Taking off his garments and shaking them was Jacob’s symbolic gesture for shaking off the responsibility of his people’s sins from his soul. God’s “all-searching eye” is witness that Jacob ridded himself of their sins by that symbolic act. It is probably related to the priesthood ordinance of shaking off the dust from one’s feet, but it is not the same. “To ceremonially shake the dust from one’s feet as a testimony against another was understood by the Jews to symbolize a cessation of fellowship and a renunciation of all responsibility for consequences that might follow. It became an ordinance of accusation and testimony by the Lord’s instructions to his apostles as cited in the text. In the current dispensation, the Lord has similarly directed his authorized servants to so testify against those who wilfully and maliciously oppose the truth when authoritatively presented (D&C 24:15; 60:15; 75:20; 84:92; 99:4). The responsibility of testifying before the Lord by this accusing symbol is so great that the means may be employed only under unusual and extreme conditions.” 25
Jacob admonished his brethren to do some shaking of their own—to shake off their chains of sin. Instead of being bound to the evil one, he counsels them to bind themselves to “that God who is the rock of your salvation”; the image of rock in the scriptures represents something firm, solid, and immovable.