Genesis 31:21 - Exposition

So (literally, and) he fled with (literally, and) all that he had ; and he rose up, and passed over the river ,— i . e . the Euphrates, which was called by preeminence the river (cf. 1 Kings 4:21 ; Ezra 4:10 , Ezra 4:16 )—and set his face toward the mount Gilead. גִּלְעַד , according to Gesenius, "the hard, stony region," from an unused quadrilateral root, signifying to be hard, though, according to the historian (by a slight change in the punctuation), "The hill, or heap of witness," from the transaction recorded in Genesis 31:45-47 , which name it here proleptically receives, was not the mountain-range to the south of the Jahbok, now styled Jebel Jilad (Gesenius), Jebel-as-Salt (Robinson), Jebel-osha (Tristram), since Jacob had not yet crossed the river, but that upon its northern hank, called Jebel Ajlun, and situated near Mahanaim (Delitzsch, Keil, Kalisch, Porter).

HOMILETICS