Matthew Henry on Genesis 31:43–end
We have here the compromising of the matter between Laban and Jacob. Laban had nothing to say in reply to Jacob's remonstrance: he could neither justify himself nor condemn Jacob, but was convicted by his own conscience of the wrong he had done him; and therefore desires to hear no more of the matter He is not willing to own himself in a fault, nor to ask Jacob's forgiveness, and make him satisfaction, as he ought to have done. But,
I. He turns it off with a profession of kindness for Jacob's wives and children (Gen 31:43): These daughters are my daughters. When he cannot excuse what he has done, he does, in effect, own what he should have done; he should have treated them as his own, but he…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 31:44
Come thou, let us make a covenant--The way in which this covenant was ratified was by a heap of stones being laid in a circular pile, to serve as seats, and in the center of this circle a large one was set up perpendicularly for an altar. It is probable that a sacrifice was first offered, and then that the feast of reconciliation was partaken of by both parties seated on the stones around it. To this day heaps of stones, which have been used as memorials, are found abundantly in the region where this transaction took place.
Adam Clarke on Genesis 31:51
And Laban said to Jacob - behold this pillar, which I have cast betwixt me and thee - But this pillar, not cast but set up, was certainly set up by Jacob; for in Gen 31:45 we read, And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar: it is therefore for the honor of one Hebrew and one Samaritan MS. that they have preserved the true reading in Gen 31:51, ירית yaritha, Thou hast set up - Kennicott. Instead of either of the above readings the Samaritan text has yarata, The pillar which thou Seest betwixt me and thee.
John Gill on Genesis 31:51
And Laban said to Jacob,.... Continued speaking to him, as follows:
behold this heap, and behold this pillar which I have cast betwixt me and thee; the heap of stones seems to be gathered and laid together by the brethren, and the pillar to be erected by Jacob; and yet Laban says of them both, that he cast them, or erected them, they being done by his order, or with his consent, as well as Jacob's; unless the pillar can be thought to design another beside that which Jacob set up, and was like that, a single stone at some little distance from the heap: but the Samaritan and Arabic versions read, "which thou hast seen or set", &c. agreeably to Genesis 31:45.
