Analysis.—The section consists of a complete Elohistic narrative (11f. 17-22), with a Yahwistic insertion (13-16). For E, cf. (
Hebrew characters); 12. 17. 20; (Hebrew characters), 18. 22; the dream, 12; the tithe, 22; and the retrospective references in 3113 353. 7. For J, (Hebrew characters) 13 (bis). 16; (Hebrew characters)13, and the resemblances to 123. 7 1315f. 1818 2215ff. 2624 3213. To J belong, further, 10 ((Hebrew characters)), and (if genuine) 21b, though the latter is more probably interpolated. 19a breaks the connexion of 18 and 20, and may be taken from J; 19b is an explanatory gloss. (So nearly all recent critics.) Kuenen (Ond. i. 145, 247) considers 13-16 a redactional addition to E, similar to 2214-18, etc., on the ground that J attributes the inauguration of the worship at Bethel to Abraham (128), and nowhere alludes to the theophany here recorded (so Meyer, INS, 2363). But (to say nothing of 19a) the parallelism of 16 and 17 appears to prove a real amalgamation of primary sources (Di.). Gu. regards 14 as secondary, on account of its stereotyped phraseology. 10-12 (E). Jacob's dream.—11. he lighted upon the place] i.e., the 'holy place' of Bethel (see 126), whose sanctity was revealed by what followed.—he took [at haphazard] one of the stones of the place] which proved itself to be the abode of a deity by inspiring the dream which came to Jacob that night.—12. a ladder] or 'stair' (the word only here). The origin of the idea is difficult to account for (see on v.17). Its permanent religious significance is expressed with profound insight and truth in Jn. 151.—angels of God] So (in pl.) only in E (cf. 322) in the Hex. As always in OT, the angels are represented as wingless beings (cf. En. lxi. 1). In v.11 the rendering 'a certain place' would be grammatically correct (G-K. § 126 r); but it destroys the point of the sentence, which is that night overtook the patriarch just at the sacred spot (see Ex. 35). The idea expressed by the primitive form of the legend is that the inherent sanctity of the place, and in particular of the stone, was unknown till it was discovered by Jacob's dream. It is very probable, as Ho. suggests, that this points to an ancient custom of incubation at Bethel, in which dream-oracles were sought by sleeping with the head in contact with the sacred stone (see Sta. GVI, i. 475 f.).
13-16 (J). The promise.
In place of the vision of the ladder, which in E constitutes the whole
revelation, J records a personal appearance of Yahwe, and an articulate
communication to the patriarch. That it was a nocturnal theophany (as
in 2624) appears from 16a[Greek: alpha], as well as the word (Hebrew characters) in 13. The promise
is partly addressed to Jacob's special circumstances (13. 15), partly a re-
11. (Hebrew characters)] Acc. of place (lit. 'at his head-place'), as 1 Sa. 1913. 16
267. 11. 16, 1 Ki. 196.—12. (Hebrew characters)] The usual vivid formula in relating a
