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18 Early[a] in the morning Jacob[b] took the stone he had placed near his head[c] and set it up as a sacred stone.[d] Then he poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel,[e] although the former name of the town was Luz.

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Footnotes

  1. Genesis 28:18 tn Heb “and he got up early…and he took.”
  2. Genesis 28:18 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  3. Genesis 28:18 tn See the note on this phrase in v. 11.
  4. Genesis 28:18 tn Heb “standing stone.”sn Sacred stone. Such a stone could be used as a boundary marker, a burial stone, or as a shrine. Here the stone is intended to be a reminder of the stairway that was “erected” and on which the Lord “stood.” (In Hebrew the word translated “sacred stone” is derived from the verb translated “erected” in v. 12 and “stood” in v. 13.) Since the top of the stairway reached the heavens where the Lord stood, Jacob poured oil on the top of the stone. See C. F. Graesser, “Standing Stones in Ancient Palestine,” BA 35 (1972): 34-63; and E. Stockton, “Sacred Pillars in the Bible,” ABR 20 (1972): 16-32.
  5. Genesis 28:19 tn The name Bethel means “house of God” in Hebrew (see v. 17).