Genesis 31:45-49

"And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. And Jacob said unto his brethren, Gather stones; and they took stones and made a heap: and they did eat there by the heap. And Laban called it Jegar-sathadutha: but Jacob called it Galeed, And Laban said, This heap is witness between me and thee this day. Therefore was the name of it called Galeed; and Mizpah, for he said, Jehovah watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another."

See the chapter introduction for a discussion of the pillar and the cairn of stones, which are here indiscriminately referred to first as one, and then as the other, indicating that they were probably combined just as were the names, one given by Laban, the other by Jacob. It is evident that the covenant meant two different things to the participants. To Jacob, it was a victory; to Laban it was a face-saving device.

What Laban meant by his statement was, "May God watch you, when I can't! ... This covenant arose out of mutual suspicion and sought protection not for the other but for themselves from the other's malice."[29] Laban also added some stipulations of his own designed to protect his daughters.