Génesis 31:23

23. Took his brethren Various relatives who were with him at the feast of sheep shearing . Compare the use of this word in Genesis 13:8.

Seven days’ journey From what date and from what place this seven days’ journey is to be reckoned, is not clear . The tidings of Jacob’s flight reached Laban on the third day after its occurrence, (Genesis 31:22,) and it would probably take Laban three days more to get ready for the pursuit and to reach the point from which Jacob started; for there were three days’ journeying between them. Genesis 30:36. Reckoning the seven days from that point, we give Jacob twelve or thirteen days the start of Laban, in which time he might have travelled three hundred and fifty miles . Both parties, doubtless, made the greatest possible haste; but Laban, unencumbered with flocks and family, would move twice or thrice as rapidly as Jacob, and so, in seven days from the time of his hearing of Jacob’s flight, he might have overtaken him . The Arab post is said to go from Damascus to Bagdad in eight days a distance of about five hundred miles. The distance between the Euphrates and Gilead is about three hundred miles.