Genesis 31:39-55 ▼

39 That which was torn of beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it myself. You required it of my hand whether stolen by day or stolen by night.

40 Thus I was: by day the heat consumed me and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes.

41 These twenty years I have been in your house; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you changed my wages ten times.

42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the dread of Isaac, had not been for me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, so He rendered the decision last night.”

43 Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, and the 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 these daughters of mine or to their children whom they have borne?

44 So now come, let us cut a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and me.”

45 Then Jacob took a stone and raised it up as a pillar.

46 And Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap.

47 And Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.

48 Then Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me this day.” Therefore it was named Galeed,

49 and Mizpah, for he said, “May Yahweh watch between you and me when we are absent one from the other.

50 If you afflict my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.”

51 And Laban said to Jacob, “Behold this heap and behold the pillar which I have set between you and me.

52 This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass by this heap to you for harm, and you will not pass by this heap and this pillar to me for harm.

53 The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Jacob swore by the dread of his father Isaac.

54 Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his relatives to eat a meal; and they ate the meal and spent the night on the mountain.

55 And Laban arose early in the morning and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place.