The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 411

t:wecn hea,cn and earth, and in particular valent to an intimation tlmt his present between God in his glory and man in bis journey to Padan-aram was not without tho solitude and sin-and behold the angels of Divine sanction, though apparently it ha.cl God-literally, the 'TMSSl!11.{lers of Elohim, been against the will of God that Isae.o i e. the angels (Ps. ciii. 20, 21 ; civ. 4 ; should leave the promised land (vide eh. Heh. i. H)-ascending and descending on it xxiv. 6, 8)-for I will not leave thee,-a -m·d.e John i. 51, which shows that Christ promise afterwards repeated to Israel (Dent, regarded either the ladder in Jacoh's vision xxxi. 6, 8), to Joshua (eh. i. 5), to Solomon as an emblem of himself, the one Mediator (1 Chron. xxviii 20), to the poor and needy between God and man (Calnn, Luther, .Ains- (Isa. xli 17), to Christians (Heb. xiii 7)- worth, ' Speaker's Commentary,' Murphy), until I have done that which I have spoken or, what is more probable, Jacob himself as to thee of-cf. Balaam's testimony to the a type of him, the Son of man, in whom the Divine faithfulness (Numb. xxiii. 19), and lfring intercourse between earth and heaven Joshua's (eh. xxi. 45), and SCllomon's (1 depicted in the vision of the angel-trodden Kings viii 66). It is impossible, in connec- sfaircase was completely fulfilled (Hengsten- tion with this sublime theophany granted to berg, Ilaumgnrt<ln, Lange, Bnsh). Jacob at Bethel, not to recall the similar Ver.13.-And, behold,-" the dream-vision Divine manifestation vouchsafed to .Abraham is so glorions that the narrator represents it beneath the starry firmament at Hebron by a threefold i1,~;'J "(Lange)-the Lord stood (vide eh. xv. 1). above it,-the change in the Divine name is Yer. 16.-And Jacob awe.ked out of his not to be explained by assigning vers. 13--- sleep (during which he had seen and talked 16 to the J ehovistic editor (Tuch, Bleek) with Jehovah), and he said, Surely the Lord or to a subsequent redactor (Davidson), since is in this place; and I knew it not. Jacob without it the Elohistic document would be does not here learn the doctrine of the ahrnpt, if not incomplete (Kalisch), but by Divine omnipresence for the first time (Kno- recalling the fact that it is not the general bel), but now discovers that the covenant prondence of the Deity over his creature God of Abraham revealed himself e.t other man, but the special superintendence of the than consecrated places (Roscnmiiller, Keil, God of .A.braham and of Isaac over his chosen Lange, Murphy); or perhaps simply gives people, that the symbolic ladder was intended expression to his astonishment at finding to depict (Hengstenberg)-and said, I am that whereas he fancied himself a.lone, he the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and was in reality in the company of God-se the God of Isaac :-thus not simply proclaim- plus adeptum esse quam sperare ausua ing his personal name Jehovah, but an- ]'u:isset (Calvin). nouncing himself as the Elohlm who had Yer. 17.-And he was afraid,-so were solemnly entered into covenant with his .Moses (Exod. xx. 18, 19), Job (eh. xlii 5, 6), ancestors, and who had now come, in virtue Isaiah (eh. vi. 6), Peter (Lnke v. 8), John of that covenant, to renew to him the pro- (Rev. L 17, 18), at similar discoveries of the mises he had previously given them-the Divine presence-and said, How dreadful is land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give this place !-i. e. how to be feared I how it, and to thy seed-given to Abraham, ea. awe-inspiring I ,po/Jipo, (LXX.), terribilis xiii. 15 ; to Isaac, e:h. xxvi. 3. (Yulgate)-this 1s none other but the house Ver. 14.-And thy seed shall be as the of God, and this is the gate of heaven. Not dust of the earth,-promised to Abraham, literally, bnt figuratively, the place where eh. xiii. 16; to Isaac, under a different God dwells, and the entrance to his glorious emblem, eh. ::uvi. 4-and thou shalt spread abode (Keil); the idea that Jacob wrui "made abroad (literally, brea/c forth-) to the west, a.ware by the dream that he had slept on and to the east, to the north, and to the one of those favoured spots singled out for a south :-(cf. eh. xiii. 14; Dent. xii. 20). future sanctuary, and was fearful that he In its ultimate significance this points to had sinned by employing it for a profane the world-wide universality of the kingdom purpose" (Kalisch), being fancifnL • • of Christ (llforpby)-and in thee and in thy Ver. 18.-And Jaco!J rose up early in the seed shall all the families of the earth be morning (et: eh. xix. 27; xxii 3), and blessed (vide eh. xii. 3; xviii. 18; xxii. 18 took the stone that he had. put for hi.a pil- (.A.braham); xxvi. 4 (Isaac). lows (vide supra), and set it up for a pillar Ver. 15.-And, behold, I am with thee,- -literally, set it up, a pillar (or something spoken to Isaac (eh. xxvi. 24); again to set upright, hence e. statue or monument); Jacob (eh. xxx:i. 3) ; afterwards to Christ's not as an object of worship, a sort of fetish, cli~ciples (Uat.t. x:xviii. 20)-and will keep but as e. memorial of the VIBion (Calvin, Keil, thee in all pla.cc:s whither thou goeet,-liter- Murphy; cf. eh. xxxi. 45 ; xxxv. 14 ; Josh. = ally, in all thou goest in a.11 thy goings (cf. eh. xlvili. 16; Ps. cxxi. 5, 7, B)-and iv. 9, 20 ; xxiv. 26 ; 1 Sam. vii. 12)-and poured oil upon the top of it. Quasi sign um will bring tb11e age.in into thi11 land ;-e']Ui- consecrationis (Calvin), and not becnuso he "11. XXVIII, 10-22.) THE BOOK OF GENESIS. 351