Jacob and Laban Establish a Peace Treaty with Each Other

31:43-55

43 Then Laban responded to Jacob, “These women are my daughters, and their children are my grandchildren, and these flocks are also mine. In fact, all that you see here is mine! But there is nothing I can do today to keep my daughters or their children near me any longer! 44 So then, you and I should make a peace treaty with each other, and there should be something to remind us to keep that treaty.” 45 So Jacob picked out a large stone and set it up on its end as a monument to mark the place where they made their treaty. 46 Then he told his relatives, “Gather some more stones.” So they all gathered stones and put them in a large pile. Then everyone ate a meal together there next to the pile of stones. 47 Laban gave the pile the Aramaic name Jegar Sahadutha, which means “pile that reminds,” while Jacob gave it the Hebrew name Galeed, which has the same meaning. 48 Laban said to him, “Starting today this pile of stones will remind you and me about our peace treaty.” That is why the name of that place is Galeed. 49 Another name for the place is Mizpah, which means “watchtower,” because Laban said to Jacob, “May Yahweh watch both of us to make sure that we keep our treaty while we are apart from each other. 50 If you treat my daughters badly, or if you marry other wives besides them, remember that even if no one else is watching us, God is always watching both of us to hold us accountable.”

51 Then Laban also said to Jacob, “Here is this pile of stones, and here is this monument which we stood up between us to remind us about our peace treaty. 52 This pile of stones and this monument both remind us that I must never go past this pile to attack you, and that you must never go past this pile and this monument to attack me. 53 May your grandfather Abraham’s God and my grandfather Nahor’s gods, which were also their father Terah’s gods, judge between us and punish us if we break this agreement!” But Jacob made a vow by the God whom his father Isaac revered that he would keep their treaty, 54 and he burned the body of an animal on an altar as a sacrifice to God on the mountain. Then he invited his relatives to eat a meal together there. So they all ate the meal together and spent the night there.

55 Early the next morning Laban got up and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters goodbye on the cheeks and asked God to bless them. Then he and his men left from there and returned home.