Jacob’s Flight and Exile
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thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.” That is, he should not
force him to return, or urge him by flattering inducements.
Laban had withheld the marriage dowry of his daughters and
treated Jacob with craft and harshness, but he now reproached him for
his secret departure which had given the father no opportunity to make
a feast or even bid farewell to his daughters and their children.
In reply, Jacob plainly set forth Laban’s selfish and grasping policy
and appealed to him as a witness to his own faithfulness and honesty.
“Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of
Isaac, had been with me,” said Jacob, “surely thou hadst sent me away
now empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labor of my hands,
and rebuked thee yesternight.”
Laban could not deny the facts and now proposed a covenant
of peace. Jacob consented, and a pile of stones was erected as a
token of the compact. To this pillar Laban gave the name Mizpah,
“Watchtower,” saying, “The Lord watch between me and thee, when
we are absent one from another... . 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.”
To confirm the treaty, the parties held a feast. The night was spent
in friendly communing, and at dawn Laban and his company departed.
With this separation ceased all connection between the children of
Abraham and the dwellers in Mesopotamia.
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