Laban's Word for Witness Came Back in Job's Prayer (Genesis 31:43–55)

Two names for one heap

Jegar-sahadutha and Galeed both mean heap of witness: Jegar-sahadutha (H3026) is Laban's Aramaic, and Galeed (H1567) is Jacob's Hebrew. "Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed" (Genesis 31:47). Two men who had shared a household for twenty years named one pile of rocks in two languages, and each kept his own.

Laban's word for witness, sahadutha, comes from the root of sahed (H7717), and the Hebrew Bible uses that word once more, in the mouth of a man who had lost everything. Job said, "Even now my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high" (Job 16:19). An English reader sees two unrelated words. A Hebrew reader heard the word Laban had used to keep watch over a son-in-law come back as Job's hope that someone in heaven saw him truly and would speak for him.

Jacob's name joins gal (H1530), a heap, to ed (H5707), a witness. Gal-ed sounds like Gil'ad, Gilead, and the name of the whole hill country east of the Jordan recalled this covenant. Ed is the word of Israel's courts. "A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses" (Deuteronomy 19:15), and Laban gave the treaty two: "This mound is a witness, and this pillar is a witness" (Genesis 31:52). Later God gave the same word to His people: "'You are My witnesses,' declares the LORD" (Isaiah 43:10). The heap in Gilead stood for one promise between two men. God's people carry what He has said and done to the whole world.

A watchtower named for God

Mizpah comes from tsaphah (H6822), to keep watch from a high place, and the prophets used that verb for watching to hear what God would say. Laban said, "May the LORD keep watch between you and me" (Genesis 31:49), and the place became Mitspah (H4709), the watchpost. He meant God as a guard on the border between two wary men.

Habakkuk took the same verb up a tower: "I will stand at my guard post and station myself on the ramparts. I will watch to see what He will say to me" (Habakkuk 2:1). I will watch is tsaphah. God told Ezekiel, "I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from My mouth, give them a warning from Me" (Ezekiel 3:17), and watchman is the same root again. The word that named Laban's border post became the word for a person on the wall, listening for God's voice.

The God of Nahor

Laban named the God of Nahor because treaties in his world called on the gods of both parties as witnesses, and he wanted his family's god beside Jacob's. "May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us" (Genesis 31:53). Treaties between kings in the ancient Near East closed with long lists of the gods of each side, called to watch the oath, and sometimes mountains and rivers were called as well. A boundary heap with a shared meal beside it was how such a covenant was cut.

In Hebrew the verb judge, from shaphat (H8199), is plural in this verse, yishpetu, may they judge, as if two gods would sit on the bench together. Jacob answered with one name: "So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac" (Genesis 31:53).

A stone that heard

Israel in the land heard the story of Galeed as a story about their own family's gods, because at Shechem Joshua had told them that their fathers, Nahor among them, served other gods. Joshua said, "Long ago your fathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates and worshiped other gods" (Joshua 24:2), and then, "cast aside the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates and in Egypt, and serve the LORD" (Joshua 24:14). An Israelite who heard Laban pray to "the God of Nahor" heard the very gods Joshua told them to throw away.

Joshua then did what Jacob did in Gilead. "Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there" (Joshua 24:26), and he told the people, "You see this stone. It will be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words the LORD has spoken to us" (Joshua 24:27). Israel knew a witness stone as a record of what God had said.

A witness in heaven

The witness in heaven that Job longed for, named with the same word Laban gave a heap of stones, has a name. John wrote to the church, "we have an advocate before the Father" (1 John 2:1), and named Him: Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. The writer of Hebrews said of Him, "He always lives to intercede for them" (Hebrews 7:25). Laban's heap could only stand on a hillside and be looked at. The Witness in heaven knows each one He speaks for.

Knowing Him is the reason we keep watch and keep the record. Habakkuk stood on the ramparts to hear, and the LORD answered him, "Write down this vision and clearly inscribe it on tablets, so that a herald may run with it" (Habakkuk 2:2). When God speaks to you through Scripture, or through an encouragement someone shares, write it down in the Doxa app with the date and read it back while you wait. Your Witness is in heaven, He knows your name, and He speaks for you before the Father.

This goes with today's Doxa Daily Lift: Jacob and Laban Piled Stones and Called God as Witness (Genesis 31:43–55)