Genesis 31:47

47 Lavan called it Y'gar-Sahaduta ["pile of witness" in Aramaic], while Ya'akov called it Gal-'Ed ["pile of witness" in Hebrew].

Genesis 31:47 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 31:47

And Laban called it Jegarsahadutha
Which in the Syriac and Chaldee languages signifies "an heap of witness"; it being, as after observed, a witness of the covenant between Laban and Jacob: but Jacob called it Galeed;
which in the Hebrew tongue signifies the same, "an heap of witness"; or "an heap, [the] witness", for the same reason. Laban was a Syrian, as he sometimes is called, ( Genesis 25:20 ) ( Genesis 31:20 Genesis 31:24 ) , wherefore he used the Syrian language; Jacob was a descendant of Abraham the Hebrew, and he used the Hebrew language; and both that their respective posterity might understand the meaning of the name; though these two are not so very different but Laban and Jacob could very well understand each other, as appears by their discourse together, these being but dialects of the same tongue.

Genesis 31:47 In-Context

45 Ya'akov took a stone and set it upright as a standing-stone.

46 Then Ya'akov said to his kinsmen, "Gather some stones"; and they took stones, made a pile of them and ate there by the pile of stones.

47 Lavan called it Y'gar-Sahaduta ["pile of witness" in Aramaic], while Ya'akov called it Gal-'Ed ["pile of witness" in Hebrew].

48 Lavan said, "This pile witnesses between me and you today."This is why it is called Gal-'Ed

49 and also HaMitzpah [the watchtower], because he said, "May ADONAI watch between me and you when we are apart from each other.