Of the women while the other turns the upper stone round and
round, thus grinding the meal for the uninviting bread of their
less inviting floor-table.
This place has been suggested by Major Condor as the probable site
of Mizpah in Gilead. A group of fine stone monuments, in ruins, is
yet to be seen here. If this be the location of Mizpah then here
is the place where Jacob and Laban made their covenant of lasting
peace, and erected the "heap of witness" (Gen. 31:44-52), saying,
"The Lord watch between me and thee when we are absent one from
another." Then they parted, Laban going back to Mesopotamia and
Jacob pressing on with anxious heart toward the near Jabbok and
the farther lands of his estranged brother Esau.
Inspired by the covenant at Mizpah, and with a desire to help
others to establish covenants of peace, and to accept with
cheerful resignation enforced separation from loved ones, a recent
writer, Julia A. Baker, has written beautifully the following poem
entitled "Mizpah":
Go thou thy way and I go mine;
Apart, yet ever near;
Only a veil hangs thin between
The pathways where we are;
And "God keep watch 'tween thee and me,"
This is my prayer;
He looks thy way, he looketh mine,
And keeps us near.
