Genesis 31:44

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

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 with me, indeed now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my misery and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night."

43 Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, "The daughters [are] my daughters and the grandsons [are] my grandsons, and the flocks [are] my flocks, and all that you see, it [is] mine. Now, what can I do for these my daughters today, or for 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 me and you."

45 And Jacob took a stone and set it up [as] a stone pillar.

46 And Jacob said to his kinsmen, "Gather stones." And they took stones and made a pile of stones, and they ate there by the pile of stones.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "cut"