Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/479

newal of the blessing of Abraham (¹⁴). The latter is not improbably a later amplification of the former (see above).

13. Yahwe stood by him (v.i.), and announced Himself as one with the God of his fathers. This unity of Yahwe amidst the multiplicity of His local manifestations is a standing paradox of the early religion of Israel: cf. v.¹⁶.—the land whereon thou liest] a description peculiarly appropriate to the solitary and homeless fugitive who had not where to lay his head.—14. Comp. 13^14ff. 22^17f. 26^{4. 24} 32¹³.—On ^14b see the note on 12³.—16. Yahwe is in this place, etc.] The underlying feeling is not joy (Di.), but fear, because in ignorance he had treated the holy place as common ground (T^OJ). The exclamation doubtless preserves an echo of the local tradition, more forcibly represented in E (v.¹⁷). It is the only case in Gen. where a theophany occasions surprise (cf. Ex. 3³).

17-19. Consecration and naming of the place.—17 follows v.¹² (E) without sensible breach of continuity; even the mention of Jacob's awaking (¹⁶) is not absolutely indispensable (see ¹⁸). The impression of fear is far more powerfully expressed than in J; the place is no ordinary ḥarām, but one superlatively holy, the most sacred spot on earth. Only a N Israelite could have written thus of Bethel.—a house of God . . . the gate of heaven] The expressions rest on a materialisation of the conception of worship as spiritual intercourse between God and man.

The first designation naturally arises from the name Bêth-'ēl, which (as we see from v.²²) was first applied to the sacred stone, but was afterwards extended to the sanctuary as a whole. When to this was added the idea of God's dwelling in heaven, the earthly sanctuary became as it were the entrance to the true heavenly temple, with which it communicated by means of a ladder. We may compare the Babylonian theory of the temple-tower as the means of ascent to the dwelling-place

dream: 37⁷ G ⁹ 40⁹ 41¹, Ju. 7¹³, Is. 29⁸.—13. (Hebrew characters)] 18² 24¹³ 45¹ (all J). GVS take (Hebrew characters) as antecedent to the suff.; but the idea would have been expressed otherwise ((Hebrew characters)), and the translation loses all its plausibility when the composition of documents is recognised.—Before (Hebrew characters), G ins. (Greek characters).—14. (Hebrew characters)] G (Greek characters), after 32¹³ 41⁴⁹.—(Hebrew characters)] G (Hebrew characters): for the word—properly 'break through' [bounds],—cf. 30^{30. 43}, Ex. 1¹², Is. 54³ etc.—15. (Hebrew characters)] G + (Hebrew characters).