Genesis 31:7

And your father hath deceived me,.... In the bargain he had made with him about his wages for keeping his cattle the six years past, after the fourteen years' servitude were ended: and changed my

And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me.

Ten times, i.e. ofttimes, as that certain number is commonly used, as , &c.

Genesis 31:7 And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me.Ver. 7. Changed my wages ten times.] And ever for the worse. The matter mended, with poor Jacob, as sour ale doth in summer. Laban, the churl, the richer he grew by him, the harder he was to him: like children with mouthfuls and handfuls, who will yet rather spoil all, then part with any. It is the love, not the lack of money, that makes men churls.

(7) Ten times.—That is, a good many times.

Verse 7. Changed my wages ten times] There is a strange diversity among the ancient versions, and ancient and modern interpreters, on the meaning of these words. The Hebrew is עשרת מנים asereth monim, which Aquila translates δεκααριθμους ten numbers; Symmachus, δεκακιςαριτμω, ten times in number; the Septuagint δεκααμνων, ten lambs, with which Origen appears to agree. St. Augustine thinks that by ten lambs five years' wages is meant: that Laban had withheld from him all the party-coloured lambs which had been brought forth for five years, and because the ewes brought forth lambs twice in the year, bis gravidae pecudes, therefore the number ten is used, Jacob having been defrauded of his part of the produce of ten births. It is supposed that the Septuagint use lambs for years, as Virgil does aristas. En unquam patrios longo post tempore fines, Pauperis et tuguri congestum cespite culmen, Post aliquot mea regna videns mirabor aristas? Virg. Ec. i., ver. 68. Thus inadequately translated by DRYDEN: O must the wretched exiles ever mourn; Nor, after length of rolling years, return? Are we condemn'd by Fate's unjust decree, No more our harvests and our homes to see? Or shall we mount again the rural throng, And rule the country, kingdoms once our own? Here aristas, which signifies ears of corn, is put for harvest, harvest for autumn, and autumn for years. After all, it is most natural to suppose that Jacob uses the word ten times for an indefinite number, which we might safely translate frequently; and that it means an indefinite number in other parts of the sacred writings, is evident from Leviticus 26:26: TEN women shall bake your bread in one oven. Ecclesiastes 7:19: Wisdom strengtheneth the wise more than TEN mighty men the city. Numbers 14:22: Because all these men have tempted me now these TEN times. Job 19:3: These TEN times have ye reproached me. Zechariah 8:23: In those days - TEN men shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew. Revelation 2:10: Ye shall have tribulation TEN days.

7. changed my wages] The account given in the following passage differs from that in the preceding chapter, Genesis 30:25-31. There Jacob specified the conditions, to which Laban acceded; and then Jacob resorted to artifice, in order to improve his position. Here it is Laban that has specified the wages, and arbitrarily changed them (cf. Genesis 31:41) from time to time. But in every case, by the providence of God, not by Jacob’s cleverness, the result has worked out advantageously to Jacob. In ch. 30 we had principally, probably, the narrative of J; in this chapter, that of E is predominantly employed. ten times] A phrase used to denote frequency, as in Genesis 31:41, Numbers 14:22, Nehemiah 4:12, Job 19:3, by a round number; Lat. decem vicibus. But LXX, not understanding the Hebrew word rendered “times” (mτnξm), seems to have transliterated it with the rendering ἀμνῶν, “lambs” (or is this for μνῶν?), i.e. “ten lambing seasons.”

7. Ten times — Probably a round number used for an indefinite number, and equivalent to very frequently, or, as often as possible. Compare Numbers 14:22; Job 19:3.