Laban Searches for His Stolen Idols – Genesis 31:33

Moshe Zipor (The Septuagint Version of the Book of Genesis, 386) reconstructs as follows:

ויבא לבן ויחפש באהל לאה ולא מצא ויצא מאהל לאה ויחפש באהל יעקב ובאהל שתי האמהות ולא מצא. ויבא גם באהל רחל.

The Peshitta does not have this word. The Vulgate omits the phrase “leaving Leah’s tent” altogether. They are likely trying to solve the same problem as LXX, that the search of Rachel’s tent is out of sequence.

Rashi suggests an original solution: Jacob’s tent, which is visited first by Laban, is also Rachel’s tent which he frequented much as her husband. Rashi notes that only Rachel is named “Jacob’s wife” in Scripture: “The sons of Jacob’s wife Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin” (Gen 49:16). According to Rashi, Laban thus first came to the tent of Jacob and Rachel, then to that of Leah, then again to that of Rachel and of the maidservants. Next to the sequence of the events in MT and the LXX, this is thus a third scenario.

MT, SP, and Peshitta present Laban searching first in the tent of Jacob, then in that of Leah, then in that of the two maidservants. The verse then continues by saying that Laban left Leah’s tent and went to Rachel’s either contradicting the first half or showing that Rachel’s was searched after Leah’s but that the text skipped over this at first and is now returning to it.

For an additional harmonizing plus, see the editorial addition in the LXX of v. 32 “And he did not discover anything with him” based on the preceding words “discover what I have of yours, and take it.”