Although you have felt through all my goods: Revised Standard Version translates the Hebrew ki clause as a concessive clause meaning something like “In spite of having searched,” or “Even though you have searched.” It is also possible to translate as a statement; for example, “You have just searched through all my goods….”

What have you found of all your household goods?: this may be handled as an ordinary question, or be expressed as a rhetorical question, or as a negative statement. For example, “Well, have you found any of your household goods?” “So, you have found none of your household goods.” The form this question will take in translation depends in part upon how the following sentence is rendered.

Since Jacob knows that nothing belonging to Laban has been found in his camp baggage, his next remark should be understood as ridiculing Laban.

Set it here: that is, “Put it here in front of everyone.” Some translations say “Bring it outside into the open” or “Come on! Bring it out here where … can see them.”

My kinsmen and your kinsmen: Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation take the view that these are two distinct groups of people. It is just as likely, however, that these are one and the same people, since relatives of Laban, at least on his father’s side, would also be acknowledged as relatives of Jacob. It then has the meaning “these people, who are both my kinsmen and yours.” Earlier in this same speech, in verse 32, Jacob refers to the people who will be witness to the punishment of whoever may have stolen Laban’s gods; there he calls them “our kinsmen,” and they seem to be the same people that he now calls my kinsmen and your kinsmen. Perhaps the explanation for Jacob’s changed way of referring to these people is that, even though they may all have been related to the two men, nevertheless some were with Laban and supported him, while others were with Jacob and supported him. It is unlikely that two groups of opposed kinsmen could decide who was at fault in a matter such as this. But it would have been very important that those who witnessed what happened between the two men should have come from the two camps. We may take it, then, that Jacob is making a point about the relatives who were present, even though in another sense they were all relatives of both men.

In translation each translator should weigh up what the two different expressions “our relatives” and “my relatives and your relatives” will mean for readers in this context. In some languages the expression “our relatives” will certainly be understood as “my relatives and your relatives”; in this case “in front of our relatives” is a satisfactory rendering. However, in other languages “our relatives” may not give any sense of their being attached to one or other of the two men; if this is the case, it may be best to translate more literally, “my relatives and your relatives,” or to say something like “our relatives, those who are with me and those who are with you.”

That they may decide between us two: the relatives of the two men would decide which of the two men, Laban or Jacob, was in the right. It may be necessary to adjust decide between us by saying, for example, “decide who is in the right, you or me.” In some languages it may be necessary to express more fully the thoughts or actions that are involved in decide between us; for example, “they can test our words, and we can know…” or “they can look at the accusations between us and recognize….”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .