harm; the God of Abraham and the God of Xahor (the gods of their fathers) judge be twixt us;' and Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac. Then Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount and called his brethren to eat bread; and they did eat bread, and tarried all night in the mount; and early in the morn ing Laban rose up and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed, them, and Laban departed and returned unto his place." In ancient law, covenants were like mod ern treaties of peace. In the patriarchal state of society there was no public law, and each family was an independent autonomous sovereign; hence the heads of the families dealt with each other as sovereigns, and in stead of settling their disputes by appeal to common law, they made treaties of peace and amity which took the form of the so-called covenants. The covenant was in fact a cere mony whereby kinsmen and even strangers in blood who had been at feud with each other ended their differences by becoming brothers. The effect of entering into a covenant with another was equivalent to an adoption of the other as one's own brother. By a legal fiction, the parties entering into the covenant became bound to each other by the sacred ties of blood, and thus not only were bound to remain at peace with each other forever, but even assumed all the re sponsibilities that blood relationship en tailed. They had to avenge wrongs com mitted by third persons against either of them; they had to protect the person, prop erty and the family of each other. Inasmuch as the covenant was fraught with such im portant consequences to the parties, it is not surprising that it was entered into with all the solemnity of a religious act. The sanction of the Deity was required to give it perfect validity, and the ceremony usually ended by a formal sacrifice or by the eating of a sacred meal at the very place where the covenant was made, and where, through the ceremony attending the sacri fice, the Deity was presumed to be present. Nothing of the nature of the modern con
tract between two parties dealing at arm's length appears in this covenant. The con tract is a legal concept unknown in those primitive times. Returning to our record we note in the first place that some visible symbol was erected as a memorial and a testimony of the act of covenanting; a large stone was erected as a pillar, and a heap of stones was gathered together as "a heap of testimony." There is a further significance in ti*-/act that a little hillock of stones was made the memorial of the covenant. According to primitive Hebrew notions the Deity was sought for and found on high places; and the map of Palestine is even to this day dotted with names which indicate that at some primitive time these localities were sacred high places. Nearly every mountain top and every hill had its shrine and sanctuary. When. therefore, Laban and Jacob desired to enter into a covenant they built up a miniature high place upon which to make their sacri fices and seal their covenant. This hillockserved a double purpose; first, "as a witness between me and thee," namely, as a witness of the agreement between the parties, and of the settlement of their dispute; and, second ly, that "the Lord watch between me and thee when we are absent one from another," as an indication of their brotherhood and of their defensive alliance. It will be seen that in addition to these general purposes of the covenant certain specific agreements could be entered into by the covenanting parties. In this instance Laban bound Jacob by covenant not to '"af flict" his daughters by taking any other wives, a provision intended obviously for the benefit of his daughters. After the terms of the covenant were agreed upon, the parties called upon their tribal Deities and the maws of their fathers to witness. They sacrificed to them and sat down together to partake of the sacred meal, and thus sealed their coven ant by the blood of the sacrifice and by breaking bread together in the very presence of their God and of the spirits of their fathers.
