Commentary for Genesis 31:32

לא יחיה LET HIM NOT LIVE — In consequence of this curse Rachel died on the journey (Genesis Rabbah 74:9).

לא יחיה, meaning that Yaakov himself will avenge such a crime from its perpetrator.

לא יחיה. He thought that one of the servants must have stolen the teraphim in order to worship them as he had been in the habit of doing before becoming part of Yaakov’s household.

לא יחיה, "he shall not live!" Jacob applied the legal yardsticks applicable to all Gentiles, i.e. the death penalty. Should you argue that there was no need to spell out the penalty seeing everybody knew what the penalty for stealing was, Jacob wanted to emphasise that he would not plead that he had received these תרפים as a gift or had simply forgotten to return them.

עם אשר תמצא את אלוקיך לא יחיה, “the one in whose possession you will find your deities shall not live.” Some commentators hold that this is not the formula used in a curse, but that Yaakov meant to say that such a person did not deserve to live, but deserved to be hung as a thief. If he were to be convicted of the death penalty, Yaakov promised to be the first one to assist in the execution.

עם אשר תמצא את אלוהיך לא יחיה, “the person in whose possession you will find your idols shall not live!” This curse resulted in Rachel dying on route; from here we also learn that a person must be very careful not to cause a righteous person to curse him.

Wie muss Jakob es verstanden haben, seinen Geist allen großen und kleinen Gliedern seines Hauses einzuprägen, dass er mit so voller Zuversicht darauf rechnen konnte, auch ein kleines Kind werde es nicht gewagt haben, auch nur eine Stecknadel mit hinweg zu nehmen, die nicht sein war. Jakob wusste freilich nicht von Rachels Tat und würde sie trotz der Motive nicht gebilligt haben.

מה עמדי WHAT IS WITH ME that belongs to you.

הכר לך מה עמדי, if you can find amongst my possessions any that you recognise as belonging to you, take them!

נגד אחינו הכר לך מה עמדי וקח לך, “in the presence of our kinsmen ascertain for yourself what is with me and take it back.” This proves Yaakov’s integrity. It is typical of the righteous that they do not covet money which is not theirs, not even if it belongs to close relatives. Yaakov who had stayed at his father-in-law’s house for twenty years and whose father-in-law had experienced tremendous blessings due to Yaakov, as he himself admitted, allowed his father-in-law to examine every part of his household and search for any item not his. Lavan actually was not abashed to take advantage of that opportunity as we know from Yaakov saying at the end (verse 37) “for you have handled everything; what did you find?”

ולא ידע יעקב, if he had known that Rachel had taken the teraphim he would not have had the audacity to deny this. Also, he most certainly would not have cursed her by saying “he shall not live!” [actually he had not cursed the thief but the one with whom the stolen goods would be found, and in the event Lavan never did find the teraphim. Ed.]