Genesis 31:44-48

31:44 So now, come, let’s make a formal agreement, ¹  you and I, and it will be ²  proof that we have made peace.” ³ 

31:45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a memorial pillar. 31:46 Then he ⁴  said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” So they brought stones and put them in a pile. ⁵  They ate there by the pile of stones. 31:47 Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, ⁶  but Jacob called it Galeed. ⁷ 

31:48 Laban said, “This pile of stones is a witness of our agreement ⁸  today.” That is why it was called Galeed.

Genesis 31:52

31:52 “This pile of stones and the pillar are reminders that I will not pass beyond this pile to come to harm you and that you will not pass beyond this pile and this pillar to come to harm me. ⁹ 

Joshua 22:27-28

22:27 but as a reminder to us and you, ¹⁰  and to our descendants who follow us, that we will honor the Lord in his very presence ¹¹  with burnt offerings, sacrifices, and tokens of peace. ¹²  Then in the future your descendants will not be able to say to our descendants, ‘You have no right to worship the Lord.’ ¹³  22:28 We said, ‘If in the future they say such a thing ¹⁴  to us or to our descendants, we will reply, “See the model of the Lord’s altar that our ancestors ¹⁵  made, not for burnt offerings or sacrifices, but as a reminder to us and you.”’ ¹⁶ 

Joshua 24:27

24:27 Joshua said to all the people, “Look, this stone will be a witness against you, for it has heard everything the Lord said to us. ¹⁷  It will be a witness against you if ¹⁸  you deny your God.”

¹ tn Heb “cut a covenant.”

² tn The verb הָיָה (hayah) followed by the preposition לְ (lÿ) means “become.”

³ tn Heb “and it will become a witness between me and you.”

⁴ tn Heb “Jacob”; the proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁵ sn The Hebrew word for “pile” is גַּל (gal), which sounds like the name “Galeed” (גַּלְעֵד, gal’ed). See v. 48.

⁶ sn Jegar Sahadutha. Laban the Aramean gave the place an Aramaic name which means “witness pile” or “the pile is a witness.”

⁷ sn Galeed also means “witness pile” or “the pile is a witness,” but this name is Canaanite or Western Semitic and closer to later Hebrew. Jacob, though certainly capable of speaking Aramaic, here prefers to use the western dialect.

⁸ tn Heb “a witness between me and you.”

⁹ tn Heb “This pile is a witness and the pillar is a witness, if I go past this pile to you and if you go past this pile and this pillar to me for harm.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “but it is a witness between us and you.”

¹¹ tn Heb “to do the service of the Lord before him.”

¹² tn Or “peace offerings.”

¹³ tn Heb “You have no portion in the Lord.”

¹⁴ tn The words “such a thing” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

¹⁵ tn Heb “fathers.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “but it is a witness between us and you.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “all the words of the Lord which he spoke with us.”

¹⁸ tn Or “lest,” “so that you might not.”