seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Genesis 31:43 Laban answered Jacob, “The women are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks. All you see is mine. Yet what can I do today about these daughters of mine, or about the children they have borne? 44 Come now, let’s make a covenant, you and I, and let it serve as a witness between us.”
45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. 46 He said to his relatives, “Gather some stones.” So they took stones and piled them in a heap, and they ate there by the heap. 47 Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed.(b)
48 Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” That is why it was called Galeed. 49 It was also called Mizpah,[c] because he said, “May the Lord keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other. 50 If you mistreat my daughters or if you take any wives besides my daughters, even though no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me.”
45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. 46 He said to his relatives, “Gather some stones.” So they took stones and piled them in a heap, and they ate there by the heap. 47 Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed.(b)
48 Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” That is why it was called Galeed. 49 It was also called Mizpah,[c] because he said, “May the Lord keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other. 50 If you mistreat my daughters or if you take any wives besides my daughters, even though no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me.”
Genesis 31:18 That is, Northwest Mesopotamia
Genesis 31:47 The Aramaic Jegar Sahadutha and the Hebrew Galeed both mean witness heap.
Genesis 31:49 Mizpah means watchtower
I went right to the studylight.org commentary.
Laban boldly said that everything Jacob had actually belonged to him. Yet, in a supposed gesture of generosity, he said to Jacob: It is mine, but Jacob, out of the generosity of my heart, Ill let you have it.
In this covenant, Laban expressed how suspicious he was of Jacob. The idea of Mizpah (watch) is If you do wrong, God will see it and may He punish.
In effect, the pillar of Mizpah meant, If you come over on my side of this line, the pact is void and I will kill you. The covenant breaker would need God to take care of him, because the other would shoot to kill. Mizpah was never meant to be a nice sentiment - despite what a Mizpah coin shared between two people might say.
In this covenant, Laban expressed how suspicious he was of Jacob. The idea of Mizpah (watch) is If you do wrong, God will see it and may He punish.
In effect, the pillar of Mizpah meant, If you come over on my side of this line, the pact is void and I will kill you. The covenant breaker would need God to take care of him, because the other would shoot to kill. Mizpah was never meant to be a nice sentiment - despite what a Mizpah coin shared between two people might say.
I found this in Bible-commentaries.com.
Jacob tells Laban that God has rebuked him in his dream and evidently Laban agrees, although he does not admit this in so many words. Yet, in spite of the fact that Laban had sold his daughters to Jacob, evidently contrary to the custom of his days, he still claims them as his own. He tells Jacob in verse 43 - "The women are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks. All you see is mine. Yet what can I do today about these daughters of mine, or about the children they have borne?" So he agrees to leave things as they are, admitting that there is nothing he can do about it and the status quo is sealed with a covenant.
As often with events that have little or no historical significance, they are accompanied by much pomp and rhetoric. Few places in the Bible have been given so many names as the place where Jacob and Laban agreed that they would never attack one another. The likelihood of an attack on either side was nil, from the side of Laban but even more so from Jacob's direction.
The place where a monument is built is given three names: Laban calls it "Jegar Sahadutha" meaning "the heap or round heap of witness" in Chaldee, according to Adam Clarke, and Jacob "Galeed" meaning the same in Hebrew, and "Mizpah," meaning "watchtower." The interesting feature of this verse is that it brings out the difference in languages used between Jacob and Laban. There may have been an initial language barrier between the two.
The heap of stones takes the place of a written document. Monuments are less precise in the rendering of the terms, but written documents were probably scarce and we may presume that people were mostly illiterate at that time. This would mean that their memory was keener than ours. The amount of reading we do daily has a tendency to clutter our mind. It makes us forget more easily. We do not have to remember what is written down, as long as we know where we can find it. Literacy is a mixed blessing. For Jacob and Laban it was enough to see the heap of stones to remember. Yet each one gives his own interpretation to the meaning of the monument. But diplomats do this in modern times also with the documents.
Laban warns Jacob not to mistreat his wives or to marry other wives. There is no indication that Jacob every mistreated Lea or Rachel or physically abused them. The harm he did to them was emotional, but it seems doubtful that Laban would have been concerned about that. If Jacob would marry other wives he would rob his sons of their heritage, or at least diminish their share. Since Laban was the one who pushed Jacob into plural marriage to start with the thrust of this advice was probably not a moral one. Most of what Laban says seems to be based on the fact that he still considers Jacob's family and his herds to be his by right. The suggestion that Jacob would pass the monument into Laban's direction with the purpose of attacking his father-in-law sounds preposterous. The remark is probably made to give some counter balance to the promise that Laban will not cross it in Jacob's direction with evil intent. Most of Laban's pronouncements sound rhetorical.
As often with events that have little or no historical significance, they are accompanied by much pomp and rhetoric. Few places in the Bible have been given so many names as the place where Jacob and Laban agreed that they would never attack one another. The likelihood of an attack on either side was nil, from the side of Laban but even more so from Jacob's direction.
The place where a monument is built is given three names: Laban calls it "Jegar Sahadutha" meaning "the heap or round heap of witness" in Chaldee, according to Adam Clarke, and Jacob "Galeed" meaning the same in Hebrew, and "Mizpah," meaning "watchtower." The interesting feature of this verse is that it brings out the difference in languages used between Jacob and Laban. There may have been an initial language barrier between the two.
The heap of stones takes the place of a written document. Monuments are less precise in the rendering of the terms, but written documents were probably scarce and we may presume that people were mostly illiterate at that time. This would mean that their memory was keener than ours. The amount of reading we do daily has a tendency to clutter our mind. It makes us forget more easily. We do not have to remember what is written down, as long as we know where we can find it. Literacy is a mixed blessing. For Jacob and Laban it was enough to see the heap of stones to remember. Yet each one gives his own interpretation to the meaning of the monument. But diplomats do this in modern times also with the documents.
Laban warns Jacob not to mistreat his wives or to marry other wives. There is no indication that Jacob every mistreated Lea or Rachel or physically abused them. The harm he did to them was emotional, but it seems doubtful that Laban would have been concerned about that. If Jacob would marry other wives he would rob his sons of their heritage, or at least diminish their share. Since Laban was the one who pushed Jacob into plural marriage to start with the thrust of this advice was probably not a moral one. Most of what Laban says seems to be based on the fact that he still considers Jacob's family and his herds to be his by right. The suggestion that Jacob would pass the monument into Laban's direction with the purpose of attacking his father-in-law sounds preposterous. The remark is probably made to give some counter balance to the promise that Laban will not cross it in Jacob's direction with evil intent. Most of Laban's pronouncements sound rhetorical.
I know that Jacob was a liar and a sneak. Laban seems to be able to go toe-to-toe with Jacob. That's what comes to mind when I hear that Jacob and Laban made a covenant.
Jesus comes from such a dysfunctional bunch of people.
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