Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 31:21

"So he fled with all that he had; and he rose up, and passed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead." — Genesis 31:21 (ASV)

The river. —The Euphrates.

Mount Gilead. —Gilead, the region of rock, was the mountainous frontier between the Aramean and Canaanite races. The form of the word is so remote from ordinary Hebrew that we have in it, probably, a very old appellation of this region; and Jacob apparently plays upon it in his name Galeed (Genesis 31:47).