Genesis 28:1-22

28:1 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman! ¹  28:2 Leave immediately ²  for Paddan Aram! Go to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and find yourself a wife there, among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. 28:3 May the sovereign God ³  bless you! May he make you fruitful and give you a multitude of descendants! ⁴  Then you will become ⁵  a large nation. ⁶  28:4 May he give you and your descendants the blessing he gave to Abraham ⁷  so that you may possess the land ⁸  God gave to Abraham, the land where you have been living as a temporary resident.” ⁹  28:5 So Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean and brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

28:6 Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him off to Paddan Aram to find a wife there. ¹⁰  As he blessed him, ¹¹  Isaac commanded him, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman.” ¹²  28:7 Jacob obeyed his father and mother and left for Paddan Aram. 28:8 Then Esau realized ¹³  that the Canaanite women ¹⁴  were displeasing to ¹⁵  his father Isaac. 28:9 So Esau went to Ishmael and married ¹⁶  Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael, along with the wives he already had.

Jacob’s Dream at Bethel

28:10 Meanwhile Jacob left Beer Sheba and set out for Haran. 28:11 He reached a certain place ¹⁷  where he decided to camp because the sun had gone down. ¹⁸  He took one of the stones ¹⁹  and placed it near his head. ²⁰  Then he fell asleep ²¹  in that place 28:12 and had a dream. ²²  He saw ²³  a stairway ²⁴  erected on the earth with its top reaching to the heavens. The angels of God were going up and coming down it 28:13 and the Lord stood at its top. He said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father Isaac. ²⁵  I will give you and your descendants the ground ²⁶  you are lying on. 28:14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, ²⁷  and you will spread out ²⁸  to the west, east, north, and south. All the families of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another ²⁹  using your name and that of your descendants. ³⁰  28:15 I am with you! ³¹  I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you!”

28:16 Then Jacob woke up ³²  and thought, ³³  “Surely the Lord is in this place, but I did not realize it!” 28:17 He was afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! This is nothing else than the house of God! This is the gate of heaven!”

28:18 Early ³⁴  in the morning Jacob ³⁵  took the stone he had placed near his head ³⁶  and set it up as a sacred stone. ³⁷  Then he poured oil on top of it. 28:19 He called that place Bethel, ³⁸  although the former name of the town was Luz. 28:20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God is with me and protects me on this journey I am taking and gives me food ³⁹  to eat and clothing to wear, 28:21 and I return safely to my father’s home, ⁴⁰  then the Lord will become my God. 28:22 Then this stone ⁴¹  that I have set up as a sacred stone will be the house of God, and I will surely ⁴²  give you back a tenth of everything you give me.” ⁴³ 

Genesis 11:9

11:9 That is why its name was called ⁴⁴  Babel ⁴⁵  – because there the Lord confused the language of the entire world, and from there the Lord scattered them across the face of the entire earth.

Genesis 15:9

15:9 The Lord ⁴⁶  said to him, “Take for me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”

Genesis 15:20

15:20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,

Genesis 15:1

The Cutting of the Covenant

15:1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram! I am your shield ⁴⁷  and the one who will reward you in great abundance.” ⁴⁸ 

Matthew 15:11

15:11 What defiles a person is not what goes into the mouth; it is what ⁴⁹  comes out of the mouth that defiles a person.”

Revelation 14:14-17

14:14 Then ⁵⁰  I looked, and a white cloud appeared, ⁵¹  and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man! ⁵²  He had ⁵³  a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. 14:15 Then ⁵⁴  another angel came out of the temple, shouting in a loud voice to the one seated on the cloud, “Use ⁵⁵  your sickle and start to reap, ⁵⁶  because the time to reap has come, since the earth’s harvest is ripe!” 14:16 So ⁵⁷  the one seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.

14:17 Then ⁵⁸  another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle.

Revelation 14:20

14:20 Then ⁵⁹  the winepress was stomped ⁶⁰  outside the city, and blood poured out of the winepress up to the height of horses’ bridles ⁶¹  for a distance of almost two hundred miles. ⁶² 

Revelation 14:1

An Interlude: The Song of the 144,000

14:1 Then ⁶³  I looked, and here was ⁶⁴  the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him were one hundred and forty-four thousand, who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.

Colossians 1:25

1:25 I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship ⁶⁵  from God – given to me for you – in order to complete ⁶⁶  the word of God,

Galatians 2:12-13

2:12 Until ⁶⁷  certain people came from James, he had been eating with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he stopped doing this ⁶⁸  and separated himself ⁶⁹  because he was afraid of those who were pro-circumcision. ⁷⁰  2:13 And the rest of the Jews also joined with him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray with them ⁷¹  by their hypocrisy.

Galatians 2:1

Confirmation from the Jerusalem Apostles

2:1 Then after fourteen years I went up to Jerusalem ⁷²  again with Barnabas, taking Titus along too.

Galatians 4:3-5

4:3 So also we, when we were minors, ⁷³  were enslaved under the basic forces ⁷⁴  of the world. 4:4 But when the appropriate time ⁷⁵  had come, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 4:5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights. ⁷⁶ 

Titus 1:15

1:15 All is pure to those who are pure. But to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their minds and consciences are corrupted.

Hebrews 9:9-10

9:9 This was a symbol for the time then present, when gifts and sacrifices were offered that could not perfect the conscience of the worshiper. 9:10 They served only for matters of food and drink ⁷⁷  and various washings; they are external regulations ⁷⁸  imposed until the new order came. ⁷⁹ 

[28:1]  ¹ tn Heb “you must not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.”

[28:2]  ² tn Heb “Arise! Go!” The first of the two imperatives is adverbial and stresses the immediacy of the departure.

[28:3]  ³ tn Heb “El Shaddai.” See the extended note on the phrase “sovereign God” in Gen 17:1.

[28:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “and make you fruitful and multiply you.” See Gen 17:6, 20 for similar terminology.

[28:3]  ⁵ tn The perfect verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here indicates consequence. The collocation הָיָה + preposition לְ (hayah + lÿ) means “become.”

[28:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “an assembly of peoples.”

[28:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “and may he give to you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you.” The name “Abraham” is an objective genitive here; this refers to the blessing that God gave to Abraham.

[28:4]  ⁸ tn The words “the land” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[28:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “the land of your sojournings,” that is, the land where Jacob had been living as a resident alien, as his future descendants would after him.

[28:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to take for himself from there a wife.”

[28:6]  ¹¹ tn The infinitive construct with the preposition and the suffix form a temporal clause.

[28:6]  ¹² tn Heb “you must not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.”

[28:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “saw.”

[28:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the daughters of Canaan.”

[28:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “evil in the eyes of.”

[28:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “took for a wife.”

[28:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the place.” The article may indicate simply that the place is definite in the mind of the narrator. However, as the story unfolds the place is transformed into a holy place. See A. P. Ross, “Jacob’s Vision: The Founding of Bethel,” BSac 142 (1985): 224-37.

[28:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and he spent the night there because the sun had gone down.”

[28:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he took from the stones of the place,” which here means Jacob took one of the stones (see v. 18).

[28:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and he put [it at] the place of his head.” The text does not actually say the stone was placed under his head to serve as a pillow, although most interpreters and translators assume this. It is possible the stone served some other purpose. Jacob does not seem to have been a committed monotheist yet (see v. 20-21) so he may have believed it contained some spiritual power. Note that later in the story he anticipates the stone becoming the residence of God (see v. 22). Many cultures throughout the world view certain types of stones as magical and/or sacred. See J. G. Fraser, Folklore in the Old Testament, 231-37.

[28:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “lay down.”

[28:12]  ²² tn Heb “and dreamed.”

[28:12]  ²³ tn Heb “and look.” The scene which Jacob witnessed is described in three clauses introduced with הִנֵּה (hinneh). In this way the narrator invites the reader to witness the scene through Jacob’s eyes. J. P. Fokkelman points out that the particle goes with a lifted arm and an open mouth: “There, a ladder! Oh, angels! and look, the Lord himself” (Narrative Art in Genesis [SSN], 51-52).

[28:12]  ²⁴ tn The Hebrew noun סֻלָּם (sullam, “ladder, stairway”) occurs only here in the OT, but there appears to be an Akkadian cognate simmiltu (with metathesis of the second and third consonants and a feminine ending) which has a specialized meaning of “stairway, ramp.” See H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena (SBLDS), 34. For further discussion see C. Houtman, “What Did Jacob See in His Dream at Bethel? Some Remarks on Genesis 28:10-22,” VT 27 (1977): 337-52; J. G. Griffiths, “The Celestial Ladder and the Gate of Heaven,” ExpTim 76 (1964/65): 229-30; and A. R. Millard, “The Celestial Ladder and the Gate of Heaven,” ExpTim 78 (1966/67): 86-87.

[28:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac.” The Hebrew word for “father” can typically be used in a broader sense than the English word, in this case referring to Abraham (who was Jacob’s grandfather). For stylistic reasons and for clarity, the words “your father” are supplied with “Isaac” in the translation.

[28:13]  ²⁶ tn The Hebrew term אֶרֶץ (’erets) can mean “[the] earth,” “land,” “region,” “piece of ground,” or “ground” depending on the context. Here the term specifically refers to the plot of ground on which Jacob was lying, but at the same time this stands by metonymy for the entire land of Canaan.

[28:14]  ²⁷ tn This is the same Hebrew word translated “ground” in the preceding verse.

[28:14]  ²⁸ tn The verb is singular in the Hebrew; Jacob is addressed as the representative of his descendants.

[28:14]  ²⁹ tn Theoretically the Niphal stem can be translated either as passive or reflexive/reciprocal. (The Niphal of “bless” is only used in formulations of the Abrahamic covenant. See Gen 12:2; 18:18; 28:14.) Traditionally the verb is taken as passive here, as if Jacob were going to be a channel or source of blessing. But in other formulations of the Abrahamic covenant (see Gen 22:18; 26:4) the Hitpael replaces this Niphal form, suggesting a translation “will bless (i.e., pronounce blessings upon) themselves/one another.” The Hitpael of “bless” is used with a reflexive/reciprocal sense in Deut 29:18; Ps 72:17; Isa 65:16; Jer 4:2. Gen 28:14 predicts that Jacob will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae (see Gen 12:2 and 18:18 as well, where Abram/Abraham receives this promise). For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11.

[28:14]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and they will pronounce blessings by you, all the families of the earth, and by your offspring.”

[28:15]  ³¹ tn Heb “Look, I [am] with you.” The clause is a nominal clause; the verb to be supplied could be present (as in the translation) or future, “Look, I [will be] with you” (cf. NEB).

[28:16]  ³² tn Heb “woke up from his sleep.” This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[28:16]  ³³ tn Heb “said.”

[28:18]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and he got up early…and he took.”

[28:18]  ³⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[28:18]  ³⁶ tn See the note on this phrase in v. 11.

[28:18]  ³⁷ tn Heb “standing stone.”

[28:19]  ³⁸ tn The name Bethel means “house of God” in Hebrew (see v. 17).

[28:20]  ³⁹ tn Heb “bread,” although the term can be used for food in general.

[28:21]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “and I return in peace to the house of my father.”

[28:22]  ⁴¹ tn The disjunctive clause structure (conjunction + noun/subject) is used to highlight the statement.

[28:22]  ⁴² tn The infinitive absolute is used before the finite verb for emphasis.

[28:22]  ⁴³ tn Heb “and all which you give to me I will surely give a tenth of it to you.” The disjunctive clause structure (conjunction + noun/object) highlights this statement as well.

[11:9]  ⁴⁴ tn The verb has no expressed subject and so can be rendered as a passive in the translation.

[11:9]  ⁴⁵ sn Babel. Here is the climax of the account, a parody on the pride of Babylon. In the Babylonian literature the name bab-ili meant “the gate of God,” but in Hebrew it sounds like the word for “confusion,” and so retained that connotation. The name “Babel” (בָּבֶל, bavel) and the verb translated “confused” (בָּלַל, balal) form a paronomasia (sound play). For the many wordplays and other rhetorical devices in Genesis, see J. P. Fokkelman, Narrative Art in Genesis (SSN).

[15:9]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “He”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:1]  ⁴⁷ sn The noun “shield” recalls the words of Melchizedek in 14:20. If God is the shield, then God will deliver. Abram need not fear reprisals from those he has fought.

[15:1]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “your reward [in] great abundance.” When the phrase הַרְבּה מְאֹדֵ (harbeh mÿod) follows a noun it invariably modifies the noun and carries the nuance “very great” or “in great abundance.” (See its use in Gen 41:49; Deut 3:5; Josh 22:8; 2 Sam 8:8; 12:2; 1 Kgs 4:29; 10:10-11; 2 Chr 14:13; 32:27; Jer 40:12.) Here the noun “reward” is in apposition to “shield” and refers by metonymy to God as the source of the reward. Some translate here “your reward will be very great” (cf. NASB, NRSV), taking the statement as an independent clause and understanding the Hiphil infinitive absolute as a substitute for a finite verb. However, the construction הַרְבּה מְאֹדֵ is never used this way elsewhere, where it either modifies a noun (see the texts listed above) or serves as an adverb in relation to a finite verb (see Josh 13:1; 1 Sam 26:21; 2 Sam 12:30; 2 Kgs 21:16; 1 Chr 20:2; Neh 2:2).

[15:11]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “but what.”

[14:14]  ⁵⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[14:14]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “and behold, a white cloud.”

[14:14]  ⁵² tn This phrase constitutes an allusion to Dan 7:13. Concerning υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου (Juio" tou anqrwpou), BDAG 1026 s.v. υἱός 2.d.γ says: “ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου lit. ‘the son of the man’…‘the human being, the human one, the man’…On Israelite thought contemporary w. Jesus and alleged knowledge of a heavenly being looked upon as a ‘Son of Man’ or ‘Man’, who exercises Messianic functions such as judging the world (metaph., pictorial passages in En 46-48; 4 Esdr 13:3, 51f)…Outside the gospels: Ac 7:56…Rv 1:13; 14:14 (both after Da 7:13…).” The term “son” here in this expression is anarthrous and as such lacks specificity. Some commentators and translations take the expression as an allusion to Daniel 7:13 and not to “the son of man” found in gospel traditions (e.g., Mark 8:31; 9:12; cf. D. E. Aune, Revelation [WBC], 2:800-801; cf. also NIV). Other commentators and versions, however, take the phrase “son of man” as definite, involving allusions to Dan 7:13 and “the son of man” gospel traditions (see G. K. Beale, Revelation [NIGTC], 771-72; NRSV).

[14:14]  ⁵³ tn Grk “like a son of man, having.” In the Greek text this is a continuation of the previous sentence.

[14:15]  ⁵⁴ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[14:15]  ⁵⁵ tn Grk “Send out.”

[14:15]  ⁵⁶ tn The aorist θέρισον (qerison) has been translated ingressively.

[14:16]  ⁵⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the angel’s directions.

[14:17]  ⁵⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[14:20]  ⁵⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[14:20]  ⁶⁰ sn The winepress was stomped. See Isa 63:3, where Messiah does this alone (usually several individuals would join in the process).

[14:20]  ⁶¹ tn L&N 6.7 states, “In Re 14:20 the reference to a bit and bridle is merely an indication of measurement, that is to say, the height of the bit and bridle from the ground, and one may reinterpret this measurement as ‘about a meter and a half’ or ‘about five feet.’”

[14:20]  ⁶² tn Grk “1,600 stades.” A stade was a measure of length about 607 ft (185 m). Thus the distance here would be 184 mi or 296 km.

[14:1]  ⁶³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[14:1]  ⁶⁴ tn The phrase “and here was” expresses the sense of καὶ ἰδού (kai idou).

[1:25]  ⁶⁵ tn BDAG 697 s.v. οἰκονομία 1.b renders the term here as “divine office.”

[1:25]  ⁶⁶ tn See BDAG 828 s.v. πληρόω 3. The idea here seems to be that the apostle wants to “complete the word of God” in that he wants to preach it to every person in the known world (cf. Rom 15:19). See P. T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon (WBC), 82.

[2:12]  ⁶⁷ tn The conjunction γάρ has not been translated here.

[2:12]  ⁶⁸ tn Grk “he drew back.” If ἑαυτόν (Jeauton) goes with both ὑπέστελλεν (Jupestellen) and ἀφώριζεν (afwrizen) rather than only the latter, the meaning would be “he drew himself back” (see BDAG 1041 s.v. ὑποστέλλω 1.a).

[2:12]  ⁶⁹ tn Or “and held himself aloof.”

[2:12]  ⁷⁰ tn Grk “the [ones] of the circumcision,” that is, the group of Jewish Christians who insisted on circumcision of Gentiles before they could become Christians.

[2:13]  ⁷¹ tn The words “with them” are a reflection of the σύν- (sun-) prefix on the verb συναπήχθη (sunaphcqh; see L&N 31.76).

[2:1]  ⁷² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[4:3]  ⁷³ tn See the note on the word “minor” in 4:1.

[4:3]  ⁷⁴ tn Or “basic principles,” “elemental things,” or “elemental spirits.” Some interpreters take this as a reference to supernatural powers who controlled nature and/or human fate.

[4:4]  ⁷⁵ tn Grk “the fullness of time” (an idiom for the totality of a period of time, with the implication of proper completion; see L&N 67.69).

[4:5]  ⁷⁶ tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).” Although some modern translations remove the filial sense completely and render the term merely “adoption” (cf. NAB), the retention of this component of meaning was accomplished in the present translation by the phrase “as sons.”

[9:10]  ⁷⁷ tn Grk “only for foods and drinks.”

[9:10]  ⁷⁸ tc Most witnesses (D¹ Ï) have “various washings, and external regulations” (βαπτισμοῖς καὶ δικαιώμασιν, baptismoi" kai dikaiwmasin), with both nouns in the dative. The translation “washings; they are… regulations” renders βαπτισμοῖς, δικαιώματα (baptismoi", dikaiwmata; found in such important mss as Ì⁴⁶ א* A I P 0278 33 1739 1881 al sa) in which case δικαιώματα is taken as the nominative subject of the participle ἐπικείμενα (epikeimena). It seems far more likely that scribes would conform δικαιώματα to the immediately preceding datives and join it to them by καί than they would to the following nominative participle. Both on external and internal evidence the text is thus secure as reading βαπτισμοῖς, δικαιώματα.

[9:10]  ⁷⁹ tn Grk “until the time of setting things right.”