57 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
That which was torn [of beasts] I brought not unto thee,.... To show what had befallen it; that so it might appear he had one the less to account for to him: I bore the loss of it; took it upon himself, as if it had been somewhat blameworthy in him, as the word used signifies; and so made satisfaction for it; which, how he did, when he had no...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
[Thus] I was,.... In such a situation, as well as in the following uncomfortable plight and condition: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night: the violent heat in the daytime scorched him, and the severe frosts in the night pinched him: that is, in the different seasons of the year, the heat of the day in the summertime, and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thus have I been twenty years in thy house,.... Attended with these difficulties, inconveniencies, and hardships; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters; Rachel and Leah; first seven years for Rachel; and having Leah imposed upon him instead of her, was obliged to serve seven years more, which he did for her sake; whereas he ought to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me,.... One and the same God is meant, who was the God of his father Isaac, and before him the God of Abraham, and now the fear of Isaac, whom he feared and served with reverence and godly fear, being at this present time a worshipper of him: now Jacob suggests,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Laban answered and said unto Jacob,.... Not denying the truth of what he had said, nor acknowledging any fault he had been guilty of, or asking forgiveness for it, though he seemed to be convicted in his own conscience of it: [these] daughters [are] my daughters: though thy wives, they are my own flesh and blood, and must be dear to me; so...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Jacob took a stone, and set it up [for] a pillar. To show his readiness to agree to the motion, he immediately took a large stone that lay upon the mount, and set it up on one end, to be a standing monument or memorial of the agreement now about to be made between them.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Jacob said unto his brethren, gather stones,.... Not to his sons, as the Targum of Jonathan and Jarchi; these would not be called brethren, and were not fit, being too young to be employed in gathering large stones, as these must be, to erect a monument with; rather his servants, whom he employed in keeping his sheep under him, and might so...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Laban said, this heap [is] a witness between me and thee this day. A witness of the covenant now about to be made between them that day, and a witness against them should they break it: therefore was the name of it called Galeed; by Jacob, as before observed; [See comments on Genesis 31:47].
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Mizpah,.... Which being an Hebrew word, it looks as if the heap had also this name given it by Jacob, which signifies a "watch" or "watchtower"; though, by what follows, it seems to be given by Laban, who could speak Hebrew as well, as Syriac, or Chaldee: for he said, the Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another; or...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
If thou shall afflict my daughters,.... In body or mind, by giving them hard blows, or ill words, and by withholding from them the necessaries of life, food and raiment, and the like: or if thou shall take [other] wives besides my daughters; which also would be an affliction and vexation to them, see Leviticus 18:18. Laban, though he had led Jacob...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
This heap [be] witness,.... Agreeably to its name, which both he and Jacob gave unto it: and [this] pillar [be] witness: which was set up for the same purpose: that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me, for harm; not that these were to be the boundaries of their respective...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us,.... And the father of these was Terah, so that the god of them was not the true God, and is not meant, at least not as truly worshipped; but the god or gods of Terah, Nahor and Abraham worshipped while idolaters, and Laban still continued to do, though perhaps not...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount,.... On Mount Gilead, not in a religious way, in which he could not join with Laban, or admit him to it; but in a civil way he "slew a slaughter" (s), or rather made one; that is, as Jarchi explains it, he slew cattle for a feast, as it was usual to make feasts for the several parties concerned in...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And early in the morning Laban rose up,.... In order to prepare for, and set forward on his journey home: and kissed his sons and his daughters; Jacob and his sons, who were his grandsons, and his daughters Rachel and Leah, with Dinah his granddaughter, as was the custom of relations and friends in those countries and times, at parting: and...