Chapter Twenty-Eight

Jacob’s Flight and Esau’s New Marriage

Genesis 28:1. And Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and commanded him and said: You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan; Isaac calls Jacob to him with the intention as it were of official recognition of him in the rights of the firstborn; according to the expression of Rabbi Eliezer, this is like the affixing of a seal to the act of blessing, in confirmation of its consciousness.

Genesis 28:2. Arise, go to Mesopotamia, to the house of Bethuel, the father of your mother, and take from there a wife from the daughters of Laban, the brother of your mother; To the question: Why does Jacob flee from his father’s house after so many blessings, lacking everything necessary, Blessed Theodoret answers: “In these apparent sufferings the care of God is made manifest... Jacob flees and goes alone, so that returning with a great name, he himself might see how the providence of God is, and might teach it to others. And God immediately manifested His care for Jacob by an appearance” (Blessed Theodoret, answer to question 85; cf. John Chrysostom, p. 574). The country where Jacob is to go, in the narrative of Eliezer’s journey there called simply the homeland of Abraham (Gen 24:4), is now called directly Mesopotamia by Isaac (Hebrew Paddan-aram): this country had become better known to the patriarchal family, which is why Jacob makes the journey alone. Isaac’s instruction that Jacob take a wife from the daughters of Laban is given not without the influence of Rebekah (Gen 27:46) and following the example of Abraham (Gen 24:3-4) and in any case shows that Isaac understood well that the purity of the blood of the patriarchal family was required by the essence of the theocratic law.

Genesis 28:3–4. May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples, and may He give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your descendants with you, so that you may take possession of the land of your sojourning, which God gave to Abraham! Just as God, in announcing to Abraham the birth of a son and the coming forth of numerous descendants from him, calls Himself God Almighty, El-Shaddai (Gen 17:1), so also Isaac calls God by this same name, El-Shaddai, in promising Jacob descendants and the transmission to him of all the blessings of Abraham’s inheritance. Slavonic “into the gathering of peoples” (LXX: εἰς συναγωγὰς ἐθνῶν) is more precise and forceful than the Russian translation in rendering the Hebrew expression zehal-ammim, the gathering of peoples.

Genesis 28:5. And Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Mesopotamia, to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau. The apparently superfluous designation of Rebekah as the mother of Esau and Jacob has, according to the Hebrew commentators, the sense that Rebekah enjoined both sons to marry kinswomen, but only Jacob followed his mother’s instruction, and then, following his example, Esau married (for the third time) a kinsman – a daughter of Ishmael.

Genesis 28:8–9. And Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan displeased Isaac his father; and Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, son of Abraham, sister of Nebaioth, as a wife in addition to his other wives. This deed of Esau flowed from a desire to atone for his guilt before his parents: “and he went... to Ishmael”, i.e., to the house of Ishmael, since Ishmael himself had already died (not less than 14 years before), which is why perhaps his daughter is called here the sister of Nebaioth, the firstborn of Ishmael (Gen 25:13); in Gen 36:3 this woman is called Basemath, not Mahalath as here. This diversity of names (observed also with respect to other wives of Ishmael, cf. Gen 26:34 and Gen 36:3) the Hebrew commentators explained either by the actual double-naming of the woman, or by renaming according to some remarkable event: both were customary among the ancient Hebrews. Concerning Esau’s deed, Rabbi Eliezer said: “If he had put away his former wives, I would say that he acted rightly, but since it says: ‘He took her in addition to his wives,’ – this shows that sore followed sore, pain followed pain, thorn followed thorn” (Beresch. r., p. 326).

Jacob’s Dream and God’s Promise to Him

Genesis 28:10. And Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. From v. 10 onwards, the history of Jacob alone is related (a brief mention of Isaac’s death is in Gen 35:28-29), naturally falling into 3 periods according to the place of residence: the Mesopotamian, the Canaanite, and the Egyptian. Jacob went north from Beersheba through Canaan, then across the Jordan and Gilead (cf. Gen 31:25), Bashan and then in the direction toward Damascus and beyond. The difficulty of the journey and Jacob’s determination were unquestionable. “A man, raised at home, enjoying such services, setting out on a journey, did not ask for pack animals, or an escort, or provisions, but enters upon the path as if by apostolic example” (John Chrysostom, Homily on Gen 54, p. 581). According to the rabbis, the expression of v. 10 indicates that Jacob left his father’s house with sorrow (Abarbanel) and that the city (Beersheba) lost its glory with the departure of such a righteous man (Rashi).

Genesis 28:11. And he came upon a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had gone down. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it under his head and lay down in that place. The place where Jacob stopped, which he named Bethel, lies 12 Roman miles from Jerusalem, on the road to Shechem; Jacob could have traveled to this place not in one day (according to the rabbis, Jacob was a “child of a day”, that is, on the day of his departure from Beersheba he arrived in Haran, which is of course unbelievable). Slavonic: “found a place” (lopa with greater accuracy corresponds to the Hebrew paga (and Greek ἀπαντάω). Talmudists understand this expression as referring to Jacob’s prayer, and on the basis of this verse assign to Jacob the institution of evening prayer (to Isaac – afternoon prayer: mincha, on the basis of Gen 24:63; and to Abraham – morning prayer); the place itself they identify with the place of Isaac’s sacrifice. In these conjectures only the thought is correct, that Jacob was in a prayerful mood. He no doubt spent the night in the open, as he avoided communion with the Canaanites after the commandment just received from his father – not to enter into family relationships with them (v. 1).

Genesis 28:12–15. And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth and the top of it reached toward heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac; [do not fear]. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your descendants; and your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and by you and your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed; and behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done that of which I have spoken to you. The woeful and anxious state of Jacob is a favorable condition for his receiving this first revelation (in a dream). The revelation directly answered Jacob’s pressing needs: • to confirm his faith in the divine promises made to Abraham and Isaac and • to receive assurance of personal safety from Esau and other possible troubles. Both are given to Jacob in the Lord’s words of v. 13–14, and here also is given the highest promise concerning the blessing in the descendants of the patriarchs chosen by God; however, “To Jacob the whole future of the Israeli people is not revealed, as to Abraham (Gen 15:13), a man firm in spirit...” (G.K. Vlastov, Holy Chronology, St. Petersburg, 1878, 1, 253). The character of Jacob’s whole vision corresponds to the circle of views in which the future patriarch of God’s people lived and moved. In the whole picture of the vision – 3 elements (externally distinguished through threefold “behold”, Hebrew hinneh). The ladder from earth to heaven, as an expression of the close connection of earth with heaven: a truth consoling for humans, that he is not abandoned on the earth to the world powers alone, but has access to heaven and help from there! It is credible that Gunkel’s information (p. 289) that the concept of a heavenly ladder was widespread in the ancient East, especially in Egypt (the ladder of Hathor, by which the souls of the dead ascend to heaven); but it is false to assert that named scholar that Jacob’s vision of the ladder has no connection with the rest of Jacob’s history. The connection, on the contrary, is very close. The angels ascending and descending on the ladder, that is, bearing up the prayers, thoughts, cares and so forth of humans to God, and on the other hand bringing down to humans various manifestations of God’s mercy. The Talmud and Midrash (Beresch. r., 333) understand “ascent” and “descent” in the sense that the Angels who accompanied Jacob during his journey through Canaan ascended to heaven, and other Angels who were to accompany Jacob to Chaldea descended from heaven; some support for this interpretation is provided by the mention in Gen 32:1-2 of a strengthened camp (“Mahanaim”) of Angels. V. 12 is regarded as a classical testimony of the Old Testament faith in the existence and activity of Angels as mediators between God and humans (cf. John 1:51). But this mediation of Angels does not exclude direct action of God upon His chosen ones: Jehovah, as the God of the covenant or the Angel of Jehovah (the Son of God before His incarnation, cf. Gen 31:11-13); Blessed Theodoret, answer to question 90; according to the Targum: shekinah, the glory of God), stands upon the ladder above it (alav) and imparts gracious consolations to His chosen, and in the person of him to all future generations of the believing human race.

Genesis 28:16. And Jacob awoke from his sleep and said: Surely the Lord is in this place; and I did not know it! In expressing his deep impression from the wondrous vision, Jacob declares that he had not before thought that God would make His presence manifest not only in places sanctified by sacrifices, but also in regions inhabited by pagans. It is possible, however, to see here the expression of imperfect yet faith in God’s omnipresence (as Holy Cyril of Alexandria understands Jacob’s exclamation).

Genesis 28:17. And he was afraid and said: How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. This thought, however, is exaggerated without need when it is asserted (Gunkel) that the holiness of the place here is understood exclusively objectively, that is, attached exclusively to the place itself. It is known that God sometimes pointed out the special holiness of one place or another (Exod 3:5; Josh 5:15), but in all cases the holiness was recognized by people, those who were deemed worthy to receive the revelation from on high, precisely reflected in the hearts of people in a feeling of mortal fear and deep reverence (for example, in Hagar Gen 16:13; Moses Exod 3:6 and others). “The house of God” (beth Elohim – beth El, v. 19) and “the gate of heaven” (schaar hasehamaim) – terms which later became customary names for the temple – are borrowed by the patriarch from the content of the vision and appropriated by him to the place of the vision, as it were by prophetic foresight of the future sanctuary of God (from the time of the division of the Hebrew kingdom, Bethel was one of the two temples of the ten-tribe kingdom, 1 Sam 12:29).

Jacob’s Vow

Genesis 28:18. And Jacob rose early in the morning and took the stone which he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. Under the impression of the vision, Jacob, in the first place, sets up the stone which had served as his pillow as a memorial (mazzebah) and pours oil on it. The custom of setting up pillars and similar structures as memorials of memorable events is very widespread in the ancient and modern East. In the Bible, apart from Jacob’s history (Gen 28:18), the setting up of stones with this purpose is mentioned in the history of Joshua (Josh 4:9), the prophet Samuel (1 Sam 7:12) and others. Later abuses of this custom for purposes of idolatry caused a prohibition in the Mosaic law (Lev 26:1) against setting up pillars. Likewise, the custom of dedicating stones to divinity was known in the East, for example among the Phoenicians, and in the classical world. Oil, as a necessary part of journeying in hot lands, as a means of support and nourishment, naturally was at hand for the traveler Jacob: “Probably only one oil he carried with him, while on the way” (John Chrysostom, p. 585). Thus, “What he had he gave to the greatly-gifting Lord” (Blessed Theodoret, answer to question 85).

Genesis 28:19. And he called the name of that place Bethel *****, whereas the former name of the city was Luz. The second act of Jacob: in accordance with the impression he mentioned, he names the place of the vision with the name: Beth-El or Bethel (“house of God”), whereas the former name of the neighboring village was: Luz. A second and final time Jacob affirms the name Bethel upon his return from Mesopotamia (Gen 35:15). The reading of the LXX and Slavonic Οὐλαμλούς (variants Οὐλαμμάους, Συλλαμμάους and others – in Holmes). Ulam-luz – obviously an erroneous joining of Hebrew words ulam (i.e., moreover) and Luz. From the subsequent history it is evident that the Canaanite name Luz existed together with the Hebrew Bethel: the former is used even by Jacob himself (Gen 48:3), and in the Book of Joshua, Luz and Bethel appear perhaps as names of different places (Josh 16:2). The name Bethel, moreover, was known even before Jacob – in the time of Abraham (Gen 12:8). An echo of this name is preserved in the known name Βαιτυλία, Baetilia, among the Phoenicians and Greeks, by which were called, among them and others, sacred stones, especially from meteorites and aerolites, dedicated by anointing to deities. Thus one may suppose that this “custom originated from Jacob” (Philaret, Notes on Gen 2:52).

Genesis 28:20–22. And Jacob made a vow, saying: If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and a garment to wear, and I return in peace to my father’s house, and the Lord will be my God, The 3rd act of Jacob: his vow to God – the first of those marked in the Bible. In this vow (which was considered by the rabbis to be the pattern or norm for all vows and for all times) are 3 elements: an inner and sincere recognition of the Almighty as one’s God, with the dedication of oneself to His service; a special dedication and veneration of the place of the vision; and a promise to God of a tithe of all. Apparently, Jacob places his faith in God in conditional relation to external and personal interests. But, in the first place, this condition of the vow in Jacob is a simple paraphrase of the immediately preceding promise of God (v. 13–15); secondly, Jacob asks of the Lord only bread and clothing and thus fulfills the gospel commandment concerning non-attachment (John Chrysostom, Philaret); thirdly, with what humility and gratitude Jacob understood the blessings of God is evident from his prayer (Gen 32:10). The tithe, as is evident from the example of Abraham (Gen 14:20), was an ancient custom both in general life, in relation to kings. Here we read for the first time about a tithe to God. then this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that You give me, I will surely give a tenth part to You. “God’s house” (beth Elohim) – it is possible that the Old Testament appellations of God – Zur Israel, rock, strength of Israel (Gen 49:24; Isa 30:29) is connected with this concept. * * * God’s House