Now Rachel had taken the images, and put them in the camel's furniture, and sat upon them. And Laban searched all the tent, but found them not.

GENESIS 31:34KJV
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Genesis 31:34 (KJV)

What does Genesis 31:34 mean?

Genesis 31:34 shows how Rachel keeps Laban from finding the household images she has taken. She hides them in a camel’s saddle and sits on them while he searches the tent.

The narrator lets the reader see what Laban cannot. After Laban enters Rachel’s tent in verse 33, the verse places Rachel and the hidden objects at the center of his unsuccessful search.

The Hebrew behind Genesis 31:34

  • “images” — תְּרָפִים (teraphim): This word refers to household gods or sacred objects. The term helps explain why Laban calls them his “gods” when he accuses Jacob of taking them in verse 30.
  • “furniture” — כַּר (kar): This word can refer to a saddle or saddle cushion. The KJV’s “camel’s furniture” pictures equipment used for riding or carrying things, rather than a piece of household furniture.

Why Genesis 31:34 matters

  • Rachel’s action gives the reader information that Jacob lacks. In verse 32, Jacob says that anyone found with Laban’s gods shall not live, because he does not know Rachel has taken them.
  • Laban’s failure to find the images leaves his accusation unresolved. The search described in verse 34 does not uncover what Rachel has hidden.
  • Rachel’s position is important to what happens next. In verse 35, she tells her father that she cannot rise before him because she is having her monthly period.

Where else these words appear

“searched” Hebrew H4959 · used in 8 verses

  • Genesis 27:12 My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing.
  • Genesis 31:37 Whereas thou hast searched all my stuff, what hast thou found of all thy household stuff? set it here before my brethren and thy brethren, that they may judge betwixt us both.
  • Deuteronomy 28:29 And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.

“images” Hebrew H8655 · used in 15 verses

  • Genesis 31:19 And Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father's.
  • Judges 18:17 And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, and came in thither, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood in the entering of the gate with the six hundred men that were appointed with weapons of war.
  • 1 Samuel 19:16 And when the messengers were come in, behold, there was an image in the bed, with a pillow of goats' hair for his bolster.

“furniture” Hebrew H3733 · used in 15 verses

  • Deuteronomy 32:14 Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.
  • Psalms 65:13 The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.
  • Ezekiel 4:2 And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about.

“Rachel” Hebrew H7354 · used in 44 verses

  • Genesis 29:6 And he said unto them, Is he well? And they said, He is well: and, behold, Rachel his daughter cometh with the sheep.
  • Genesis 30:1 And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.
  • Genesis 33:1 And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids.