26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service with which I have served you."
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Give me my wives,.... His two wives, Leah and Rachel, and the two maids, Bilhah and Zilpah, which he had given him for wives also; he desires leave not to have them, but to take them away with him:
and my children; his twelve children; he did not desire his father-in- law to take any of them, and keep them for him, but was desirous of having them with him: no doubt, for the sake of their education, though he had nothing of his own wherewith to support them; not doubting that God would make good his promise in giving him food and raiment, and returning him to his country; and which his faith applied to his family as well as to himself:
for whom I have served thee; not for his children, but for his wives, his two wives:
and let me go; free from thy service, and to my own country:
for thou knowest my service which I have done thee: how much and great it is, and with what diligence and faithfulness it has been performed, and that the time of it fixed and agreed upon was at an end.
*More commentary available at chapter level.