What Does Genesis 31:55 Mean?

Early in the morning Laban arose and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned home. The farewell Laban had said he would have given gladly if informed (verse 27) now happens after the fact: he rises early, kisses the grandchildren and daughters, blesses them, and departs. The sequence is the proper farewell that custom required, arrived at through the tortuous path of pursuit, confrontation, accusations, counter-accusations, search, and covenant-making. What should have happened at the beginning happened at the end.

The kissing of the grandchildren first, then the daughters, places the future generation at the center of the farewell. Laban will see these children (his grandchildren) for the last time. The twelve patriarchal sons who will give their names to the tribes of Israel are here kissed by the Aramean grandfather who will have no further role in the covenant story. The Aramean connection that gave Israel's patriarchs their mothers' family is being separated at this farewell.

Laban's blessing of his daughters and grandchildren is the farewell blessing that Genesis 28:1-4 showed Isaac giving Jacob. Both men send their beloved people out with a formal blessing. Laban's blessing is less elaborate than Isaac's covenant blessing; it contains no specific promises and no covenant content. It is the blessing of a father and grandfather releasing his family to a future he cannot control. "Then Laban departed and returned home" is the narrative's simple closure of the twenty-year chapter: the uncle-employer-father-in-law turns and goes back to where he came from, and the Jacob story moves on to Canaan without him.