Commentaria in Genesim
4. Earrings, with which idols, like men, were adorned on the ears. Whence, second, Augustine calls them the phylacteries of the gods. St. Chrysostom teaches the same, homily 35 on Genesis, as do Lyranus and both Glosses. Gaspar Sanchez somewhat differently, on Isaias chapter 41, number 20; for he thinks that these earrings were hung not on idols but on the ears of the servants, but had engraved on them likenesses or signs of the idols which they had previously worshipped, and so were buried by Jacob with the idols. For so the Gentiles bore the images of their gods on rings, bracelets, gems or plates hanging from the neck, whence Pythagoras afterwards forbade this, as did Clement of Alexandria, book 3 of the Pedagogue, chapter 11. So Osee chapter 2 says: “Let her put away her fornications from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts,” because between the breasts, and over the heart, she wore a plate or bulla on which adulteries, that is, idols, were engraved. On the contrary the bridegroom commands the bride, Canticles 8: “Put me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm,” namely that the bride mark the heart and arm of her bridegroom with his image, engraved doubtless on the tablet of the heart or on the bracelets of the arms. Hence pious Jews wore about the law of God and the badges of their profession on rings, bullae and collars, according to that of Proverbs 7: “Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the tables of thy heart.”
He buried them. First broken or melted, as Moses did, Exodus 32:20, and Ezechias, 4 Kings 18:4. Jacob could have turned the material, the gold, silver and brass, to another use, even a sacred one (though Abulensis denies it); but he would not, lest any trace of idolatry should survive, and that he might instil in his people a loathing of it, and that all might learn to abominate idols as accursed things.
Under the turpentine tree. The Hebrew ela signifies both an oak and a terebinth. Andreas Masius, on Josue, last chapter, verse 26, thinks this is the ela, that is, the oak or terebinth Moreh, that is, the illustrious, under which Abraham first erected an altar to God, Genesis 12:6, and near which Abimelech was consecrated king, Judges chapter 9, verse 6; and therefore that under it, as sacred from the time of fathers and forefathers, Jacob buried the idols of his people. This ela was therefore at Sichem; preserved by the religion of the fathers through many years, nay hallowed.
5. The terror of God fell upon all. God sent this sacred and, as it were, panic terror upon the Chanaanites, that they might not dare to attack Jacob as he departed from Sichem, and as it were fled, and avenge the slaughter of the Sichemites. See, says St. Chrysostom, what the fear of Isaac and Jacob deserves, by which he feared God, namely that God in turn should make him terrible to all. “For when God wishes us well, all terrible things are taken away. For as He gave confidence to the just man, so He gave fear to them,” so that although many and massed together, they did not dare to assail the few and weak. The same protection of God pious men often experience on journeys when they fall among robbers or plunderers.
7. He called the name of that place, The house of God.
This place had earlier been called Bethel by Jacob, chapter 28, verse 19; here, therefore, he repeats and confirms the name given by himself, and at the same time communicates it to the altar newly built by himself in the same place. He called the altar, therefore, and inscribed on it the Hebrew name as a title, el bethel, that is, the mighty God of Bethel, that is, an altar dedicated to the God of Bethel, or to the God who dwells in Bethel as in His own house, and who appeared to me there as most mighty, and by His strength strengthened me against Esau, the Sichemites, and all enemies and terrors. See what was said at chapter 28, verse 19.
8. Debora. She was the nurse of Rebecca, the mother of Jacob, and came with her from Haran into Chanaan to Isaac. The Hebrews relate that this Debora was sent back by Rebecca to Haran to recall Jacob thence, and died on the journey while returning with Jacob, as is said here.
At the roots of Bethel. Bethel, therefore, was situated on a mountain.
The oak of weeping: because Jacob with his people there bewailed the death of Debora.
9. And God appeared again to Jacob. A little before He had appeared to him, bidding him go to Bethel; now when he has come to Bethel, there He appears to him again. So the Septuagint. “This is the third apparition,” says Hugh the Cardinal, “in which the Lord appeared to Jacob. For first He appeared to him as he fled from Esau, leaning on the ladder. Second, to him returning from Mesopotamia, in the wrestling. Third, here in Bethel. In which a threefold apparition of Christ is signified. For He appears to those who sleep, in contemplation; He appears also to those who wrestle, in tribulation; He appears at last to those who live, in eternal blessing. Of the first St. Bernard says: Christ wishes to be seen, not to see; like a valiant leader, He wishes the face of the devout soldier to be lifted to His wounds: the soldier of Christ will not feel his own while he gazes at the wounds of Christ. This is to see Christ leaning on the ladder, whence the Apostle says, Hebrews chapter 12: Looking on Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who having joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame. Of the second the same St. Bernard says: The Beloved has borne with thee; bear thou with the Beloved. Thy sins have not conquered Him; let His scourges also not overcome thee, and thou shalt obtain the blessing. Of the third it is said in 1 Corinthians 13: We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face; and Psalm 16: I shall be satisfied when thy glory shall appear.”
And he blessed him: by calling him Israel, by instilling in him new promises, new courage, new strength, new gifts of grace.
10. Thou shalt not be called any more Jacob, but Israel. Thou wilt ask why the name Israel is here given again to Jacob. Cajetan answers that the name Israel is repeated here in another sense, on account of a new benefit here promised to Jacob, Thou also, nurse of Aeneas, Caieta, by thy death hast given eternal fame to our shores;
and now thy honour guards thy resting-place, and thy name marks thy bones in great Hesperia, if that be any glory.
namely that his posterity would be Israel, that is, princes with God, as Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion translate; that is, that they would have and retain their kingdom and dominion so long as they remained Israel, that is, so long as God ruled them; as if to say: Thou shalt be called “Israel,” that is, God shall rule: for I promise to thee and thy posterity that so long as in their hearts, through true faith, religion and piety, they suffer me to rule, so long shall they be Israel, that is, princes with God, because from God they shall obtain their dominion, principality and kingdom; but when they cast from them the dominion of God, and will not be subject to God, then likewise they shall lose their earthly principality and kingdom.
It is clear from the very words that the name Israel is given to Jacob here in no other sense than that in which it was given him in chapter 32, verse 28, and so the interpreters teach throughout; and although some think that there the name was only promised, while here it was actually given to Jacob, yet it is truer that it was given there, and here repeated and confirmed for a new reason and cause.
I say therefore: as in chapter 32 Jacob was anxious on account of Esau, so here he is anxious on account of the Sichemites and the Chanaanites, lest they avenge the slaughter of their own people, and attack him, so he is strengthened by God not to fear, and he is made and called Israel, that is, one who rules with God, and through God over Esau, the Sichemites and all his enemies. Again he is called Israel as one who is to be lord of the whole land, namely of Chanaan, and father of nations and kings, as is plain from verses 11 and 12; and in this way the former exposition of Cajetan can be admitted. Hence when he says, “Thy name shall not be called Jacob any more,” the sense is, as it were: Henceforth thou shalt not be merely Jacob, that is, the supplanter of Esau, but Israel, that is, ruling over all with God and through God, and prevailing, so that thou oughtest rather to be called Israel than Jacob.