sons") as "grandchildren/nietos," reflecting the fact that Laban's actual sons are elsewhere distinguished from Jacob's children, though the Hebrew word itself is the plain construct plural of ben ("son", H1121G).