Genesis 31:51

Summary

Laban speaks to Jacob, pointing out two physical markers — a heap of stones and a standing pillar — that he himself has set up as a boundary marker between the two of them. The verse uses double deictic exclamations to draw attention to each object in turn.

Key words

• hi.Neh ("here!", H2009) — deictic interjection, repeated twice (lines 6 and 12) to direct attention successively to the gal and then to the matzevah.
• Gal ("heap", H1530G) — masculine singular noun with the definite article ha (H9009), naming the first marker as "the heap" (a pile of stones).
• matzevah ("pillar", H4676) — feminine singular noun, also with the definite article, naming the second marker as a standing stone distinct from the heap.
• yariti ("I have set up", H3384B) — qal perfect, first person, marking the action as completed by the speaker (Laban) prior to the moment of speech.
• beini... u-veinekha ("between me... and between you", H0996G + suffixes H9030/H9031) — the construct noun bein repeated with a pronominal suffix for each party, forming the phrase "between me and between you."

What the text says

The sentence opens with the narrative verb va-yomer ("and he said", H0559), introducing direct speech from Lavan (H3837A) le-Ya'akov ("to Jacob", H3290). The speech itself is built on two parallel clauses, each opened by the interjection hineh ("here!", H2009): first hineh ha-gal ha-zeh ("here is this heap"), then ve-hineh ha-matzevah ("and here is the pillar"). This repetition of hineh creates a rhetorical pairing, presenting the heap and the pillar as two distinct but related objects being pointed out in sequence.

The relative clause asher yariti ("which I have set up", H3384B) modifies matzevah grammatically, but its qal perfect form situates the action of setting up as completed before the moment of speaking, attributing the construction to the speaker in the first person. The final phrase beini u-veineikha ("between me and between you") uses the construct noun bein (H0996G) twice, each time carrying a different pronominal suffix — -i ("my/me", H9030) and -kha ("your/you", H9031) — a Hebrew construction that repeats the preposition for each party rather than combining them into a single phrase, a structure not always preserved in translation.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (VULCLEM) renders the two Hebrew nouns as tumulus ("mound") and lapis ("stone"), where lapis ("stone") is a more generic term than the Hebrew matzevah ("pillar", H4676), which specifically denotes a standing/erected stone. The BSB reverses the order found in the Hebrew beini u-veinekha ("between me and between you"), rendering it "between you and me," while the Hebrew word order places the speaker (beini, "between me") first.