[Seriously, my first exposure to this story is through what used to be called “Negro Spirituals”; the lyrics went like this:
“Jacob dreamt he saw a ladder reachin’ to the sky; angels comin’ up and downin’; climb up chil’lun climb!”
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I’m not sure if race sensitivity has changed what is considered as offensive language from “Negro Spirituals” to “African-American Spirituals” but no matter; to children of all races, the simple tune and words are memorable. Had I listened to a story instead of learned to sing a song that told the same story, I would most likely have already forgotten it. So therefore, it is good to expose young children to bible stories, and specially through song. When one hears the music, the lyrics come to mind so naturally; that seems to be how the Creator has programmed our mental faculties with musical memories, praise Him for His ingenuity, He thought of everything.
The simplicity of the images in the story begins to sink in as you ponder what’s going on. There’s a ladder. And Jacob who has yet to earn his stripes to deserve being the 3rd generation of the Patriarchs of Israel. There are spiritual beings who are climbing and descending. What is it all about? Perhaps simply, that Heaven is open to all who would like to know more about where the ladder leads to—especially the likes of Yaakov who will father 12 sons from whom descend 12 tribes of a chosen-people-yet-to-be.
Now remember, this is not a ‘vision’ as in the prophet Isaiah’s glimpse of heaven and heavenly creatures, but rather a ‘dream’. The difference? Well, for one, awake vs. asleep; for another, Divine revelation vs. human subconscious absorption of reality uncontrolled by self-will. Think of your own dreams and how you’ve wondered what they mean; if they mean anything more than data you’ve filed in there like a mental computer, unsystematized, unorganized, then there is not much meaning to them. In biblical narratives, dreams seem to be a medium for Divine messages, hence the need for interpreters like Joseph and Daniel.
At the end of the chapter, Yaakov makes a ‘tithe’ commitment though it seems to be conditional:
20 And Yaakov vowed a vow, saying: If God will be with me and will watch over me on this way that I go and will give me food to eat and a garment to wear, 21 and if I come back in peace to my father’s house— YHVH shall be God to me, 22 and this stone that I have set up as a standing-pillar shall become a house of God, and everything that you give me I shall tithe, tithe it to you.Unbracketted ommentary is from Pentateuch and Haftorahs, ed. J.H. Hertz; translation and commentary “EF” is by Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses; additional commentary by “RA” for Robert Alter.–Admin1.]
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Genesis/Beresith 28
1 So Yitzhak called for Yaakov, he blessed him and commanded him, saying to him: You are not to take a wife from the women of Canaan;[EF] arise, go to the country of Aram: It is curious that Yitzhak sends his son on a journey that he himself had been forbidden to undertake.
[RA] and blessed him. The Hebrew berekh also has the more everyday sense of “too greet,” but it is quite unnecessary to construe it in that sense here, as some scholars have proposed. Isaac’s clear intention is to give his son a parting blessing: the instructions about taking a wife from Mesopotamia intervene in the last half of this verse and in verse 2 before we reach the actual words of the blessing in verses 3 and 4, but this sort of proleptic introduction of a key verb is entirely in accordance with Hebrew literary usage.
2 arise, go to the country of Aram, to the house of Betuel, your mother’s father, and take yourself a wife from there, from the daughters of Lavan, your mother’s brother.Paddan-aram. See XXV,20.
[EF] arise, go to the country of Aram: It is curious that Yitzhak sends his son on a journey that he himself had been forbidden to undertake.
3 May God Shaddai bless you, may he make you bear fruit and make you many, so that you become a host of peoples.God Almighty. See XVII,1.
4 And may he give you the blessing of Avraham, to you and to your seed with you, for you to inherit the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Avraham.the blessing of Abraham. XXXV,20.
[EF] seed . . . land: Again the two elements of the blessing given to Avraham.
[RA] And may He grant you the blessing of Abraham, to you and your seed as well. Documentary critics assign 27:46-28:9 to the Priestly source and argue that it contradicts the logic of the story told in chapter 27. Such readings, however, reflect an unfortunate tendency to construe any sign of tension in a narrative as an irreconcilable contradiction, and underestimate the resourcefulness of the Priestly writers in making their own version artfully answer the versions of antecedent traditions. Sending Jacob off to Paddan-Sram to find a wife and Jacob’s flight from his vengeful brother are not alternate explanations for his departure: the bride search is clearly presented as an excuse for what is actually his flight, an excuse ably engineered by Rebekah with her melodramatic complaint (27:46). now Isaac, whatever misgivings he may have about Jacob’s act of deception, knows that his younger son has irrevocably received the blessing, and he has no choice but to reiterate it at the moment of parting. He does so at this point in the lofty language of procreation and proliferation and inheritance, harking back to the first Creation story, that is characteristic of the Priestly style, which is in a different register from the earthy and political language of the blessing articulated in the previous chapter. But far from contradicting or needlessly duplicating the earlier blessing, this scene is a pointed, low-key replay of the scene in the tent. When Isaac tells Jacob he will become an assembly of peoples and his seed will take possession of the land promised to Abraham, he is manifestly conferring on him the blessing that is the prerogative of the elder son—something he would have no warrant to do were h not simply confirming the blessing he has already been led to pronounce, through Jacob’s subterfuge, upon his younger son. Esau once again fails to get things right. Overhearing Isaac’s warning to Jacob about exogamous unions, he behaves as though endogamy were a sufficient condition for obtaining the blessing, and so after the fact of his two marriages with Hittite women—perhaps even many years after the fact—he, too, takes a cousin as bride. There is no indication of his father’s response to this initiative, but the marriage is an echo in action of his plaintive cry, “Do you have but one blessing, my Father? Bless me, too, Father.”
5 So Yitzhak sent Yaakov off; he went to the country of Aram, to Lavan son of Betuel the Aramean, the brother of Rivka, the mother of Yaakov and Esav.[EF] YAAKOV AND ESAV: In the end, the oracle to Rivka is confirmed, with the younger son superseding elder.
6 Now Esav saw that Yitzhak had given Yaakov farewell-blessing and had sent him to the country of Aram, to take himself a wife from there, (and that) when he had given him blessing, he had commanded him, saying: You are not to take a wife from the women of Canaan! 7 And Yaakov had listened to his father and his mother and had gone to the country of Aram. 8 And Esav saw that the women of Canaan were bad in the eyes of Yitzhak his father, 9 so Esav went to Yishmael and took Mahalat daughter of Yishmael son of Avraham, sister of Nevayot, in addition to his wives as a wife.unto the wives. In addition to those mentioned in XXVI,34. It seems that he married his cousin in order to propitiate his parents, who were grieved at his alien wives.
JACOB’S DREAM
10 Yaakov went out from Be’er-sheva and went toward Harranwent out from Beersheba. Why is this mentioned—ask the Rabbis—since it would have been sufficient to state, ‘Jacob went towards Haran’? They reply that the departure of a righteous man from any place diminishes its importance, and should be keenly felt by its inhabitants.
11 and encountered a certain place. He had to spend the night there, for the sun had come in. Now he took one of the stones of the place and set it at his head and lay down in that place.and he lighted. Since the same Heb. word signifies ‘to entreat’, the Talmud deduces from this passage that Jacob prayed there for Divine protection, and thus instituted the Evening prayer (See XXIV,63).
the place. The Rabbis stress the definite article in the Heb. idiom, and state that it was Mount Moriah.
[RA] a certain place. Though archeological evidence indicates that Bethel had been a cultic site for the Canaanites centuries before the patriarchs, this pagan background, as Nahum Sarna argues, is entirely occluded: the site is no more than an anonymous “place” where Jacob decides to spend the night. Repetition of a term is usually a thematic marker in biblical narrative, and it is noteworthy that “place” (maqom) occurs six times in this brief story. In part, this is the tale of the transformation of an anonymous place through vision into Bethel, a “house of God.”
one of the stones of the place. There is scant evidence elsewhere of a general (and uncomfortable) ancient Near Eastern practice of using stones as pillows. Rashi, followed by some modern scholars, proposes that the stone is not placed under Jacob’s head but alongside it, as a kind of protective barrier. The stone by which Jacob’s head rests as he dreams his vision will become the pillar, the commemorative of cultic marker (matsevah) at the end of the story. J.P. Fokkelman (1975) astutely notes that stones are Jacob’s personal motif: from the stone at his head to the stone marker, then the stone upon the well he will roll away, and the pile of stones he will set up to mark his treaty with Laban.
12 And he dreamt: Here, a ladder was set up on the earth, its top reaching the heavens, and here: messengers of God were going up and down on it.The description of Jacob’s dream is among the most beautiful in literature (Hazlitt). We have here wonderful imagery which, in its symbolism, speaks to each man according to his mental and spiritual outlook. Its message to Jacob is its message to all men in all ages—that the earth is full of the glory of God, that He is not far off in His heavenly abode and heedless of what men do on earth. Every spot on earth may be for man ‘the gate of heaven’.
ascending and descending. It is to be noted that the angels are first mentioned as ascending, as though they had been accompanying the Patriarch on his journey. He may have been without human friends; but, unseen, there had been angels by his side to protect and encourage him.
[EF] Here: The word (three times) emphasizes the immediacy of the report; it is the vocabulary of dreams, as in 37:7 (Andersen). ladder: Others use “ramp” or “stairway.”
[RA] a ramp. The Hebrew terms occurs only here. Although its etymology is doubtful, the traditional rendering of “ladder” is unlikely. As has often been observed, the references to both “its top reaching the heavens” and “the gate of the heavens” use phrases associated with the Mesopotamian ziggurat, and so the structure envisioned is probably a vast ramp with terraced landings. There is a certain appropriateness in the Mesopotamian motif, given the destination of Jacob’s journey. Jacob in general is represented as a border crosser, a man of liminal experiences: here, then in his return trip when he is confronted by Laban, and in the nocturnal encounter at the ford of the Jabbok.
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beside him. Or, ‘above it,’ i.e. the ladder. The translation, ‘beside him,’ is supported by many Jewish commentators and is to be preferred.
thy father. i.e. thy ancestor. Jacob’s relationship with Abraham is referred to because it was to him that the original promise had been made which Jacob was now told he would inherit.
[EF] over against: see note to 18:2. the land, etc.: Once again Yaakov receives the blessing of Avraham “his father” (!). See 13;14-16.
[RA] the LORD was poised over him. The syntactic reference of “over him” is ambiguous, and the phrase could equally be construed to mean “on it” (i.e., on the ramp).
14 Your seed will be like the dust of the earth; you will burst forth, to the Sea, to the east, to the north, to the Negev. All the clans of the soil will find blessing through you and through your seed!spread abroad. lit. ‘break forth’, i.e. burst the narrow boundaries.
be blessed. See on XII,3.
[RA] And your seed shall be like the dust of the earth. God in effect offers divine confirmation of Isaac’s blessing (verse 3 and 4) in language that is more vivid—indeed, hyperbolic.
15 Here, I am with you, I will watch over you wherever you go and will bring you back to this soil; indeed, I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.I am with thee. Therefore Jacob need have no fear of the threats of Esau.
16 Yaakov awoke from his sleep and said: Why, YHVH is in this place, and I, I did not know it!I knew it not. In popular belief the presence of God was restricted to ‘sacred places’. Many people still confine religion to sacred occasions and the sacred locality which is their place of worship, instead of looking upon religion as a continuously active influence and regulative principle in their daily life.
17 He was awestruck and said: How awe-inspiring is this place! This is none other than a house of God, and that is the gate of heaven!full of awe. The Heb word mora signifies, inspiring reverential awe.
18 Yaakov started-early in the morning, he took the stone that he had set at his head and set it up as a standing-pillar and poured oil on top of it.for a pillar. Not intended as an altar or as an act of worship, but to mark the spot where he had had the fateful dream-vision. He hopes, however, at a later time to erect a Sanctuary on the spot (see v. 22).
poured out. To distinguish that stone from the rest, so that Jacob might recognize it on his return (Ibn. Ezra).
[EF] standing-pillar: A stone marker, common to the culture of the region.
[RA] took the stone . . . and he set it as a pillar. Cultic pilars—Jacob ritually dedicates this one as such by pouring oil over its top—were generally several feet high. If that is the case here, it would have required, as Gerhard von Rad notes, Herculean strength to lift the stone. We are then prepared for Jacob’s feat with a massive weight of stone in the next episode.
19 And he called the name of the place: Bet-el/House of God— however, Luz was the name of the city in former times.Luz. The holy place Bethel was outside the old city of Luz. Jacob did not spend the night in Luz but on its outskirts. We learn from Chap. XIX of the dangers which might attend a traveller who entered a strange town at night.
[EF] Bet-El: The English “Beth El.”
20 And Yaakov vowed a vow, saying: If God will be with me and will watch over me on this way that I go and will give me food to eat and a garment to wear,vowed. Jacob resolved to devote a part of the prosperity which God had promised him to His service. This is the first mention of a vow in the Bible.
[EF] If the LORD be with me. The conditional form of the vow–if the other party does such and such, then I on my part will do such and such in return—is well attested elsewhere in the bible and in other ancient Near Eastern texts. But its use by Jacob has a characterizing particularity. God has already promised him in the dream that He will do all this things for him. Jacob, however, remains the suspicious bargainer—a “wrestler” with words and conditions just as he is a physical wrestler, a heel-grabber. He carefully stipulated conditions of sale to the famished Esau; he was leery that he would be found out when Rebekah proposed her strategem of deception to him; now he wants to be sure God will fulfill His side of the bargain before he commits himself to God’s service; and later he will prove to be a sharp dealer in his transactions with his uncle Laban.
on this way that I am going. The “way” replicates the mission of Abraham’s servant in chapter 24—to find a bride among his kinfolk in Mesopotamia. But unlike the servant, who crosses the desert in grand style with a retinue of camels and underlings, Jacob is fleeing alone on foot—in fact, it is a very dangerous journey. He will invoke an emblematic image of himself as refugee and pedestrian border crosser in his reunion with Esau years later: “For with my staff I crossed this Jordan” (32:11).
21 and if I come back in peace to my father’s house— YHVH shall be God to me,then shall the LORD be my God. i.e. in gratitude for His care and protection, I will dedicate my life to Him.
[EF] in peace: Or “safely.” This functions as a key word in the Yaakov cycle, extending onto the Yosef story as well. Yaakov, the “sneak” and wanderer, seeks peace and safety; he does not find it until the end of his life, albeit in a foreign land.
22 and this stone that I have set up as a standing-pillar shall become a house of God, and everything that you give me I shall tithe, tithe it to you.tenth. XIV,20. The tithe figures later in the laws of the Israelite people. To this day pious Jews spend a tenth of their earnings in charity.
[EF] tithe: See note to 14:20.