And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favor in thine eyes, [tarry: for] I have learned by experience that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake.
27. If now I have found, &c.] Cf. Gen 18:3, Gen 33:10 (J). Laban’s sentence is unfinished. The words “tarry: for” are inserted to complete the aposeiopesis. Laban wishes to retain Jacob, and to propitiate him with flattering words. The bargain so far has been all in his favour.
I have divined ] Lit. “I have observed signs.” The word occurs in Gen 44:5; Gen 44:15, where it is used of obtaining an answer by means of magic. Here Laban means he has “discerned” by clear indications. Perhaps there may be a reference to the custom of consulting the household gods or teraphim. Cf. Gen 31:19. LXX , Lat. experimento didici. See also 1Ki 20:33 marg.
hath blessed me ] This is a new feature in the story, and prepares the way for the following section.
for thy sake ] LXX = “at thy arrival,” reading l’ragl’ka for big’lal ka.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Gen 30:27
I have learned by experience
Moral and religious lessons gained by experience
The words are Labans, and, taken in their connection, they intimate that even an utterly wordly man, such as he was, may be forced to acknowledge the moral providence of God, whereby He takes especial and peculiar care of His servants.
Look at the moral and religious lessons which a thoughtful man may learn by experience.
I. We learn by experience MUCH THAT IS WHOLESOME ABOUT OURSELVES. By the blunders we have made, the falls we have suffered, the injuries we have sustained, the sins we have committed, and the wrongs we have inflicted on others, God has enlightened us in the knowledge of ourselves, and made us feel that it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
II. Experience has taught us MUCH REGARDING THE WORLD AND ITS PLEASURES, POSSESSIONS, AND ENJOYMENTS. Even in the case of the Christian, there is much to wean him from the world as the years roll on. As he grows older the world becomes less and less to him, and Christ becomes more and more. He learns to delight in God, and his growth in holiness becomes the ambition of his life.
III. The experience of the lapse of years teaches US MORE AND MORE OF GOD AS THE GOD AND FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. We have increasing proofs of Gods wisdom and Gods faithfulness. Whoever has been false to us, He has remained true. This testimony of experience thus grows with our growth and strengthens with our strength. It is a fortress which is utterly impregnable. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Experience
Find men where you may, they all agree in owning that they owe much to the same Instructor: they all agree in owning that they have grown wiser for the teaching of that unflattering Preceptor, who knows no royal road to truth, and in whose stern school you must stumble once, that you may learn to avoid falling again. And truly here is the best way to learn–the way that sinks the deepest, and is remembered the best.
And if it be true, as the proverbial saying would have it, that experience teaches the foolish, surely it is true no less that experience makes the wise. And as experience is the teacher that instructs all men and instructs them unthanked and unasked, so there are many things which no other can teach us: many lessons we never learn, and many matters we never rightly understand, till we have learned by experience. We shall never know, for example, what our hearts can feel and bear, by the descriptions of other people; no account can make us understand what great sorrow is, or great anxiety, or buoyant gladness, or hearty gratitude, or fixed determination; we must feel in ourselves the quickened pulse of hopefulness, the laden heart of care, the blankness of disappointment and failure; or we shall never know what they mean. Even Jesus Christ, our Maker, gained that consummate sympathy with us which it became our Saviour to have, through actual experience. But there is one class of subjects one great subject which above all others we must know by experience, or we shall not know at all. My brethren, this is a thing that is hard upon mere human reason; this matter of the real power and efficacy of prayer. If there be any truth in what we believe of the power of prayer, it is the mightiest agent–save God Himself–in all the universe: it is stronger than the hurricane that wrecks a navy: stronger than the great ocean to which mans mightiest works are as a plaything. Christian brethren, let us frankly confess what a weak state, what an insecure position we should be in, if we were taking all this on hearsay. Why, it looks such a truly monstrous deal to believe, that positively for your credit as a reasonable man, you would be half ashamed to say you fancied all this. Never concern yourself to unravel the threads the sceptic has twisted; never set yourself to answer by argument the objections he has raised. It can be done, but there is a far better way. Tell him that your Bible bids you pray, and assures you that prayer shall prevail; but tell him more–and God be thanked if you can say so much–tell him that you have put the matter to the proof!–that you were not content to take the thing on the word of others; that you fairly tried, and that you learned by experience that prayer is heard and answered! Another thing that we may learn by rote, but that we never shall really believe till we learn it by experience, is the insufficiency of this world to satisfy the soul; the great truth, that This is not our rest. For experience alone is enough to bring men to the strong belief, that all worldly things, even when possessed in their intensest degree, leave an aching void within the soul–many a stated man of pleasure, many a successful man of ambition, has told us as much as that–but it needs Gods Holy Spirit to touch the soul, before it can take the next step–before it can draw the final conclusion–that the right things for the soul to love and seek are beyond the grave, and that the hearts true home and abiding treasure are there. But we shall give the remainder of our time to looking at one great fact which is best learned by experience–I mean the preciousness, the all-sufficiency, the love and grace, of our blessed Saviour. You remember it is written, Unto you which believe He is precious. Now that seems to mean, that to those who believe, He is more precious than He is to other people; that, in a peculiarly strong sense, His preciousness is a thing that must be learned by experience. So it is. And it is easy to see how it must be. For the value of a thing is understood fully only by those who know how much they want it. And if a man feels that he does not want a thing–that he can do perfectly well without it–why, he will esteem it as of very little value indeed. Now a perfectly worldly and unconverted man feels he needs food, he cannot do without that; and so of course he sets a value on it. He feels he needs a home to dwell in–he cannot do without that; and so of course he sets a value on it. He feels he needs friends–that life would be a poor, heartless thing without them; and so he sets a value on them. But the quite worldly and unconverted man, who brings everything to a quite worldly estimate, does not feel he needs Christ; he never feels any want of Him; he thinks he can do quite well without Him; and of course he sets no value on Him; of course the Saviour is not precious to that man–how can He be? But, brethren, look to the man who has been convinced of his sin and misery by the Spirit of God; and that only our Redeemer can save us from that dismal estate, and see what he thinks of Christ! Yes, that convicted sinner has found his need of the Saviour. He has learnt that food and raiment, and all things men work hardest for and value most, are not the one thing needful–are worth nothing when compared with a saving interest in the blessed Lamb of God. He has learned by experience I He has felt a want, felt that the Saviour alone could supply that want; and he knows what Christ is worth, by what Christ has done! (A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.)
Experience
1. The true teacher.
2. The universal monitor.
3. The indisputable evidence.
4. Experience of sin, pardon, peace.
5. Character thus becomes argument.
6. Let sin be subjected to this test.
7. The Christian triumphant here.
8. Many can answer by experience who cannot answer by controversy. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Learning by experience
The world is a school, and the period of our remaining here is the school-time of our existence. The school is a severe one, the discipline is hard, and the process is often tedious. God is the teacher, and He has many assistants, which in various ways and manners are used to bring the soul to saving knowledge of the truth. Now, there is no method so potent for impressing facts on the mind as actual practice. Theory is an ideality which amid the whirl of time and business is soon dissipated. It is only when we ourselves apprehend, through actual touching and handling, that we get a positive and practical knowledge of anything. The most learned engineer who ever lived would feel at a terrible loss if put to drive an express locomotive or to superintend the engines of a vast steamship, if he had never seen one before, although he might have read and written on the subjects all his life. The most skilful theoretical architect would shrink from the ordeal of practical building.
I. We learn by experience THE FLIGHT OF TIME. The child is scarcely conscious that time moves at all. It is to him a calm, placid, unruffled lake. But the illusion is gradually dispelled. Youth deepens into maturity, maturity glides into incipient decay, and the soul is startled to find how rapidly life is passing. Then it begins to fly by like a rushing river torrent.
II. We learn by experience THE FRAILTY OF HUMAN NATURE. The curse of decay comes as a revelation. Death of a playmate or relation startles the little soul and awakens an unknown terror. Then with the flight of time comes the realization of weakness within ourselves.
III. We have learned by experience the DISAPPOINTMENTS OF EARTH. How has the sanguine heart grown broken and seared! The rosy vision has minished into darkness. Disappointments!
IV. We have learnt by experience THE VANITY OF TRUSTING TO SELF. Self-sufficiency is mans heritage and Satans mightiest weapon. The best contrived scheme brought to nought, the wisest forethought nullified, the labours of a lifetime lost, have shown us how vain is man.
V. We have learned by experience THE UNENDING LOVE, COMPASSION, AND GOODNESS OF GOD. (Homilist.)
Experience
I. SOME OF THE LESSONS LEARNED BY EXPERIENCE.
1. The unsatisfying nature of all earthly objects.
2. The preciousness of Christ.
3. The efficacy of prayer.
4. The benefit of affliction.
5. The sustaining power of Gods grace.
II. THE REASONS WHY GOD TEACHES US BY EXPERIENCE.
1. Because we will not learn our duty without it.
2. Because the lessons thus acquired are the most valuable and permanent.
3. Because we are then more useful to our fellow-men. (Seeds and Saplings.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 27. I have learned by experience] nichashti, from nachash, to view attentively, to observe, to pry into. I have diligently considered the whole of thy conduct, and marked the increase of my property, and find that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake. For the meaning of the word nachash, See Clarke on Ge 3:1, &c.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
27. Laban said . . . I havelearnedHis selfish uncle was averse to a separation, not fromwarmth of affection either for Jacob or his daughters, but from thedamage his own interests would sustain. He had found, from longobservation, that the blessing of heaven rested on Jacob, and thathis stock had wonderfully increased under Jacob’s management. Thiswas a remarkable testimony that good men are blessings to the placeswhere they reside. Men of the world are often blessed with temporalbenefits on account of their pious relatives, though they have notalways, like Laban, the wisdom to discern, or the grace toacknowledge it.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thine eyes, tarry,…. One would think he could not expect to have much from him, by his treatment of him; but he craftily cajoles him in this fawning, flattering way, in order to gain a point, and begs of him, in a very humble and suppliant manner, if he had any love for him, that he would not depart from him, but stay with him, which he should take as a great favour; for he could not insist upon it, as bound in duty, or as a point of justice:
for I have learned by experience; by the observations made in the fourteen years past;
that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake: Laban had so much religion as to ascribe the blessings, the good things he had, to the Lord, as the author and giver of them; and so much honour, or however, thought it was more his interest to own it, that it was for Jacob’s sake that he was thus blessed: the word translated is used sometimes of divination, and the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem render it, “I have used divinations”; and according to Jarchi and Aben Ezra, Laban was a diviner and soothsayer; and by the teraphim he had in his house,
Ge 31:19; he divined, and knew thereby that he was blessed for the sake of Jacob; but, as Schmidt observes, it is not credible that the devil should give so famous a testimony to Laban of Jehovah and Jacob.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
27. I pray thee, if I have found favor in thine eyes. We perceive hence, that Jacob had not been a burdensome guest, seeing that Laban soothes him with bland address, in order to procure from him a longer continuance in his service. For, sordid and grasping as he was, he would not have suffered Jacob to remain a moment in his house, unless he had found his presence to be a certain source of gain. Inasmuch therefore, as he not only did not thrust him out, but anxiously sought to retain him, we hence infer that the holy man had undergone incredible labors, which had not only sufficed for the sustenance of a large family, but had also brought great profit to his father-in-law. Wherefore, he complains afterwards, not unjustly, that he had endured the heat of the day, and the cold of the night. Nevertheless, there is no doubt, that the blessing of God availed more than any labors whatever, so that Laban perceived Jacob to be a kind of horn of plenty, as he himself confesses. For he not only commends his fidelity and diligence, but expressly declares that he himself had I been blessed by the Lord, for Jacob’s sake. It appears, then, that the wealth of Laban had so increased, from the time of Jacob’s coming, that it was as if his gains had visibly distilled from heaven. Moreover, as the word נחש ( nachash,) among the Hebrews, means to know by auguries or by divination, some interpreters imagine that Laban, having been instructed in magic arts, found that the presence of Jacob was useful and profitable to him. Others, however, expound the words more simply, as meaning that he had proved it to be so by experiment. To me the true interpretation seems to be, as if he had said, that the blessing of God was as perceptible to him, as if it had been attested by prophecy, or found out by augury.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(27) I have learned by experience.Heb., I have divined. The verb means, to speak between the teeth; to mutter magical formul. Others wrongly suppose that it signifies to divine by omens taken from serpents; and some imagine that Laban had consulted his teraphim. Words of this sort lose, at a very early date, their special signification, and all that Laban means isI fancy, I conjecture. His answer is, however, most Oriental. It is courtly and complimentary, but utterly inconclusive. If now I have found favour in thine eyes, I have a feeling that God hath blessed me for thy sake. It, of course, suggests that he would be glad if Jacob would remain with him. In Gen. 30:28 Laban comes to the point, but probably this was reached by many circuitous windings.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
27. I have learned by experience , I have divined; or, I have learned by divination . The words indicate that Laban had become, to some extent at least, involved in heathen and idolatrous practices . Compare Gen 31:19; Gen 30:32. Some, however, take the word in the wider signification of diligent inquiry and examination, a meaning not sustained by general usage . Laban rather claims to have discovered, by some sort of augury, that Jacob’s God, Jehovah, had favoured him for Jacob’s sake .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Gen 30:27. I have learned by experience The primary sense of the original word here used, (nachash) is to view, observe attentively, to use attentive and subtle observation; see l Kings 20: 33. and therefore our translation is extremely proper, as well as that of the Vulgate, experimento dedici: and all the observations respecting Laban’s consulting his teraphim, and knowing this matter by divination, are of no import; seeing to augur, or divine, is but a secondary sense of the original word; and in so plain a case as this there could be no need of augury, when observation and experience were abundantly sufficient to assure Laban of the truth. The 26th, 29th, and 30th verses, clearly prove the sense we have given.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2Sa 6:11-12 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Gen 30:27 And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thine eyes, [tarry: for] I have learned by experience that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake.
Ver. 27. I pray thee, if I have found favour, &c. ] This miserable muckworm, so he may advance his own ends, abased himself to his servants, colloguing or anything, to curry favour, and compass commodity. But he that is swallowed up of the earth (as Korah was), his ears stopped, his heart stuffed, and all passages for God’s Spirit obstructed by it, shall have earth enough when he dies: his mouth shall be filled with a spadeful of mould, and his never-enough quit with fire-enough, in the bottom of hell. Such another courteous caitiff as this in the text was that Plautianus, a rich Roman, of great authority with Severus the Emperor. Omnia enim petebat ab omnibus, et cupiebat omnia , saith the historian b Herein only he differed from Laban, when he married his daughter to Antonius the son of Severus, he gave her as much portion as would have sufficed for fifty queens. a
a Dio in Vita Severi .
b Is tantum filiae suae dedit, quantum reginis quinquaginta satis esset . – Dio in Vita Severi .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
tarry: for. Figure of speech Ellipsis, which requires some such supply.
experience = by divination. Heb, nihashti, from nahash (Gen 3:1).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
favour: Gen 18:3, Gen 33:15, Gen 34:11, Gen 39:3-5, Gen 39:21, Gen 47:25, Exo 3:21, Num 11:11, Num 11:15, Rth 2:13, 1Sa 16:22, 1Ki 11:19, Neh 1:11, Neh 2:5, Dan 1:9, Act 7:10
the Lord: Gen 30:30, Gen 12:3, Gen 26:24, Gen 39:2-5, Gen 39:21-23, Psa 1:3, Isa 6:13, Isa 61:9, Isa 65:8
Reciprocal: Gen 1:22 – General Gen 21:22 – God Gen 31:2 – it was Gen 31:38 – ewes Gen 39:5 – for Joseph’s Gen 44:5 – divineth Deu 2:7 – blessed 1Sa 18:28 – General 2Sa 6:11 – the Lord blessed 1Ch 13:14 – the Lord 2Ch 31:10 – the Lord Act 27:24 – lo 1Co 16:2 – as God
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gen 30:27. I have learned by experience The best way of learning. And it would be well if we always remembered and adhered to what we have thus learned. But, alas! we are too apt to forget or neglect it.