The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 412

regarded it as in itself invested with any de- not in o.ny mercenary or doubtful spirit, but gree of sanctity. The worship of sacred stones as an exprossion of gratitude for the Divine (Bretylia), afterwards prevalent among the mercy {Calvin), as the soul's full and free Greeks, Romans, Hindoos, Arabs, and Ger- acceptance of the Lord to be its own God mans, though by some (Kueneu, Oort ; vide (Murphy), as the instinctive impulse of the 'The Bible for Young People,' vol. i. p. 231) new creature (Candlish)-sa.ying, If (not the regarded as one of the primeval forms of language of uncertainty, but equivalent to w'brship among the Hebrews, was expressly "since," or "forasmuch as;" Jacob by faith interdicted by the law of Moses (cf. Exod. both appropriating and anticipating the ful- xxiii. 24 ; xxxiv. 13; Levit. xxvi. 1 ; Dent. filment of tho preceding promise) God (Elo- xii. 3 ; xvi. 22). It was probably a heathen him; for the reason of which vide infra) imitation of the rite here recorded, though will be with me,-as he has promised (ver. by some authorities (Keil, Knobel, Lange) 15), and as I believe he will-and will keep the Brotylian worship is said to have been me in this way that I go,-a particular ap- connected chiefly with meteoric qtoncs which propriation of the general promise (ver. 15) Wero supposed to have desccn.J.ed from some -and will give me bread to eat, and rai- divinity; as, e. g., the stone in Delphi sacred ment to put on (i. e. all the necessaries of to Apollo ; that in Emesa, on the Orontes, life, included, though not specially mentioned, consecrated to the sun ; the angular rock at in the preceding promise), ao that I come Pessinus in Phrygie. worshipped es hallowed again to my father's house-also guaranteed by Cybele; the black stone in the Kaaba at by God (vcr. 15), and here accepted by the Mecca believed to have been brought from patriarch-in peace (i. e. especially free from heaven by the angel Gabriel (vide Kalisch in Esau's avenging threats); then shall the Lord loco). That the present narrative was a late be my God-literally, and Jehoval. will be invention, "called into existence by a de- to me for Elohim (Rosenmiiller, Hcngsten- sire " on the part of tho priests and prophets berg, Keil, Kalisch, 'Speaker's Comment- of Yahweh (Jehovah) "to proclaim the high ary'), though the received translation is not antiquity of the sanctuary at Bethel, e.nd to without support (LXX., Vulgate, Syriac, make a sacred stone harmless " (' The Bible Calvin, Michaelis, Lange, Murphy, Words- for Young People,' vol i. p. 231), is pure worth) ; but to have bo.rgnined and bartered assumption. The circumstance that the usage with God in the way which this suggests here mentioned is nowhere else in Scripturo before assenting to accept him as an object countenanced (except in eh. xxxv. 14, with of trust and worship would hnve been little reference to this same pillar) forms a sufficient less than criminal. Accordingly, the clause pledge of the hi§h antiquity of the narrative is best placed in the protosis of the sentence, (vide Hiivemick a 'Introd.,' § 20). which then practically reads, "if Elohim Ver. 19. - And he called the name of will be J chovnh to me, and if J chovah will that place Bethel - i. e. house of God. be to me Elohim" (vide Hengstcnberg, Rosenmiiller and Kalisch find a connection 'Introduction,' vol. i. p. 358). between Bethel and Bmtylia, the form or re- Ver. 22.-And (or then, the npodosis now garding Bretylia as a corruptio_n of Bethel, commencing) this stone which I he.ve set and the latter viewing Bethel as the Hebrn- for a pillar (vide on ver. 18) shall be God's ised form of Bretylion. Keil objects to both honse - Bethel, meaning that he would that the interchange of .,. in /3a1Tv'A1ov and afterwards erect there an altar for the cele- 9 in {3a,9~X would be perfectly inexplicable. bration of Diviue worship - 11 resolution On the site of Bethel (Beitin) vide eh. xii. 8. which WQS subsequently carried out (vide eh. But the name of that city was cRlled Luz xxxv. 1, 15). "The pillar or cnim or crom- at the first. Originally the Cannanitish lech of Bethel must have been looked upon by town, built nccording to Calvin after this the Israelites, and may bo still looked upon event, was called Luz, or "almond tree,'' a in thought by us, ns tho precursor of every name it continued to benr until tho conquest "house of God " that has since nriscn in (J udgcs i. 23). From the circumstances re- the Jewish and Christian world-the temple, corded in the na1Tative, Jncob called the the cathedral, the church, the chnpel ; llny spot where he slept (in the vicinity of Luz) moro, of those secret places of worshif thRt Bethel-the designation aftorwnrds extend- are marked by no nnturnl beauty nn, seen ina to the town (eh. xxxv. 6). Until the by no humnn cyo-tho closet, tho catncomb, co~quest both titles appear to have been the thoroughfore of the trne worshipper" used-Luz by the Cnnaanitcs, Bethel by the (Stnnley's 'Jowish Church,' lcct. iii. p. 60), Israelites. When the conquest wns completed And of all the.t thou shalt give me I will the Hebrew name wes substituted for the surely give the tenth unto thee. Litornlly, Hittite, the sole sur•rivor of the captured giving I will give the tenth (cf. eh. xiv. 20). city building another Luz in another part of Tho case of Jacob 111fords nnother proof thllt the country (vide Judges i. 26). tho prnctico of voluntary tithing was known Vera. 20, 21.-And Jacob vowed a vow,- and observed antecedont to the time of Moses !152 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [cH. XXVIII. 10-22.