Good and Evil. Tov and Ra.
In the Hebrew:
– Genesis 2: Tov AND Ra.
– Genesis 24: Ra OR Tov.
– Genesis 31: FROM Tov TO Ra.
– Genesis 50: You intended Ra; God intended Tov.
Perhaps this is the whole story.
Then God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
Genesis 31:24 (NIV)
What’s fascinating about this passage is that the “good or bad” is the same “tov” and “ra” from the garden. It points to the deception of the serpent re: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Laban is called “the Aramean,” which we already know refers to his trickery.
When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say, “my wife,” thinking, “the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, since she is beautiful.”
<citeGenesis 26:7 (NASB)
One reason the rabbis suggest the men of Gerar never kidnapped Rebekah is because she wasn’t, in fact, “beautiful.”
The Hebrew word here is טוֹב (tov). It means GOOD, but is sometimes translated as beautiful.
Sarah, in Genesis 12, is יָפֶה (yafeh), which is always BEAUTIFUL.