Genesis 31:46 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Made an heap, &c.— This monument, says Parker, Jacob seems to have erected after the same manner as he did that of Beth-el. It must not be supposed to have been a heap of loose stones; for then it could not have continued long in the same position, nor given a name to the country round it. It was, doubtless, a regular and permanent building; but then what the form and figure of it was, is not so easy to determine. Had it been only for a memorial to posterity, and not for some present transaction also, the figure either of a column or a pyramid would have been very proper. But we find that the present use of it was to eat and sacrifice upon; and therefore we may imagine that it was made in the figure of a table, and have some authority to think, of a round table; because the name which Jacob calls it by, is taken from a verb, which signifies to turn round, as the word gilal is properly the circumference of a circle.