Jacob and Laban made a solemn promise not to harm each other

43 Laban replied, “These two women are my daughters, and their children are my grandchildren, and the animals are my animals. Everything you see here is mine [HYP]! But what can I do today to keep my daughters or the children they have given birth to [RHQ]? 44 I cannot do anything in order to keep them, so hey, we should make a peace agreement, you and I, and do something that will remind us about our agreement.”

45 So Jacob took a large stone and set it on its end. 46 Then Jacob said to his relatives, “You also gather some stones.” So they gathered some rocks and put them in a heap, and they ate some food there near the heap. 47 Laban gave the heap the Aramaic name Jegar-Sahadutha, which means ‘rock-pile to remind us’, but Jacob gave the rock-pile the Hebrew name Galeed, which has the same meaning. 48 Laban said to Jacob, “This pile of rocks we have put here today will help us to remember our agreement.” That is why Jacob called it Galeed. 49 They also named the place Mizpah, which sounds like the Hebrew word that means ‘watchtower’, because Laban said, “We will ask Yahweh to watch you and me while we are separated from each other, so that we do not try to harm each other. 50 If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take other women to be your wives, even if no one tells me about it, don’t forget that God sees what you and I are doing!”

51 Laban also said to Jacob, “You see this large stone and this pile of rocks that we have set up to be between us. 52 Both this pile of rocks and this large stone will remind us, that I will not go past these rocks to harm you, and you will not go past these rocks to harm me. 53 We will ask the God whom your grandfather Abraham and his father Nahor worshiped to punish [MTY] either one of us, if we harm the other one.”

So Jacob solemnly promised to do what they said in their peace agreement. And he asked God, the one before whom his father Isaac trembled, to listen to what they promised. 54 He offered a sacrifice to God there in the hilly area, and he invited his relatives to eat with him. After they had eaten, they slept there that night. 55 The next morning Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters goodbye and asked God to bless them. Then he and his men left them and returned home.