The language of ivrit ( עברית ) Genesis 31, Post #2

Welcome to my Hebrew reading & language series.

Genesis 31:6-12

We have been reading of Jacob's decade-plus struggle to reason with and deal with Laban his father in law. Lately Jacob has been hearing of angry plots against him being hatched by Laban and his sons. Last week Jacob started talking to his wives to explain the situation to them. We continue that conversation today.

He starts off by saying he has worked his tail off for their father. Then he goes into how their father cheated him and we get more information on the changing deals over time. Then how God frustrated Laban's attempt to give him the smaller portion of the flock over and over again. He then begins to relay how God spoke to him in a dream and told him that he is aware of the situation and controlling the breeding outcomes because he has seen what Laban is doing to him.

As a side note, Jacob messed with his own brother and it seems that God allowed someone else to cheat Jacob because of Jacob's cheating. That is my own speculation but if this story was written and published in a worldly context, people of today would clearly see karma at work.

You can give God a new name like Lord, Karma, or Alla as many have done but YHVH is always the ultimate equalizer.

Today's reading

English

You know that I have served your father with all my strength, yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God did not permit him to harm me. If he said, 'The spotted shall be your wages,' then all the flock bore spotted; and if he said, 'The striped shall be your wages,' then all the flock bore striped. Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me. In the breeding season of the flock I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the goats that mated with the flock were striped, spotted, and mottled.

Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacob,' and I said, 'Here I am!' And he said, 'Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.

Hebrew

The story continues the dream next week...

Info on each letter starting at the beginning

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