Commentaria in Genesim
41. TEN TIMES.—Josephus will have it that Laban violated the covenants, and took away the better young already born, owed to Jacob by the covenant; but he errs: for by this means Jacob could not have been so enriched. Better therefore Origen, Eusebius and St. Jerome judge that Laban changed the covenant ten times for the future, demanding for himself such as he saw had already been born to Jacob and had fallen to him.
AND SLEEP DEPARTED.—It is the part of a good shepherd to keep watch, and by night to watch over the flock.
How vigilant then ought a Bishop and pastor to be, who feeds the sheep of God! says St. Damasus, epist. 4. Jacob therefore is the archetype of the good steward, whom Aristotle thus depicts in the Oeconomics:
42. UNLESS THE GOD OF MY FATHER ABRAHAM, AND THE FEAR OF ISAAC HAD STOOD BY ME.—You will ask, what is the fear of Isaac? First, Aben Ezra and Cajetan answer that it is the fear and reverence with which Isaac feared, worshipped and revered God, as if to say: By the merit of the fear, “It is fitting that the master wake before the servant and go to bed after;
and the house should never be left unguarded, any more that is, of the piety, reverence and devotion of Isaac, by which he supplicated God for his son Jacob, Jacob was delivered from Laban and prospered. This fear therefore of the Saints is an act of religion and reverence, and arises from the love of God; nay it is an act of charity, now commanded, now elicited; for because the Saints supremely love God, hence they supremely fear to offend him, and supremely worship and revere him.
Second, others think this fear was the reverence with which Jacob followed his father Isaac, and feared and revered him: for by this reverence and piety toward his father Isaac, Jacob merited with God to be delivered and protected by him.
Third, and more genuinely, the God who was the God of Abraham is called the fear of Isaac, as if to say: The God whom Abraham worshipped, and whom Isaac feared and revered, as the supreme Godhead and supreme Majesty. So Isaias, chap. viii, verse 13, calls God the terror and dread of Israel, whom namely the Israelites worshipped and revered with fear and dread.
This fear therefore is taken by metonymy for the object of fear, namely for God. So the Gentiles called Jove the fear of men, whom men dread as witness, judge and avenger, “by whose godhead they fear to swear and to deceive.” So Jacob, verse 53, swore by the fear of his father Isaac, as Laban by the God of Abraham and the God of Nachor. So God in the Psalms is called my hope, my patience, that is, he in whom I hope, for whose sake I suffer. So Theodoret, the Chaldee and St. Augustine.
HE REBUKED THEE YESTERDAY,—when he appeared to thee, warning thee not to say or do anything harsher to me, verse 29.
43. WHAT CAN I DO,—as if to say: Country, piety and love do not permit me to harm my daughters and grandsons: for so the Hebrew has; our Interpreter however renders, sons and grandsons, where “and” signifies “that is”: for Laban calls his grandsons sons, from what he said a little before to Jacob: “Thy sons and flocks, and all things that thou seest, are mine,” because namely they descend from me as grandfather and first possessor.
of the covenant made between us.
concerning the title see what was said chap. xxviii, 18.
46. A HEAP,—a long and broad and level mound: for on it, as on a table, they dined.
JACOB, THE HEAP OF TESTIMONY, EACH ACCORDING TO THE PROPERTY OF HIS LANGUAGE.—The same name in signification and substance Jacob and Laban imposed on this mound, but different as to sound and language: for Laban the Syrian called it in Syriac jegar sahaduta, that is, the heap, or mound, of testimony: but Jacob the Hebrew called it galed, that is, mound of witness; for gal signifies mound, ed witness.
Now in substance the mound of testimony is the same as the mound or heap of witness: for a stone cannot otherwise be a witness than if it be erected and set up in testimony of some matter; perhaps also by carelessness the names have here been transposed, so that witness is put in place of testimony, and the contrary; for properly and precisely Laban called this mound jegar sahaduta, that is, mound of testimony: Jacob called it galed, that is, a heap or mound of witness.
47. WHICH LABAN CALLED THE MOUND OF WITNESS: AND JACOB—called it galed, that is, the heap or mound of witness. Because therefore this mound was erected in testimony of the covenant made between Jacob and Laban, hence it was called galed, that is, mound of witness, and thence the mountain itself, and the city and the whole region was called Galaad, or Galaaditis.
48. ITS NAME WAS CALLED GALAAD, THAT IS, THE WITNESS HEAP.—In the Hebrew there is only Galaad, but our Interpreter explains the Hebrew name Galaad, adding “that is, the witness heap.” The Hebrew adds, and mitspah, that is, and watch-tower, because he (Laban) said: “The Lord behold and judge between us.” Two names therefore were imposed on this mound, first galed, that is, mound of witness; second, mitspah, that is, watch-tower, as if Laban said: I henceforth, O Jacob, shall not be able to watch and look upon thee and thine: for I shall depart and be divided from thee; fear God therefore, who is the watcher of this our covenant and oath, to judge and avenge, should either of us violate it, to wit, A watcher stands above, who on all our days and our actions looks forth, from first light to evening.
This is our mitspah.
51. THE STONE WHICH I HAVE SET UP,—on one part of the aforesaid mound, that which looked toward Mesopotamia, Laban set up his stone; on the other part, which looked toward Chanaan, Jacob set up his other stone: that these two stones might be as pillars and boundaries, which neither might be allowed to pass to harm the other.
53. THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND THE GOD OF NACHOR JUDGE BETWEEN US, AND THE GOD OF THEIR FATHER,—namely the God of Thare, who was the father of Abraham and Nachor.
Note: Laban along with the true God of Abraham worshipped the idols of his father Nachor: hence he also adds the gods of their common great-grandfather, namely Thare, as being ancestral and hereditary to both. For Thare in Chaldaea with Abraham worshipped the true God, but in Haran with Nachor worshipped idols, as I said chap. xi, at the end: but Jacob rejects these, and swears only by the fear of Isaac, that is, by the God whom Isaac and Abraham feared and worshipped. See what was said at verse 42.
Note: As it was lawful for Jacob with Laban, so it is lawful for any believer to accept from an unbeliever, nay to require in necessity, an oath, even though he know the unbeliever will swear by false gods: just as in necessity it is lawful to ask a loan from one whom you know will give it only with a pact of usury. For as here he requires only the loan, and merely permits and tolerates the usury: so the other requires only the oath, and merely permits and tolerates that it be made by false gods, and that for a just cause, namely necessity.
54. AND HAVING OFFERED SACRIFICES,—peace-offerings offered for peace, reconciliation and the covenant made with Laban his father-in-law, whence he prepared a banquet for him from the same. With these victims therefore Jacob gave thanks to God for the peace entered upon, and at the same time asked that God preserve, confirm and perpetuate it. 55. BY NIGHT,—very early in the morning. TO HIS PLACE,—to Haran.