And she said to her father, Let it not displease my lord that I cannot rise up before you; for the custom of women is upon me. And he searched, but found not the images.
All Commentaries on Genesis 31:35 Go To Genesis 31
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Wonderful is the shrewdness of Rachel, by which she succeeded in outwitting Laban. Let those heed it who are victims of deceit and give great importance to the worship of idols. “She put them under the camel saddles,” the text says, “and sat on them.” What could be more ridiculous than these people? Although endowed with reason and accorded such wonderful preeminence in God’s loving kindness, they bring themselves to worship lifeless stone, and, far from being ashamed or having any sense of such absurdity, they even make a habit of it like dumb animals. Hence Paul also wrote in these words, “You know that when you were pagans, it was to mute idols you went off in your frenzy.” Rightly did he say “mute”; people with the faculty of speech, enjoying reason and hearing, betake themselves to things of no such faculties like irrational animals. What excuse would such people in fact deserve? Homilies on Genesis
