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Treaty Between Yacob And Laban

Laban made up his mind. 'Come now,' he said, 'let us make a covenant, you and I.' There then followed a strange ceremony, very properly of a spiritual nature, by which each contracting party solemnly undertook to abide by the articles of the treaty. Despite the glosses, which have somewhat obscured the meaning of the passage, we can attempt to reconstruct the scene.

First those taking part set about collecting medium-sized stones and heaping them up to make a cairn. Beside this was set a raised stone (massebah), that is, a stele. On the heap of stones the two contracting parties took a meal together. From earliest antiquity bread and wine, eaten and drunk together, establish bonds of lasting friendship, at least in principle. A characteristic example of this has already been encountered at the meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek, who also partook of bread and wine together. We are reminded here of the symbolism of the Last Supper, a meal taken in common, though of course of spiritual food. And the centuries-old tradition of the bonds established by partaking together of the same meal was not to be lost in east or west. Etymologically the English word companion is derived from companis, 'he with whom bread has been shared'.

This cairn, which had now become a set apart place, Laban named in his Aramaic language Jegar-sahadutha and Yacob, in ancient Hebrew, Galeed. The two terms can be translated in identical fashion: 'cairn of witness'. Obviously, we are to expect the formulation of a ritual pledge or undertaking. Laban said: 'May this cairn be a witness between us today...when we are no longer in sight of each other.' Laban thereupon put forward two requests: Yacob was not to ill-treat Leah and Rachel; on the other hand he was not to take any further wives. This was the strictly family side of the business.

But the very important matter of pastoral boundaries remained to be settled. Laban, who certainly seems to have led the discussions, put forward a further proposal. He was by no means anxious, and we can understand his reluctance, to see his nephew returning one day with even more numerous flocks to the pastures of Paddanaram. He wanted Yacob to go back to the Negeb and stay there. 'Here,' said Laban, 'is this cairn I have thrown up between us, and here is the monument. This cairn is a witness, and the monument bears witness: I must not pass this cairn to attack you, and you must not pass this cairn and this monument to attack me.' In some way it was a boundary post.

The political agreement was very properly ratified by a solemn undertaking in which the deity of each party was called to witness. Yacob swore by YAHWEH, the Kinsman of his father Yitschaq, and Laban  the god of Nahor (Nahor, it will be remembered, was Abraham's brother; and Nahor, and indeed his whole clan, had remained faithful to the Semitic and Sumerian deities).

The spiritual ceremony did not end there. As patriarch, the head of the tribe, Yacob proceeded to offer a sacrifice to YAHWEH on the mountain; he took care to invite all his brothers, that is, all the men present, including those who had followed Laban on his expedition. Once more there was a meal taken together. And the group passed the night on the mountain.

Next morning they parted company. Laban kissed his daughters and grandsons and blessed them. Then he returned home to the Land of the Fathers. Yacob, freed at last from all fear of his uncle, set off for the south towards the Jabbok, a tributary of the Yardan which he expected to be able to ford, and also the Yardan itself, and so enter the land of Canaan. One chapter of Yacob's story was over.

Across The Ford Of The Jabbok

Yacob moved forward, following his sheep which, as they went along cropped the fine pasture of TransYardania. And so no one hurried, neither flocks nor shepherds. Yacob himself was glad at last to be on the road taking him back to his father's tents, but he felt a little anxious; on arrival in the Negeb, perhaps even beforehand, he had an old account to settle with his brother Esau, the fiery and brutal hunter. It was not a pleasant prospect.

Slowly then they advanced towards the south. Yacob had decided that the caravan would ford the Jabbok (the modern Nahr ez-Zerqa, one of the most important rivers of TransYardania, which it divides into almost equal parts). After this difficult operation they were to go on towards the Yardan which, too, they would ford. And so the clan would come to the land of Canaan. Immediately on entering the Promised Land Yacob intended to establish his camp at Bethel, at the place where YAHWEH had appeared to him in a dream when, as a poor shepherd with no flocks, he was journeying to Haran.

Fording the Jabbok and settling at Bethel form two decisive moments in the spiritual transformation of the Patriarch Yacob.

At Mahanaim, A Warning From YAHWEH

Since Yacob's first stay at Bethel and the famous dream of the 'ladder', during which YAHWEH had renewed to him the terms of the promise already made to Abraham and Yitschaq, it does not seem that YAHWEH had spoken to Yacob again. During his long exile at Paddan-aram Yacob appears only to have received very rare messages confined to his material interests, such as the assurance of numerous descendants (a fixed idea with all Semitic peoples), advice on increasing the amount of his livestock (the desire for wealth being firmly established in the hearts of most men), and the organization of a supernatural form of defense against certain hostile forces. In all this we encounter a very primitive faith in which the function of the tribal protector is to protect his devotee. It is a rather down-to-earth form of belief whose existence has been confirmed by the results of excavations in the archaeological strata corresponding with this period.

But Bereshith is not concerned to show us the general form taken by the civilizations which followed each other in, Canaan. Its task rather is to inform us about the missions entrusted to certain men chosen by YAHWEH to contribute to the spiritual evolution of humanity.

Hitherto, Yacob the son of Yitschaq has certainly appeared to us as a Semitic shepherd endowed with nimble wits! but not, it would seem, very open to inspiration from YAHWEH; in addition, his moral level was not very high. Yet twenty years previously at Bethel YAHWEH chose this Hebrew shepherd to carry out part of YAHWEH’s plan. YAHWEH the Sovereign of Abraham bided HIS time, but that time was now soon to come.

A material and a spiritual explanation

Yacob was going on his way, we are told in Bereshith, when malakim of YAHWEH met him, and on seeing them he said, 'This is YAHWEH's camp,' and he named the place Mahanaim. Mahanaim is the plural (or rather the dual, as the Hebrew grammarians say) of Mahaneh, camp. It is a term that can be explained in two ways, historically and symbolically.

Historically: we shall see shortly that Yacob was in a very critical situation: Esau with his armed men was on his way to meet Yacob and a confrontation was inevitable. As a good tactician he decided to split up the people and flocks with him into two companies; if one was captured, the other would escape. This was no doubt the reason for the name given to this locality; at a later date the TransYardanian city Mahanaim was to be established here; it was to be called on to play a part in the history of Yisrael (2 Sam. 2: 8; 17: 24; 1 Melechim 4: 14).

Symbolically this unexpected appearance of the 'malakim' (a reminder of the famous 'ladder') might be regarded as a warning from YAHWEH announcing that he intended to take up again the dialogue previously begun at Bethel. So we have a material and a spiritual explanation which are in no way contradictory.

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Yacob Called Yisrael Index  Yacob Sitemap   Scripture History Through the Ages   Yacob Called Yisrael  Yacob and Esau  Theft Of The Paternal Blessing  Flight, The Only Solution For Yacob  Yacob's Dream At Bethel  Yacob Puts Up A Stele Named BethEl  The Location Of Bethel  Importance Of The Well, A Meeting Place  Details Of The Mohar  The Sons Of Yacob  How Yacob Became Rich  Yacob Leaves The Land Of The Fathers  Treaty Between Yacob And Laban  Messages Between Yacob And Esau  Yacob Wrestles With YAHWEH  Two Brothers, Yacob and Esau Meet  Towards The Promised Land  The Departure From Shechem  The Conclusion Of Yacob

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