Genesis 31:43-47

31:43 Laban replied ¹  to Jacob, “These women ²  are my daughters, these children are my grandchildren, ³  and these flocks are my flocks. All that you see belongs to me. But how can I harm these daughters of mine today ⁴  or the children to whom they have given birth? 31:44 So now, come, let’s make a formal agreement, ⁵  you and I, and it will be ⁶  proof that we have made peace.” ⁷ 

31:45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a memorial pillar. 31:46 Then he ⁸  said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” So they brought stones and put them in a pile. ⁹  They ate there by the pile of stones. 31:47 Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, ¹⁰  but Jacob called it Galeed. ¹¹ 

[31:43]  ¹ tn Heb “answered and said.”

[31:43]  ² tn Heb “daughters.”

[31:43]  ³ tn Heb “children.”

[31:43]  ⁴ tn Heb “but to my daughters what can I do to these today?”

[31:44]  ⁵ tn Heb “cut a covenant.”

[31:44]  ⁶ tn The verb הָיָה (hayah) followed by the preposition לְ (lÿ) means “become.”

[31:44]  ⁷ tn Heb “and it will become a witness between me and you.”

[31:46]  ⁹ tn Heb “Jacob”; the proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[31:46]  ¹⁰ sn The Hebrew word for “pile” is גַּל (gal), which sounds like the name “Galeed” (גַּלְעֵד, gal’ed). See v. 48.

[31:47]  ¹³ sn Jegar Sahadutha. Laban the Aramean gave the place an Aramaic name which means “witness pile” or “the pile is a witness.”

[31:47]  ¹⁴ 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.