At length, when Laban’s sons murmur and their father’s countenance was not toward Jacob as before, Jehovah bids him return to the land of his fathers (Gen. 31:33And the Lord said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee. (Genesis 31:3)). His mind is at once made up. He gives a touching explanation to Rachel and Leah, and sets out secretly; for there was no such confidence in God with a pure conscience as divested himself of fear.
There was the unseen hand of God; but the power and the honor of God could not be righteously found in such a course. Grace would give these another day: they could not rightly be as yet. He steals away therefore timidly, pursued as if he were a thief by his father-in-law, whom however God takes gravely in hand, coming to him in a dream by night.
The Syrian (Laban) is warned to beware what he says or does to Jacob, and even obliged to confess it himself. While Jacob lays his remonstrance before him, Laban after all cannot but seek his aid, and enters into a special covenant with the very man he had overtaken in his flight.