Genesis 31:36 · World English Bible
Genesis 31:36 Meaning Jacob Was Angry
Jacob was angry, and argued with Laban. Jacob answered Laban, “What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me?
What does Genesis 31:36 mean?
When a mind demands to know what its sin is that another pursues it so hotly, it has already forgotten that the pursuer is its own guilt worn on a stranger's face. The anger flung outward and the accusation flung back are one exchange the mind is having with itself, each side certain the other struck first.
From the Christian Psychology reading below.
Genesis 31:36 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Christian Psychology
CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY
Christian Psychology
When a mind demands to know what its sin is that another pursues it so hotly, it has already forgotten that the pursuer is its own guilt worn on a stranger's face. The anger flung outward and the accusation flung back are one exchange the mind is having with itself, each side certain the other struck first.
There was no trespass to be answered, because the wrong was a figure in a dream, and the one who seems to chase can be released the moment the mind stops seeing its own guilt in him and sees a brother instead.
Laban: the pursuing figure that carries a mind's own projected guilt, the seeming enemy who is only its own accusation returned to it wearing another's face.
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Live Genesis 31:36 today
- When the imaginary argument starts up in the shower or the car, stop at the point where you demand to know what you did wrong, and let the whole case drop.
- In the next tense exchange, ask one real question about what the other person meant before you defend yourself.
- In traffic or a long line, when someone cuts in and the heat rises, let them go and say under your breath that they are having a day too.
In the argument I keep replaying, what am I accusing myself of?
The same truth in other traditions
Buddhism · the Akkosa Sutta
A man comes to abuse the Buddha and the Buddha asks what happens to a gift no one accepts. The insult stays with the one who offered it.
Tao Te Ching 79
The good person keeps no tally of wrongs. Where there is no account kept, there is no debt to collect.
Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius
The best answer to a wrong is to become unlike the one who did it. Anger costs the one who holds it more than the one it is aimed at.
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