Genesis 31:49

Gen 31:49 And Mizpah; for he said, The LORD watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another.

Ver. 49. {See Trapp on "Gen 31:44"}

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.

Gen_31:49-55

The Lord watch between me and thee.

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Lessons

1. Injurious persons are most apt to suspect the innocent for doing wrong.

2. Wicked men would not have others wrong their children though they do it themselves.

3. Nature denieth polygamy though mens lusts design and plead for it.

4. Want of human witness to require fealty is no ground of breaking covenant security.

5. God Himself is witness to the covenants of men, and will see right to be done by them or judge for it.

6. The most fraudulent men may be strict upon others to press on them the testimony of God (Gen_31:50). (G. Hughes, B. D.)

Lessons

1. Treacherous, deceitful men are most fearful of hurt pursuing them. So Laban.

2. Guilty fear makes men solicitous and intent to save themselves.

3. Sinful solicitousness for safety is full of words to little purpose (Gen_31:51).

4. Jealousy groundless contents not itself with Gods witness, but will have visible assurance.

5. Wickedness may sometimes be content not to do harm to others when it is afraid itself.

6. The most injurious are most solicitous to secure themselves from the innocent, who think no harm unto them (Gen_31:52). (G. Hughes, B. D.)

Lessons

1. An oath of God is a just means of confirmation to a lawful covenant for setting things out of doubt.

2. Superstitious men, though convinced of the true way of God, yet worship and swear in old corrupt ways.

3. Oaths taken by false gods, or the true in false ways, are yet binding.

4. in making peace with idolaters it is lawful to take their corrupt swearing, but net to follow it.

5. True saints, when called to swear, must do it in the true fear of the true God.

6. It is just for saints to glorify God by swearing in just cases and making Him Judge (Gen_31:53). (G. Hughes, B. D.)

Lessons

1. It is suitable unto a day of peacemaking for Gods servants to make a feast.

2. The spirits of good men are free and ingenious even to such as have been adversaries to them.

3. Friendly invitations and communion are the best issue of hot debates.

4. The power of God so overrules as to make persecutors sleep under the shelter of such whom they have oppressed (Gen_31:54). (G. Hughes, B. D.)

Lessons

1. The purposes of wicked men are not in their own hands to effect them. Laban goeth changed home.

2. Furious pursuits of the innocent God turneth to early departures of their enemies.

3. Overruling Providence can make unnatural men show natural affection.

4. Wicked men are convinced there cometh good to men only from the blessing of God.

5. Ungodly ones may use forms of blessing when yet they can procure none from God.

6. God turns oppressors to their own with rebukes who thirsted after the possessions of the innocent (Gen_31:55). So God delivereth His out of temptations. (G. Hughes, B. D.)

Mizpah

I. The ordinary use of this word is not quite the same as its original use. It is generally used as a kind of bond or link between parted friends; whereas it was first used as a SAFEGUARD AND WARNING between two men who were in some sort enemies, or, at least, but doubtful friends, and one of them very suspicious of the other.

1. When two men part, as Laban and Jacob parted, and their circumstances are such that, while absent from one another, one of them, or perhaps each of them, will have it in his power to injure the other in any way, in such a case let this word act as a wholesome warning: Mizpah, a beacon or watch-tower. The Lord Himself is such. He overlooks all.

2. A servant must often be free from the ken of master or mistress. But there is an eye on that servant always--the all-seeing eye of God. He stands as a watch-tower between servant and master or mistress, marking and judging how each fulfils his part. Is the master or mistress kind, just, considerate? Is the servant faithful and true, honest, upright, diligent?

3. Men have many dealings with one another in business. The Lord stands and overlooks each bargain.

II. But though the original application of the word was such, yet it may very well be applied also in that other way in which it is so often used. When those who love one another are called to part--when friends, for instance, go from each other, when brothers and sisters separate, when children leave home, when even a husband is called to a distance, perhaps to a foreign land, and that for a long time--it is A GREAT COMFORT to remember that the Lord is as a watch-tower between those thus parted. The closest and dearest of all bonds is that of having one Father, one Saviour, one Spirit, one hope now, one eternal home hereafter. Those thus united are hardly absent, even when parted in the body. (F. Bourdillon, M. A.)

Mizpah tokens

Tokens and memorials are not without use. The Mizpah on seal or ring, on locket or in book, may well bring to mind those absent, and even serve to draw the thoughts to God. The daughter, whose home is among strangers, will think of the fond mother who made that parting gift, and whose wish and prayer seems to be contained in that little word. The son, far off in a foreign land, carries with him a memorial of the same kind; and when he reads that word his thoughts go back to the home of his childhood, a father and mothers loving words and earnest prayers come back to his mind, his heart is softened, and he remembers Him who is above all, whose eye is in every place, and now watches over both him and those at home. (F. Bourdillon, M. A.)

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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

31:49 The witness pile was also called watchtower. God would watch over Jacob and Laban and keep them apart, for they could not trust each other.

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

Or, watch tower.

Or, hid.

To punish the trespasser.

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

Verse 48. - 49. I think these two verses are badly divided, and should be read thus:

Ver. 48. And Laban said, This heap is a witness between me and thee this day.

Ver. 49. Therefore was the name of it called Galeed and Mizpah; for he said, The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another.

Mizpah] מעפה mitspah signifies a watch-tower; and Laban supposes that in consequence of the consecration of the place, and the covenant now solemnly made and ratified, that God would take possession of this heap, and stand on it as on a watch-tower, to prevent either of them from trenching on the conditions of their covenant.

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

49. The Lord watch between me and thee. Laban commits to the judgment of God, for vengeance, whatever offense either of them should be guilty of against the other in his absence; as if he would say, “Though the knowledge of the injury should not reach me, because I shall be far distant, yet the Lord, who is everywhere present, will behold it.” Which sentiment he more clearly expresses afterwards, when he says, “No one is with us; God will be witness between me and thee.” By which words he means, that God will be a severe avenger of every wickedness, though there should be no judge upon earth to decide the cause. And certainly if there were any religion flourishing within us, the presence of God would influence us far more than the observation of men. But it arises from the brutal stupidity of our flesh, that we reverence men only; as if we might mock God with impunity, when we are not convicted by the testimony of men. If, then, this common feeling of nature dictated to Laban, that the frauds which were hidden from men would come into judgment before God; we who enjoy the light of the gospel should indeed be ashamed to seek a covert for our fallacies. Hence also, we gather the legitimate use of an oath, which the Apostle declares in his epistle to the Hebrews; namely, that men, in order to put an end to their controversies, resort to the judgment of God.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(49) Mizpah.—That is, Watchtower. There is, probably, a play in this name upon the pillar which Laban proceeds to set up, and which in Hebrew is Mazebah. In the reason given for the name Labau calls Jacob’s God Jehovah, an appellation which he must have learned from Jacob. and which proves not merely that he had some knowledge of Hebrew but that he and Jacob had talked together upon religious subjects, and that he was not a mere idolater, though he did call the teraphim his gods.

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

49. Mizpah] That is, The watch-tower. Cf. Jdg_11:29, “Mizpeh of Gilead,” and Gen_31:34, “Mizpah.” Probably a common name for a height. The mention of this name comes in very abruptly at this point, and may be a gloss. The Sam. reads maṣṣêbah, LXX καὶ ἡ ὅρασις = “the vision.” It has been suggested that the high point here indicated might be the Rammath-mizpeh of Jos_13:25, or the Mizpah in Gilead of Jdg_11:11. A third name for “the heap of stones” is very awkward, and the grammar barely tolerable. The text has undergone some dislocation.

The Lord] LXX ὁ Θεός. Jehovah is the third party in the solemn contract: He is witness; He will uphold the right, and punish the violator of the bond; cf. Gen_16:5.

between me and thee] The cairn on the hill is to be the witness of the covenant between two sets of people separated at a distance from one another, and tempted to take advantage of one another. The popular use of the word Mizpah, based on this verse, ignores the context, and, in particular, Gen_31:50. God is here invoked, because of the mutual distrust of the two parties, to watch lest one or the other should violate the compact.

absent] Heb. hidden, i.e. “separated and out of sight.”

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.

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 countries; for neither of them at present were possessed of lands that reached hither, if of any at all; nor that it would be a breach of covenant to pass over or by those, from one country into another, but so as to do, or with an intent to do, hurt to each other.

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

Behold. Hebrew, "and Mitspah," or "Hammitspah," the watch-tower, whence God will see us. (Calmet)

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).

והמצפה אשר אמר AND MIZPAH (literally, the Mizpah); BECAUSE HE SAID etc. — The word והמצפה and the Mizpah must refer to some well-known place bearing this name (for there are several places named Mizpah) it refers to the Mizpah which is in Mount Gilead — as it is written (Judges 11:29) “and he passed over Mizpah of Gilead”. Why was it also called Mizpah? Because each of them said to the other, “The Lord watch (יצף) between me and thee that thou shouldst not violate this covenant”.

כי נסתר WHEN WE ARE ABSENT, and shall not see (be able to watch) one another.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

AND MITZPAH. Rashi comments that the meaning of the verse is: “And the Mitzpah which is on Mount Gilead, as it is written, And he passed over Mitzpah of Gilead. Why was it called Mitzpah? Because each of them said to the other, The Eternal ‘yitzeph’ (watch).” And if so, Mitzpah is the name of a high place on top of the mountain. In my opinion, however, Mitzpah is the stone which Jacob set up for a pillar and is connected with the above verse: Therefore was the name of it called Galed, and he also called it the Mitzpah because he said, The Eternal watch between me and thee. It is possible that this stone is Mitzpah of Gilead, for the place was always called by the name of this stone.

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

והמצפה, this was the monument he had previously called מצפה, as he had erected it on an elevated spot to serve as a lookout point. Another reason why Yaakov had chosen this name was יצף ה' ביני וביניך, that he had invoked G’d’s benevolent intervention based on their truce. Lavan called it something corresponding in the Aramaic language.

כי נסתר, when they would live apart and not see each other so that neither would be aware of the other keeping to the terms of the agreement, G’d would be the witness between the two.

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.