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will receive a rich reward. “And when the chief Shepherd shall appear,
ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.”
Jacob says, “Thus have I been twenty years in thy house. I served
thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle,
and thou hast changed my wages ten times. Except the God of my
father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac had been with me,
surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine
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affliction, and the labor of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight.”
Laban then assures Jacob that he has an interest for his daughters
and their children, that he could not harm them. He proposes to make
a covenant between them. And Laban said, “Now therefore come thou,
let us make a covenant, I and thou; and let it be for a witness between
me and thee. And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. And
Jacob said unto his brethren, gather stones; and they took stones, and
made an heap, and they did eat there upon the heap.”
Laban understood the wrong of polygamy, although it was alone
through his artifice that Jacob had taken two wives. He well knew
that it was the jealousy of Leah and Rachel that led them to give their
maids to Jacob, which confused the family relation, and increased the
unhappiness of his daughters. And now as his daughters are journeying
at a great distance from him, and their interest is to be entirely separate
from his own, he would guard as far as possible their happiness. Laban
would not have Jacob bring still greater unhappiness upon himself
and upon Leah and Rachel, by taking other wives. And Laban said
“The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from
another. If thou shalt afflict my daughters, or if thou shalt take other
wives besides my daughters; no man is with us; see God is witness
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betwixt me and thee.”
Jacob made a solemn covenant before the Lord that he would not
take other wives. “And Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and
behold this pillar, which I have cast betwixt me and thee; this heap be
witness, and this pillar be witness, 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. The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God
of their father, judge betwixt us. And Jacob sware by the fear of his
father Isaac.”
As Jacob went on his way, the angels of God met him. And when he
saw them, he said, “This is God’s host.” He saw the angels of God, in a