Genesis 31:51-53 - Exposition

And Laban said to Jacob, —according to Ewald the last narrator has transposed the names of Laban and Jacob— Behold this heap, and behold this pillar, which I have cast (same word as in Genesis 31:45 . The Arabic version and Samaritan text read yaritha , thou hast erected, instead of yarithi , I have erected or cast up) betwixt me and thee; this heap be witness, and this pillar be witness, that (literally, if, here = that ) I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar (Laban bound himself never to pass over the heap which he had erected as his witness; whereas Jacob was required to swear that he would never cross the pillar and the pile, both of which were witnesses for him) unto me, for harm . The emphatic word closes the sentence. The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge —the verb is plural, either because Laban regarded the Elohim of Nahor as different from the Elohim of Abraham (Rosenmüller, Keil, Kalisch, Wordsworth, 'Speaker's Commentary'), or because, though acknowledging only one Elohim, he viewed him as maintaining several and distinct relations to the persons named— betwixt us. Laban here invokes his own hereditary Elohim, the Elohim of Abraham's father, to guard his rights and interests under the newly-formed covenant; while Jacob in his adjuration appeals to the Elohim of Abraham's son. And Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac ( vide supra , Genesis 31:42 ).