Texts in Conversation
In Genesis 31, the search moves through Jacob’s tent, then Leah’s, the maidservants’, and Rachel’s. The Greek Septuagint changes the order and starts with Leah, then Jacob, which removes the sudden shift that makes Rachel’s tent appear out of place.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 31:33
Hebrew Bible
32 Whoever has taken your gods will be put to death! In the presence of our relatives identify whatever is yours and take it.” (Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.) 33 So Laban entered Jacob’s tent, and Leah’s tent, and the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find the idols. Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s. 34 (Now Rachel had taken the idols and put them inside her camel’s saddle and sat on them.) Laban searched the whole tent, but did not find them.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Genesis 31:33
Septuagint
32 Take notice of what I have of your property, and take it; and he observed nothing with him; and Jacob said to him, With whoever you shall find your gods, he shall not live in the presence of our relatives; but Jacob did not know that his wife Rachel had stolen them. 33 And Laban went in and searched in the house of Leah, and did not find them; and he went out of the house of Leah, and searched in the house of Jacob, and in the house of the two maidservants, and did not find them; and he went also into the house of Rachel. 34 And Rachel took the idols, and cast them among the camel's packs, and sat upon them.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... What the Samaritan Pentateuch and Masoretic text describe is first an overview of Jacob’s tent, before moving to Leah’s tent, and ending with the maidservants’ tents. Then the scene goes back to focus on an incident in the middle of the search, after Leah’s tent is searched and Laban goes to search Rachel’s. The Septuagint was apparently bothered by this, especially since the summary statement makes no mention of Rachel’s tent, implying that after Leah came the maidservants’ tents, which would mean Rachel’s was last. To deal with this tension, the LXX—or more likely, its Vorlage (Hebrew original)—reorders the sequence, using phrases from the original presentation, placing Leah first, then Jacob’s, then the maidservants’ and finally Rachel’s. This strange order where Leah’s tent was searched first instead of Jacob’s was likely motivated by a desire to leave intact the phrase “leaving Leah’s, he entered…,” which reveals a contradiction within the Masoretic, Samaritan, and the Peshitta ..."
Emanuel Tov, Laban Searches for His Stolen Idols, Genesis 31:33 (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2018), 1–3.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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