36 And it is displeasing to Jacob, and he striveth with Laban; and Jacob answereth and saith to Laban, 'What 'is' my transgression? what my sin, that thou hast burned after me? 37 for thou hast felt all my vessels: what hast thou found of all the vessels of thy house? set here before my brethren, and thy brethren, and they decide between us both. 38 'These twenty years I 'am' with thee: thy ewes and thy she-goats have not miscarried, and the rams of thy flock I have not eaten; 39 the torn I have not brought in unto thee—I, I repay it—from my hand thou dost seek it; I have been deceived by day, and I have been deceived by night; 40 I have been 'thus': in the day consumed me hath drought, and frost by night, and wander doth my sleep from mine eyes. 41 'This 'is' to me twenty years in thy house: I have served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy flock; and thou changest my hire ten times; 42 unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the Fear of Isaac, had been for me, surely now empty thou hadst sent me away; mine affliction and the labour of my hands hath God seen, and reproveth yesternight.'
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Genesis 31:36-42
Commentary on Genesis 31:36-42
(Read Genesis 31:36-42)
If Jacob were willingly consumed with heat in the day, and frost by night, to become the son-in-law of Laban, what should we refuse to endure, to become the sons of God? Jacob speaks of God as the God of his father; he thought himself unworthy to be regarded, but was beloved for his father's sake. He calls him the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac; for Abraham was dead, and gone to that world where perfect love casts out fear; but Isaac was yet alive, sanctifying the Lord in his heart, as his fear and his dread.