Kejadian 28:16-19

28:16 Then Jacob woke up ¹  and thought, ²  “Surely the Lord is in this place, but I did not realize it!” 28:17 He was afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! This is nothing else than the house of God! This is the gate of heaven!”

28:18 Early ³  in the morning Jacob ⁴  took the stone he had placed near his head ⁵  and set it up as a sacred stone. ⁶  Then he poured oil on top of it. 28:19 He called that place Bethel, ⁷  although the former name of the town was Luz.

Kejadian 35:7

35:7 He built an altar there and named the place El Bethel ⁸  because there God had revealed himself ⁹  to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

[28:16]  ¹ tn Heb “woke up from his sleep.” This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[28:16]  ² tn Heb “said.”

[28:18]  ³ tn Heb “and he got up early…and he took.”

[28:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[28:18]  ⁵ tn See the note on this phrase in v. 11.

[28:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “standing stone.”

[28:18]  sn Sacred stone. Such a stone could be used as a boundary marker, a burial stone, or as a shrine. Here the stone is intended to be a reminder of the stairway that was “erected” and on which the Lord “stood.” (In Hebrew the word translated “sacred stone” is derived from the verb translated “erected” in v. 12 and “stood” in v. 13. Since the top of the stairway reached the heavens where the Lord stood, Jacob poured oil on the top of the stone. See C. F. Graesser, “Standing Stones in Ancient Palestine,” BA 35 (1972): 34-63; and E. Stockton, “Sacred Pillars in the Bible,” ABR 20 (1972): 16-32.

[28:19]  ⁷ tn The name Bethel means “house of God” in Hebrew (see v. 17).

[28:19]  map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[35:7]  ⁸ sn The name El-Bethel means “God of Bethel.”

[35:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “revealed themselves.” The verb נִגְלוּ (niglu), translated “revealed himself,” is plural, even though one expects the singular form with the plural of majesty. Perhaps אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) is here a numerical plural, referring both to God and the angelic beings that appeared to Jacob. See the note on the word “know” in Gen 3:5.