And he took his brethren with him, and pursued after him seven days' journey; and they overtook him in the mount Gilead.
Overtook him in the mount Gilead. 'There is a mountain-chain extending between the Yarmuk and the deep valley of the Zerka (the ancient Jabbok), which is known by the name of Jebel Ajlun. There is no ridge nor range of hills connecting them with Jebel esh-Sheikh or Jebel Heish. The intervening tract, the plain of Jaulan, presents, along the east side of the lake of Tiberius the edge of a high plateau, intersected by deep ravines. These mountains constitute the northern portion of the land of Gilead, which lay between the Yarmuk on the north, the Arnon on the south, and was divided at about one-third of the distance by the deep valley of the Jabbok, which cleaves the mountains to their base. This territory, in its whole length, is often spoken of as the land of Gilead, and rarely as mount Gilead. The portions north and south of the Jabbok are each spoken of as, "the half Gilead" (Joshua 12:2; Joshua 12:5; Joshua 13:31; Deuteronomy 3:12), though the northern is only two-thirds as long as the southern, or about 30 geographical miles. It was in this northern mount Gilead that Laban overtook Jacob' (Robinson's 'Physical Geography of the Holy Land').
Dr. Beke, who proposes a place in the vicinity of Damascus as the Haran of Scripture (see the note at Genesis 24:10), founds one of his objections to the Mesopotamian Haran on the circumstance that seven days were far too short for the journey of Laban to Gilead, if his starting-point was beyond the Euphrates-that would be a distance of 350 miles-but it was a very practicable journey in that space of time from the neighbourhood of Damascus. [Dr. Beke's theory has not met with general acceptance. But his narrative of exploration, given first in the 'Journal of the Royal Geographical Society,' 1862, and afterward published as a separate tract, is exceedingly interesting, and contains, among other topics, a very graphic description of mount Gilead, Jebel Ajlun, and of the whole route traversed by Jacob on his return to Canaan.]
Being accompanied by a number of his people, Laban might have used violence, had he not been divinely warned in a dream to give no interruption to his nephew's journey. Josephus says that he reached the neighbourhood of mount Gilead 'at eventide.' And having resolved not to disturb Jacob's encampment until the morning, it was during that intervening night he had the warning dream, in which God told him, that if he (Laban) despised their small number, and attacked them in a hostile manner, He would Himself assist them ('Antiquities,' book 1:, chapter 19:, section 10). How striking and sudden a change! For several days he had been full of rage, and was now in eager anticipation that his vengeance would be fully wreaked, when, lo, his hands are tied by invisible power (Psalms 76:10). He dared not touch Jacob, but there was a war of words!