Jegar-sahadutha

Jegar-sahadutha (Aramaic for heap of witness) is the name Laban the Aramean gave to the stone pillar and heap of stones that he and Jacob erected at their covenant-making on Mount Gilead (Genesis 31:47). Jacob gave the same memorial the Hebrew equivalent name Galeed (also meaning "heap of witness"), and the place was also called Mizpah ("watchtower") because Laban said, "May the LORD watch between you and me when we are absent from one another."

The two names for a single monument — Aramaic and Hebrew — reflect the bilingualism of the patriarchal border region and the separate ethnic identities of the two parties to the covenant. The monument marked the northern boundary of Jacob's territory and served as a witness to their mutual non-aggression agreement. This is the only occurrence of Aramaic in the patriarchal narratives and one of the earliest attested examples of the Aramaic language in the Old Testament.