essentially of a solemn promise to render God some service, in the event of some particular prayer or wish being granted" (Dri.);[1] hence it falls into two parts: a condition (20f.), and a promise (22).—20, 21a. The conditions correspond with the divine promise in 15 (J)—(a) the presence of God; (b) protection; (c) safe return—except as regards the stipulation for bread to eat and raiment to wear. The separation of sources relieves Jacob from the suspicion of questioning the sincerity of an explicit divine promise. On 21b, v.i.—22. The promise. this stone . . . shall be (G adds to me) a house of God] i.e. (in the view of the writer), a place of worship. It is to be noted that this reverses the actual development: the stone was first the residence of the numen, and afterwards became a maẓẓēbāh.—22b. He will pay a tithe of all his possessions. This and Am. 44 are the only pre-Deuteronomic references to the tithe (cf. 1420).
In its present setting the above narrative forms the transition link
between the Jacob-Esau and the Jacob-Laban cycle of legends. In substance
it is, we can hardly doubt, a modification of the cultus-legend of
Bethel (now Beitīn, situated on an eminence about 10 miles N of Jerusalem,
a little E of the road to Nābulus), the founding of which was
ascribed to the patriarch Jacob. The concrete features which point to
a local origin—the erection of the maẓẓebahẓēbāh above], the ladder, the gate of
heaven, and the institution of the tithe—are all indeed peculiar to the
account of E, which obviously stands nearer to the sources of the native
tradition than the stereotyped form of the theophany given by J. From
E we learn that the immemorial sanctity of Bethel was concentrated in
the sacred stone which was itself the original Bêth-'ēl, i.e. the residence
of a god or spirit. This belief appears to go back to the primitive stone-*
Ex. 916, Nu. 1421. For (
Hebrew characters), G has (Greek characters); cf. Ju. 1829 (G).—(Hebrew characters)]
356 483, Jos. 162 1813, Ju. 123† . The name (Greek characters) appears to have been
known in the time of Euseb. (OS, 1351); and Müller (AE, 165) thinks it
may be identical with Ruṣa on Eg. inscr.
21. (Hebrew characters)] G (Greek characters), as v.15.—21b can with difficulty be
assigned either to the protasis or to the apodosis of the sentence. The
word (Hebrew characters) shows that it does not belong to E; and in all probability the
cl. is to be omitted as a gloss (Di. al.). The apod. then has the same
unusual form as in 221.
- ↑ But We. (Heid.2 190) remarks of the Arabian custom: "Die Araber geloben nicht in eventum: wenn der und der Fall eintritt, so will ich das tun; sondern sie übernehmen durch das Gelübde eine absolut bindende Pflicht."
