John Calvin Commentary Genesis 31:19

"Now Laban was gone to shear his sheep: and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father`s." — Genesis 31:19 (ASV)

And Rachel had stolen. Although the Hebrews sometimes call those images teraphim, which are not presented as objects of worship, yet since this term is commonly used in a negative sense, I do not doubt that they were the household gods of Laban. Even he himself, shortly afterwards, expressly calls them his gods.

It appears from this how great the propensity of the human mind to idolatry is, since in all ages this evil has prevailed; namely, that men seek out for themselves visible representations of God. Fewer than two hundred years had passed since Noah’s death; Shem had died only a short time before. His teaching, handed down by tradition, ought most of all to have flourished among Terah’s descendants, because the Lord had chosen this family for himself as the only sanctuary on earth where he was to be worshipped in purity.

Shem’s own voice was sounding in their ears until Abraham’s death. Yet now, from Terah himself, the common filth of superstition inundated this place, while the patriarch Shem was still living and speaking. And though there is no doubt that he endeavored with all his power to bring his descendants back to a right mind, we see what his success was.

Indeed, it is not to be believed that Bethuel had been entirely ignorant of Abraham’s call; yet, on that account, neither he nor his family was withdrawn from this vanity. Holy Jacob also had not been silent during twenty years but had endeavored by counsel and admonition to correct these gross vices, but in vain, because superstition, in its violent course, prevailed.

Therefore, the very antiquity of its origin bears witness that idolatry is almost innate in the human mind. And that it is so firmly fixed there as to be scarcely capable of being uprooted shows its obstinacy. But it is still more absurd that not even Rachel could be healed of this contagion after such a long time.

She had often heard her husband speaking of the true and genuine worship of God, yet she was so addicted to the corruptions she had imbibed from her childhood that she was ready to infect the land chosen by God with them. She imagined that, with her husband, she was following God as her leader, and at the same time, she took with her the idols by which she would subvert his worship.

It is even possible that by the excessive indulgence of his beloved wife, Jacob might have given too much encouragement to such superstitions. Therefore, let pious heads of families learn to use their utmost diligence so that no stain of evil may remain in their wives or children. Some inconsiderately excuse Rachel on the ground that, by a pious theft, she wished to purge her father’s house of idols.

But if this had been her design, why, in crossing the Euphrates, did she not cast away these abominations? Why did she not, after her departure, explain to her husband what she had done? But there is no need for conjecture, since, from the remainder of the account, it is manifest that Jacob’s house was polluted with idols, even up to the time of Dinah’s violation.

It was not, then, Rachel’s piety but her insane hankering after superstition that impelled her to the theft, because she thought that God could not be worshipped except through idols. For this is the source of the disease: that since men are carnal, they imagine God to be carnal too.