He heard the words. He heard that Lavan’s sons were slandering him out of jealousy.

Yaakov saw Lavan’s face. He saw that he had accepted his sons’ slander.

!ויאמר אלוקים אל יעקב שוב, The Torah informs us that as a result of the meeting between Yaakov and his wives he fled from Charan without taking formal leave of Lavan as ordinary courtesy would have required him to do. He was convinced that in view of the fact that Lavan had accepted the badmouthing of him by his sons, he would steal some or most of his belongings before allowing him to leave. He said so himself during the confrontation in verse 31 when he expressed concern that Lavan would even have robbed him of his wives, claiming them as his seeing that they were his daughters.

ואהיה עמך. So that you will not be harmed on the way.

Do we still have a portion. Why do you think it will be difficult for us to part from our father?

bAll the wealth that Elokim rescued. We do not expect to receive from him anything other than what Hashem has already rescued.

Now. Now that he has accepted the slander about you and may use it to justify stealing whatever you have.

Whatever Hashem has said, do it. There is no need for you to seek further permission.

Yaakov fooled Lavan. He did not give any sign that he knew that Lavan had accepted the slander about him.

The Aramean. Besides indicating his nationality, which is irrelevant here, this hints that he was an experienced swindler (ramai). Thus if he had realized that Yaakov knew of the change in his attitude he would not have left him any escape.

על בלי הגיד לו, the word על here is used as in על עולת התמיד in Numbers 28,10 where it means: “with, in addition to.” Yaakov acted as if unaware of Lavan’s hatred in addition to not informing him of his intended departure. All of this was not exactly in accordance with accepted norms of conduct, but as dictated by sheer necessity, his survival instinct. כי בורח הוא; out of fear that Lavan would rob him with the aid of the people of his town. He said so to Lavan later when explaining his decision and his actions.

ויברח, usually the word בריחה, flight, means that someone departs without being pursued. The flight is inspired by fear of damage and harm not imminent. When the word ניסה is used to describe flight, this describes people fleeing from pursuers, out of fear from immediate damage and harm.

Guard yourself that you do not speak. You are forbidden even to speak!

Either good. Do not try to lure Yaakov into returning with offers of benefits. Or evil. And do not threaten him.

ואלוקי אביכם, not because of your merits.

ועתה Now that you have left without obtaining my permission and you misled me, I assume

Now you have gone. You must have run off in this manner because you so yearned for your father’s house.

But why did you steal. Your yearning for your father’s house was no justification for stealing my gods.

פן תגזול את בנותיך, by saying that you had not given me your daughters in marriage in order for me to remove them from your homeland you would in effect commit robbery as you would detain both my children and my estate. In fact, Lavan used exactly this kind of argument when he said: “the children are my children the daughters are my daughters, etc.” (verse 43). You might have succeeded in doing all this with the help of the local townspeople. Now that I have left your country you will not be able to carry out such a plan.

לא יחיה. He thought that one of the servants must have stolen the teraphim in order to worship them as he had been in the habit of doing before becoming part of Yaakov’s household.

הכר לך מה עמדי, if you can find amongst my possessions any that you recognise as belonging to you, take them!

ולא ידע יעקב, if he had known that Rachel had taken the teraphim he would not have had the audacity to deny this. Also, he most certainly would not have cursed her by saying “he shall not live!” [actually he had not cursed the thief but the one with whom the stolen goods would be found, and in the event Lavan never did find the teraphim. Ed.]

ויחר ליעקב וירב בלבן, after Lavan did not find anything, Yaakov thought that his teraphim had never been stolen at all, but that Lavan had used the accusation as a pretext to search Yaakov’s belongings and to make him appear as a suspected thief.

?מה פשעי מה חטאתי, What wrong have I ever committed that entitles you to treat me now as suspect of stealing?

רחליך ועזיך לא שכלו, you have found me as possessing the very reverse of the characteristics of a thief. Not only did I serve you faithfully, but I have treated you even better than fairness dictates. I have endeavoured with all my skill to prevent your sheep from giving birth to premature, and stillborn young.

ואילי צאנך לא אכלתי, even things which according to accepted practice I could have treated as mine, I did not eat, seeing that they were nominally yours.

לא הבאתי אליך, אנכי אחטנה, I never brought you a diseased or fatally wounded animal whose death had been due to my negligence; all I ever brought you were animals which were the victims of genuine accidents, something I could not have prevented. Even so, מידי תבקשנה, you held me responsible for making good your loss, illegally, of course.

ותחלף את משכרתי, by doing so you reversed yourself since it had been you who had determined what my wages should be.

והצאן צאני, if I had indeed changed your wages or sent you home empty-handed I would not have taken anything from you, seeing that it all originated from me. You only acquired it by deceit and deviousness, not legally.

ולבנותי, it actually belongs to my daughters as a dowry.

מה אעשה לאלה, even though I could take all of it away from you, what would I do afterwards in order to provide for them.

ועתה, seeing I do not wish to cause them any harm.

לכה ונכרתה ברית, to ensure that you on your part will not cause me any harm either.

וירימה מצבה, as a symbol that this was to be something enduring.

He therefore called its name Galeid. He called it by the name that Yaakov had given it, but he explained it in his own way.

ויאמר לבן הגל הזה עד, he humbled himself to refer to it in Hebrew, Yaakov’s language, after having named it in Aramaic first. He meant that the pile of stones would serve as a witness to what he was about to say.

והמצפה also the name מצפה itself was to serve as a witness. This was because immediately prior Lavan had said יצף ה' ביני ובינך, “may G’d watch between me and you.”

אשר אמר, previously.

ראה אלוקים עד, look that G’d will punish you if you do not treat my daughters properly, seeing He is a witness The whole line may be understood as analogous to Leviticus 5,21, ומעלה מעל בה', where the trespass against G’d is considered as something that only G’d is aware of, there being no human witnesses at hand to testify against the sinner. G’d is always the third party when two people have a disagreement, seeing He knows the true facts of the situation.

אלוהי אביהם, Lavan meant that Yaakov could not take offence at Lavan pairing Nachor’s god and Yaakov’s G’d in a single expression. He had chosen Nachor to underline that Nachor’s god was also the god of Terach, who was the father of both Avraham and Nachor.

וישבע יעקב בפחד אביו יצחק. He chose someone who was not the son of Terach to make certain it was understood that his oath was only to the G’d of Yitzchok. Only this G’d was entitled to judge him.

ויקרא לאחיו, of Lavan. There was no need to invite Lavan himself seeing he was like a father to Yaakov’s children.