And Laban went into Jacob's tent, and into Leah's tent, and into the two maidservants' tents; but he found them not. Then went he out of Leah's tent, and entered into Rachel's tent.
All Commentaries on Genesis 31:33 Go To Genesis 31
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
But this pertains to the moral sense, whereas the mystical sense is that Laban, whose name means “lie that has been purified”—and even Satan transfigures himself into an angel of light—came to Jacob and began to demand his possessions from him. Jacob answered him, “Identify whatever of yours I may have,” that is, “I have nothing of yours. See if you recognize any of your vices and crimes. I have not carried off with me any of your deceits, and I have no share in your guile; all that is yours I have shunned as a contagion.” Laban searched and found nothing that was his. How happy is the one in whom the enemy has found nothing that he could call his own, and in whom the devil has come upon nothing that he could call his own, and in whom the devil has come upon nothing that he would recognize as his own. That appeared to be impossible in the case of humanity, but Christ supplied the model of it when he said in the Gospel, “The prince of this world will come, and in me he will find nothing.” Now whatever belongs to the devil is nothing, because he can have no lasting possession.
