Genesis 31:44

44 "So now come, let us 1make a covenant, you and I, and 2let it be a witness between you and me."

Genesis 31:44 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 31:44

Now therefore, come thou, let us make a covenant, I and
thou
Let us be good friends, and enter into an alliance for mutual safety, and make an agreement for each other's good. Laban perceiving that Jacob's God was with him, and blessed him, and made him prosperous, and protected him, was fearful, lest, growing powerful, he should some time or other revenge himself on him or his, for his ill usage of him; and therefore was desirous of entering into a covenant of friendship with him: and let it be for a witness between me and thee;
that all past differences are made up, and former quarrels subside, and everything before amiss is forgiven and forgotten, and that for the future peace and good will subsist; of which a covenant made between them would be a testimony.

Genesis 31:44 In-Context

42 "If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had not been for me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, so He rendered judgment last night."
43 Then Laban replied to Jacob, "The daughters are my daughters, and the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to these my daughters or to their children whom they have borne?
44 "So now come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and me."
45 Then Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar.
46 Jacob said to his kinsmen, "Gather stones." So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap.

Cross References 2

  • 1. Genesis 21:27, 32; Genesis 26:28
  • 2. Joshua 24:27

Footnotes 2

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