It is not so done in our country, to give the younger before the first-born: Laban explains what he means in the next clause. Good News Translation “It is not the custom here” expresses this thought well. We may also say, for example, “We do not give the younger daughter in marriage before the older daughter”; or this may be stated positively: “It is our practice to give the firstborn in marriage before we give the younger daughter.” In some languages it may be more natural to express this verse as a rhetorical question: “Is it the custom among us to give the younger daughter in marriage before the marriage of the firstborn?” And in some cases this question must be answered with “No” or “It is not.” It is common for what is done in relation to custom to be spoken of as “right” or “not right”; so another way of expressing Laban’s explanation is “No, our custom here is not like that. We don’t let our younger daughters get married first and our older daughters afterward. That isn’t right.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .