Genesis 31:43-55

Modern English Version

Laban’s Covenant With Jacob

⁴³ Laban answered and said to Jacob, “These daughters are my daughters, and these children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to my daughters or to their children whom they have borne? ⁴⁴ Now therefore come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be as a witness between you and me.”

⁴⁵ So Jacob took a stone and set it up for a pillar. ⁴⁶ Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a pile, and they ate there on the pile. ⁴⁷ And Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.

⁴⁸ Laban said, “This pile is a witness between me and you this day.” Therefore its name was called Galeed, ⁴⁹ and Mizpah, for he said, “May the Lord watch between you and me, when we are apart from one another. ⁵⁰ If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take other wives beside my daughters, although no one else is with us, remember that God is witness between you and me.”

⁵¹ Then Laban said to Jacob, “See this pile and see this pillar which I have thrown between you and me. ⁵² This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, so that I will not cross over this pile to you and so that you will not pass over this pile and this pillar to me for harm. ⁵³ The God of Abraham, the God of Nahor, and the God of their father, judge between us.”

Then Jacob vowed by the Fear of his father Isaac. ⁵⁴ Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his kinsmen to eat bread. And they ate bread and stayed all night on the mountain.

⁵⁵ Early in the morning Laban rose up, kissed his grandchildren and his daughters, and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place.