And Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father's.
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George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Her father's idols. By this it appears, that Laban was an idolater: and some of the fathers are of opinion, that Rachel stole away these idols, to withdraw him from idolatry, by removing the occasion of his sin. (Challoner)
Others think she was herself infected with this superstition, till Jacob entirely banished it from his family in Chanaan, chap. xxxv. 2. (Tirinus)
The Hebrew Teraphim, is translated images by the Protestants in this place, though it certainly denotes idols. But Osee iii. 4, they leave it untranslated, lest they should be forced to allow that images pertain to religious service, as well as sacrifice, which are mentioned together, (Worthington) though they now indeed leave images in the same verse of Osee for what the Vulgate renders altar. These teraphims are consequently taken in a good as well as in a bad sense. They were, perhaps, made of rich metal, and taken by Rachel and Lia to indemnify them for the want of a dowry. This, however, was wrong, and done without...
This was included not by chance but for us to know how they still clung to their ancestral habits and showed great devotion to the household gods. I mean, consider how [Rachel] went to so much trouble as to steal nothing else of her father’s than the household gods alone and did it without her husband noticing; Jacob would not have allowed it to happen, you see.
