These twenty years I have been in your house: Jacob reminds Laban again of the many years of service he gave him. See verse 38. The repetition is rhetorical and it emphasizes Jacob’s anger. We may translate “For twenty long years I was part of your family” or “For twenty years I was member of your family.” Good News Translation and New Jerusalem Bible relate this statement closely to what Jacob has just been saying: “It was like that for the whole twenty years I was with you.” We may also say “For twenty long years in your family you have treated me like that.” This is further emphasized in some translations by adding “It was always the same; it never changed.”

I served you fourteen years for your two daughters: for served see 29.18, 30. For your two daughters must often be expressed as “to be allowed to marry your two daughters” or “so I could marry … daughters.”

And six years for your flock: the expression for your … makes this clause parallel to the previous clause. The verb served is the verb for both clauses. For your flock means “I worked six years for these animals, which you gave me as my pay” or “in order to get animals for myself from your flocks.” See the agreement reached with Laban in 30.31 and 32.

Changed my wages ten times: see Gen 31.7. The meaning may be expressed as “all the time you kept changing my pay.” This statement and the following verse are of special significance. As Westermann says, “In the ears of the listeners this was a very serious accusation. From the Book of the Covenant, through the Deuteronomic law to the prophets and into the New Testament, it was a particularly serious crime for the employer not to allow the employee to receive the wages due him (immediately after the work). It is here that Laban’s real culpability lies.”

In the Hebrew this statement is introduced by the common Hebrew connective, but its force in this context is more than a mere coordination or addition. A more adequate rendering than Revised Standard Version is something like “What is more” or “To make matters worse.” See also Good News Translation.

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 .