Bdtyktl

How should we understand Gen 31:24 in view of the context (i.e., Laban speaks to Jacob) and an apparent Hebrew language nuance?

The King James Version (“KJV”) provides a marginal note at Gen 31:24 that indicates that the text segment “either good or bad” is “from good to bad” in Hebrew.

And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night, and said unto him, Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad. {either...: Heb. from good to bad}

Trying to perceive Hebrew with a western understanding can be tricky because not everything fits.

Hebrew doesn’t really have the word evil, ra is really just bad and good is tob or tov but they are seen as balancing each other. One cannot exist without the other.

Take light and dark. Westerners see light as good and dark as bad but an easterner sees them as functional and disfinctional (non functional)

So when Laban is told say neither good nor bad

It helps me to phrase it a little like this

Don’t say anything functional or disfinctional
Don’t say anything with intention to act or without intention to act
Don’t threaten Jacob with intention or without intention

I feel it means don’t threaten Jacob

Same with Absalom he didn’t threaten his brother. He said neither good nor bad. He gave his brother no reason to feel threatened.

What I don’t think it means is, ignore

The Hebrew phrase in question is מִטּוֹב עַד־רָע (metov ad ra), literally “from good to bad.”

According to Gesenius on מן...עד (min...ad),¹

There are used in opposition to each other—(α) מִן אֶל … from … unto (see אֶל let. a, 1); often for tam, quam, whether, or. Psa. 144:13, מִזַּן אֶל־וַן “from kind to kind,” i.e. things of every kind.—(β) מִן … עִד and מִן … וְעַד. Lev. 13:12, מֵרֹאשׁ וְעַד רַגְלָיו “from his head to his feet;” Isaiah 1:6; 1 Ki. 6:24. This phrase is often used when all things are without distinction to be included, as if from beginning to end, from extremity to extremity. Jon. 3:5, מִגְּדֹלָם וְעַד קְטַנָּם “from the highest to the lowest,” i.e. all; hence it often is tam, quam, both … and, Ex. 22:3; Deu. 29:10; 1 Sa. 30:19; and with a particle of negation, neither, nor. Gen. 14:23, אִם מִחוּט וְעַד שְׁרוֹךְ־נַעַל “neither a thread nor a shoe latchet;” Gen. 31:24.—(γ) מִן … -ָ֫ה. Eze. 25:13, מִתֵּימָן … וּדְדָ֫נָה “from Teman … even to Dedan.”

The particle of negation in the clause in question is פֶּן (pen)² which precedes the verb תְּדַבֵּר.

Hence, the phrase

וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ הִשָּׁמֶר לְךָ פֶּן־תְּדַבֵּר עִם־יַעֲקֹב מִטּוֹב עַד־רָֽע

would be translated as,

And he said to him, “Be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.

or

And he said to him, “Be careful that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.

Footnotes

¹ Gesenius, p. 483, מִן and מִ·, number (3)
²id., p. 678, פֵּן:

II. פֵּן pr. subst. removing, taking away (from the root פָּנָה PI. No. 1), always in constr. פֶּן־ (followed by Makkeph) it becomes a conj. of removing, prohibiting, hindering, i.q. μή, ne, lest.

References

Gesenius, Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm. Gesenius’s Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures. Trans. Tregelles, Samuel Prideaux. London: Bagster, 1860.