Genesis 31:53, commentary and pictures

Laban kept Jacob in his service because the Lord had blessed Laban for Jacob's sake, so that the little Laban had before Jacob came grew into a multitude, while Jacob himself increased exceedingly with cattle and maidservants and menservants and camels and asses. Then Laban's countenance was no longer toward Jacob as before, and Laban's sons accused Jacob of taking all their father's goods to gain his wealth and glory. Jacob would have left his crafty kinsman earlier but had feared meeting Esau, and now he feared violence from Laban's sons who counted his wealth as their own, leaving him perplexed and distressed and not knowing which way to turn. Mindful of the promise at Bethel, he carried his case to God in prayer, and God answered in a dream directing him to return to the land of his fathers and to his kindred with the promise to be with him, and the verse belongs to Jacob's break with Laban after long service that followed this direction.

At their parting Laban proposed a covenant of peace and Jacob consented to it. A pile of stones and a pillar were erected as the token of the compact, called Mizpah, meaning watch-tower, that the Lord would watch between them when absent from one another, with the heap and pillar standing as witnesses to their agreement. Laban and Jacob called on the God of Abraham and of Nahor to judge between them as witness to the covenant. Its boundary term was that neither would pass over the heap and pillar to the other to do harm. Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac, naming with reverence the God whom Isaac feared and revered as witness to his solemn promise.

Jacob's oath also bound him not to take other wives. The treaty was then confirmed by a feast and a night of friendly communing before Laban departed at dawn. That separation ended all trace of connection between the children of Abraham and the dwellers in Mesopotamia.