Genesis 31:43-44

"And Laban answered and said unto Jacob, the daughters are my daughters, and the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks, and all that thou seest is mine: and what can I do this day unto these daughters, or unto the children whom they have borne? And now come, let us make a covenant, I and thee; and let it be for a witness between me and thee."

Laban had probably intended violently to plunder Jacob, perhaps kill him, and return everything to Haran, but the natural concern he had for his daughters and their children, and the remembrance of the warning God had specifically given him the night before restrained him. He admitted his inability to do anything about the situation and proposed, instead, the making of a covenant.

God's appearance to Laban was the same type as His appearance in an earlier event to Abimelech, indicating that, for special reasons, God sometimes communicated with persons outside the covenant. It is also possible that He did so in the case of Pharaoh when he had taken Sarah into his harem.

Jacob promptly agreed to the making of a covenant. It afforded a face-saving way out of the impasse for all concerned.