Genesis 31:21

Gen 31:21 So he fled with all that he had; and he rose up, and passed over the river, and set his face [toward] the mount Gilead.

Ver. 21. He passed over the river.] Euphrates; and so declined the ordinary way, that Laban might not overtake him; which yet he did. So God would have it, that he might have the greater glory of Jacob’s deliverance.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

31:21 The journey took the family from Haran southwest to the land of Gilead, just east of the Jordan River in the north of today’s kingdom of Jordan.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Or, Euphrates.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 21. Passed over the river] The Euphrates, as the Targum properly notices. But how could he pass such a river with his flocks, c.? This difficulty does not seem to have struck critics in general. The rabbins felt it, and assert that God wrought a miracle for Jacob on this occasion, and that he passed over dry shod. As we know not in what other way he could pass, it is prudent to refer it to the power of God, which accompanied him through the whole of his journey. There might, however, have been fords well known to both Jacob and Laban, by which they might readily pass.

The mount Gilead.] What the ancient name of this mountain was, we know not but it is likely that it had not the name of Gilead till after the transaction mentioned Ge 31:47. The mountains of Gilead were eastward of the country possessed by the tribes of Reuben and Gad; and extended from Mount Hermon to the mountains of Moab.-Calmet. It is joined to Mount Libanus, and includes the mountainous region called in the New Testament Trachonitis. - Dodd.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(21) The river.—The Euphrates.

Mount Gilead.—Gilead, the region of rock, was the mountainous frontier between the Aramean and Canaanite races. The form of the word is so remote from ordinary Hebrew that we have in it, probably, a very old appellation of this region; and Jacob apparently plays upon it in his name Galeed (Gen_31:47).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21. the River] i.e. the Euphrates. See note on Gen_15:18. Cf. Psa_72:8, “from the River unto the ends of the earth.” “Haran” (Gen_24:4) was Laban’s home.

toward the mountain of Gilead] i.e. towards the hill-country on the east side of Jordan. The name “Gilead” is here used in its widest application.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And it was told Laban on the third day, that Jacob was fled. Three days after Jacob was gone he had the report of it, by some means or another; by some of his neighbours, or servants left at home, and sooner he could not well have it, since the flock he went to shear was three days' distance from Jacob's, Gen 30:36.

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Genesis 31:23

gen 31:23

gen 31:23

gen 31:23And he took his brethren with him,.... Some of his relations, the descendants of his father's brethren, the sons of Nahor, of whom there were seven, besides Bethuel; and who all perhaps lived in Haran the city of Nahor, see Gen 22:20; or some of his neighbours and acquaintance whom he might call to:

and pursued after him seven days' journey; which must be reckoned, not from Jacob's departure from Haran, but from Laban's; for Laban being three days' journey from thence, whither he had to return, after he received the news of Jacob being gone; Jacob must have travelled six days before Laban set out with his brethren from Haran; so that this was, as Ben Gerson conjectures, the thirteenth day of Jacob's travel; for Laban not having cattle to drive as Jacob, could travel as fast again as he, and do that in seven days which took up Jacob thirteen:

and they overtook him in the mount Gilead; said to be three hundred and eighty miles from Haran (e).

(e) Bunting's Travels, p. 72.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The river Euphrates. --- Galaad, as it was called afterwards, ver. 48. (Menochius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The river Euphrates, which lay between Mesopotamia and Chaldea, Gen 15:18, which for its largeness and famousness is oft called the river emphatically, as Exo 23:31; Jos 24:2,3, &c.

And set his face, i.e. resolutely directed his course. See Jer 50:5; Luk 9:51,53.

Mount Gilead, a very high and long mountain beyond Jordan, adjoining to the mountain of Lebanon, at the foot of which there was a large and fruitful country, which from the mountain received the name of Gilead, Deu 34:1; Jer 8:22; 22:6. This mountain is here called Gilead by anticipation, as appears from Gen 31:48.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

21. The river — Euphrates, near which he probably abode at that time. Mount Gilead — So called by anticipation here. Comp. Gen_31:47-48.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

So (literally, and) he fled with (literally, and) all that he had; and he rose up, and passed over the river, i.e. the Euphrates, which was called by preeminence the river (cf. 1Ki_4:21; Ezr_4:10, Ezr_4:16) and set his face toward the mount Gilead. dlGi, according to Gesenius, "the hard, stony region," from an unused quadrilateral root, signifying to be hard, though, according to the historian (by a slight change in the punctuation), "The hill, or heap of witness," from the transaction recorded in verses 45-47, which name it here proleptically receives, was not the mountain-range to the south of the Jahbok, now styled Jebel Jilad (Gesenius), Jebel-as-Salt (Robinson), Jebel-osha (Tristram), since Jacob had not yet crossed the river, but that upon its northern hank, called Jebel Ajlun, and situated near Mahanaim (Delitzsch, Keil, Kalisch, Porter).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ויברח...את הנהר, the river Euphrates.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.