Commentaria in Genesim
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Jacob, fleeing Esau, goes into Mesopotamia, and sleeping on the way sees God leaning on a ladder, by which angels were ascending and descending, consoling him, and thence called the place Bethel; and at last, verse 20, makes a vow to God.
Note: All these things happened in the 77th year of Jacob’s age, as I showed at the beginning of chap. xxvii.
1. And Isaac called for Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, saying: Take not a wife of the stock of Chanaan: 2. But go, and take a journey to Mesopotamia of Syria, to the house of Bathuel, thy mother’s father, and take thee a wife thence of the daughters of Laban, thy uncle. 3. And God almighty bless thee, and make thee to increase, and multiply thee: that thou mayst be a multitude of people. 4. And give thee the blessings of Abraham, and to thy seed after thee: that thou mayst possess the land of thy sojournment, which he promised to thy grandfather. 5. And when Isaac had sent him away, he took his journey and went to Mesopotamia of Syria, to Laban, the son of Bathuel the Syrian, brother to Rebecca his mother. 6. And Esau seeing that his father had blessed Jacob, and sent him into Mesopotamia of Syria, to marry a wife from thence: and that after the blessing he had charged him, saying: Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Chanaan: 7. And that Jacob obeying his parents was gone into Syria: 8. Having also proved by experience that his father did not willingly look upon the daughters of Chanaan: 9. He went to Ismael, and took to wife, besides those he had before, Maheleth the daughter of Ismael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nabaioth. 10. Now Jacob being departed from Bersabee, went on to Haran. 11. And when he was come to a certain place, and would rest in it after sunset, he took of the stones that lay there, and putting under his head, slept in the same place. 12. And he saw in his sleep a ladder standing upon the earth, and the top thereof touching heaven: the angels also of God ascending and descending by it, 13. And the Lord leaning upon the ladder saying to him: I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land, wherein thou sleepest, I will give to thee and to thy seed. 14. And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth: thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and the east, and the north, and the south: and in thee and thy seed all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed. 15. And I will be thy keeper whithersoever thou goest, and will bring thee back into this land: neither shall I leave thee, till I shall have accomplished all that I have said. 16. And when Jacob awaked out of sleep, he said: Indeed the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. 17. And trembling he said: How terrible is this place! this is no other but the house of God, and the gate of heaven. 18. Jacob therefore rising in the morning, took the stone which he had laid under his head, and set it up for a title, pouring oil upon the top of it. 19. And he called the name of the city Bethel, which before was called Luza. 20. And he made a vow, saying: If God shall be with me, and shall keep me in the way by which I walk, and shall give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, 21. And I shall return prosperously to my father’s house: the Lord shall be my God, 22. And this stone, which I have set up for a title, shall be called the house of God: and of all things that thou shalt give to me, I will offer tithes to thee.
1. HE BLESSED HIM—he confirmed the blessing given a little before. So St. Augustine.
2. INTO MESOPOTAMIA—to Haran, or Carrhae, a city of Mesopotamia, which was distant from Bersabee, where Isaac and Jacob dwelt, by a journey of about eight days.
THE HOUSE OF BATHUEL—which had been Bathuel’s, but he being dead, it was now his son’s, namely Laban, his uncle’s.
3. MAKE THEE TO INCREASE AND MULTIPLY THEE, THAT THOU MAYST BE A MULTITUDE OF PEOPLE—make thee increase with much offspring and family, that many tribes and a multitude of peoples may be born of thee. So in fact the twelve tribes were peoples, descending from Jacob.
4. TO THY SEED AFTER THEE.—Hence St. Augustine, book XVI De Civitate xxxvii, and Rupert gather that the promises of God concerning the land of Chanaan to be possessed, concerning the seed to be born, etc., made to Abraham and Isaac, were appropriated to Jacob and his posterity: and that in this way Esau is considered excluded and foreign, as it were, from the seed and family of Abraham and Isaac, and to have become the father and founder of an alien nation, namely of the Idumeans; whence consequently Esau and the Idumeans, excluded from the condition and burden in the covenant and blessing of Abraham, namely from the law of circumcision, were not bound.
5. HE WENT INTO MESOPOTAMIA—by that journey which is more fully related in verse 10. It is therefore a prolepsis; for Moses wished to set here before the eyes at one view, as in a synopsis, and to contrast, the deeds both of Esau and of Jacob, and Jacob’s flight from his brother and the end of the flight, that he might then in what follows resume and relate it more fully. For Moses intends to relate at length the deeds of Jacob, as father of the twelve Patriarchs and of all the Israelites; wherefore, that he may give himself wholly to these, he first by the way touches briefly on the deeds of Esau which happened about the same time.
Morally St. Ambrose, book II De Jacob et vita beata, teaches that Jacob was blessed even in flight and exile. “Was not Jacob blessed, he says, even when he left his country? Nay plainly blessed, who undertakes the hardships of exile to mitigate his brother’s anger. For if he is blessed who avoids sin, he certainly cannot be denied to be blessed who lightens another’s guilt, turns away crime. He therefore avoided a prepared parricide by voluntary exile, and by that act sought safety for himself, gave innocence to his brother.
he might acquire; for he saw the mysteries of things to come, and heard divine oracles.”
8. SYRIA—Mesopotamia. See what was said chap. xxv.
HAVING ALSO PROVED—observing and seeing. So the Hebrew. “Proving” here therefore is not the same as exploring, but as if to say: Having learned and discovered by proof and experience. Esau seems to have wished to take this third wife who would please his parents, or at least displease less than the two former, who were Chanaanites. But he would not take one from the house of Nachor, though he knew that this would be more pleasing to his parents; and that from a certain animosity, because, namely, Jacob had gone thither, lest he should seem to follow and imitate his brother, especially as he himself was the elder.
for Ismael had been dead fourteen years; these things, as I said at the beginning of chap. xxvii, happened in the 77th year of Jacob; but Ismael died in the 137th year of his age, which was Isaac’s 123rd, and Jacob’s 63rd. So Tostatus.
11. HE TOOK OF THE STONES.—From these words R. Nehemias, in Midrash Tehillim, on that Psalm Rabboth in this place, think that Jacob took three stones, and that they were turned into one, of which it is said in verse 18: “He took the stone which he had laid under his head, and set it up for a title;” that thereby the mystery of the Holy Trinity might be signified, in which three persons come together into one essence, and that therefore Jacob in verse 17 exclaimed: “How wonderful is this place!” But this seems a Rabbinical invention and fable; for St. Jerome has nothing of the kind, nor any of the ancient or modern interpreters. When therefore it is said: “He took of the stones,” understand one larger and more fitting, as he explains himself in verse 18, saying: “He took the stone which he had laid under his head.”