Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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We have here the compromising of the matter between Laban and Jacob. Laban had nothing to say in reply to Jacob's remonstrance: he could neither justify himself nor condemn Jacob, but was convicted by his own conscience of the wrong he had done him; and therefore desires to hear no more of the matter He is not willing to own himself in a fault, nor to ask Jacob's forgiveness, and make him satisfaction, as he ought to have done. But,
He turns it off with a profession of kindness for Jacob's wives and children (Ge 31:43): These daughters are my daughters. When he cannot excuse what he has done, he does, in effect, own what he should have done; he should have treated them as his own, but he had counted them as strangers, Ge 31:15. Note, It is common for those who are without natural affection to pretend much to it when it will serve a turn. Or perhaps Laban said this in a vain-glorious say, as one that loved to talk big, and use great swelling words of vanity: "All that thou seest is mine." It was not so, it was all Jacob's, and he had paid dearly for it; yet Jacob let him have his saying, perceiving him coming into a better humour. Note, Property lies near the hearts of worldly people. They love to boast of it, "This is mine, and the other is mine," as Nabal, 1Sa 25:11, my bread and my water.
44 Now therefore come thou, let us make a covenant, I and thou; and
let it be for a witness between me and thee.
45 And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. 46 And Jacob said unto his brethren, Gather stones; and they took
stones, and made a heap: and they did eat there upon the heap.
47 And Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha [the heap of witness]: but
Jacob called it Galeed [the heap of witness].
48 And Laban said, this heap is a witness between me and thee this
day. Therefore was the name of it called Galeed,
49 and Mizpah [a beacon or watchtower]; for he said, The Lord watch
between me and thee, when we are absent one from another.
50 If thou shalt afflict my daughters, or if thou shalt take other wives
beside my daughters, no man is with us; see, God is witness betwixt me and thee.