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GENESIS Heart of David Study Bible

to these my daughters, or to their children whom they have borne? Now come, let us make
a covenant, you and I; and let it be for a witness between me and you.”
Ya`aqob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. Ya`aqob said to his relatives, “Gather
stones.” They took stones, and made a heap. They ate there by the heap. Laban called it
Yegar Sahadutha [“witness heap” in Aramaic], but Ya`aqob called it Galed [“witness
heap” in Hebrew]. Laban said, “This heap is witness between me and you this day.”
Therefore it was named Galed, also Mitspah, for he said, “Yahweh watch between me and
you, when we are absent one from another. If you afflict my daughters, or if you take
wives besides my daughters, no man is with us; behold, Elohim is witness between me and
you.” Laban said to Ya`aqob, “See this heap, and see the pillar, which I have set between
me and you. May this heap be a witness, and the pillar be a witness, that I will not pass
over this heap to you, and that you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, for
harm. The Elohim of Abraham, and the Elohim of Nokor, the Elohim of their father, judge
between us.” Then Ya`aqob swore by the fear of his father, Yitshak.
Ya`aqob offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his relatives to eat bread.
They ate bread, and stayed all night in the mountain. Early in the morning, Laban rose up,
and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Laban departed and returned to
his place.
Ya`aqob went on his way, and the angels of Elohim met him. When he saw them,
Ya`aqob said, “This is Elohim’s camp.” He called the name of that place Mahanaim
[Camps].
Ya`aqob sent messengers in front of him to Esau, his brother, to the land of Seir, the
field of Edom. He commanded them, saying, “This is what you shall tell my lord, Esau:
‘This is what your servant, Ya`aqob, says. I have lived as a foreigner with Laban, and
stayed until now. I have cattle, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have
sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.’” The messengers returned to
Ya`aqob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau. Not only that, but he comes to meet you,
and four hundred men with him.” Then Ya`aqob was greatly afraid and was distressed. He
divided the people who were with him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into
two companies; and he said, “If Esau comes to the one company, and strikes it, then the
company which is left will escape.” Ya`aqob said, “Elohim of my father Abraham, and
Elohim of my father Yitshak, Yahweh, who said to me, ‘Return to your country, and to
your relatives, and I will do you good,’ I am not worthy of the least of all the loving
kindnesses, and of all the truth, which you have shown to your servant; for with just my
staff I passed over this Yarden; and now I have become two companies. Please deliver me
from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he come and strike
me, and the mothers with the children. You said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make
your seed as the sand of the sea, which can’t be numbered because there are so many.’”

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