Genesis 28:14-22

28:14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, ¹  and you will spread out ²  to the west, east, north, and south. All the families of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another ³  using your name and that of your descendants. ⁴  28:15 I am with you! ⁵  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 ⁶  and thought, ⁷  “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 ⁸  in the morning Jacob ⁹  took the stone he had placed near his head ¹⁰  and set it up as a sacred stone. ¹¹  Then he poured oil on top of it. 28:19 He called that place Bethel, ¹²  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 ¹³  to eat and clothing to wear, 28:21 and I return safely to my father’s home, ¹⁴  then the Lord will become my God. 28:22 Then this stone ¹⁵  that I have set up as a sacred stone will be the house of God, and I will surely ¹⁶  give you back a tenth of everything you give me.” ¹⁷ 

[28:14]  ¹ tn This is the same Hebrew word translated “ground” in the preceding verse.

[28:14]  ² tn The verb is singular in the Hebrew; Jacob is addressed as the representative of his descendants.

[28:14]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “and they will pronounce blessings by you, all the families of the earth, and by your offspring.”

[28:15]  ⁵ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “woke up from his sleep.” This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[28:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “said.”

[28:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “and he got up early…and he took.”

[28:18]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[28:18]  ¹⁵ tn See the note on this phrase in v. 11.

[28:18]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “standing stone.”

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

[28:20]  ²¹ tn Heb “bread,” although the term can be used for food in general.

[28:21]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and I return in peace to the house of my father.”

[28:22]  ²⁹ tn The disjunctive clause structure (conjunction + noun/subject) is used to highlight the statement.

[28:22]  ³⁰ tn The infinitive absolute is used before the finite verb for emphasis.

[28:22]  ³¹ 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.