to call out to (i.e. properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
name
שֵֽׁםshem-
H8034
an appellation · noun, common masculine singular construct
place
הַמָּק֥וֹםha.ma.Kom
H4725
properly · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Beth-el
בֵּֽיתbeit-
H1008
Beth-El · proper noun, a place name
but
וְאוּלָ֛םve.'u.Lam
H199
however or on the contrary · conjunction + adverb
name
שֵׁםshem-
H8034
an appellation · noun, common masculine singular construct
city
הָעִ֖ירha.'Ir
H5892
a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the wi… · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
Luz
ל֥וּזluz
H3870
Luz · proper noun, a place name
first
לָרִאשֹׁנָֽהla.ri.sho.Nah
H7223
first · preposition with the article + ordinal number, feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Genesis 35:1 And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Beth-el, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fledd…
Genesis 48:3 And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me,
Hosea 12:4-5 Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Beth-el, and there he spake with u…
Genesis 12:8 And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east: an…
Judges 1:22-26 And the house of Joseph, they also went up against Beth-el: and the LORD was with them.
1 Kings 12:29 And he set the one in Beth-el, and the other put he in Dan.
Hosea 4:15 Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Beth-aven, nor swear, The L…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 28:16–end
God manifested himself and his favour to Jacob when he was asleep and purely passive; for the spirit, like the wind, blows when and where he listeth, and God's grace, like the dew, tarrieth not for the sons of men, Mic 5:7. But Jacob applied himself to the improvement of the visit God had made him when he was awake; and we may well think he awaked, as the prophet did (Jer 31:26), and behold his sleep was sweet to him. Here is much of Jacob's devotion on this occasion.
I. He expressed a great surprise at the tokens he had of God's special presence with him in that place: Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not, Gen 28:16. Note, 1. God's manifestations of himself to his people carry…
Jacob set up a stone, etc.--The mere setting up of the stone might have been as a future memorial to mark the spot; and this practice is still common in the East, in memory of a religious vow or engagement. But the pouring oil upon it was a consecration. Accordingly he gave it a new name, Beth-el, "the house of God" (Hos 12:4); and it will not appear a thing forced or unnatural to call a stone a house, when one considers the common practice in warm countries of sitting in the open air by or on a stone, as are those of this place, "broad sheets of bare rock, some of them standing like the cromlechs of Druidical monuments" [STANLEY].
Adam Clarke on Genesis 28:19
He called the name of that place Beth-el - That is, the house of God; for in consequence of his having anointed the stone, and thus consecrated it to God, he considered it as becoming henceforth his peculiar residence; see on the preceding verse. This word should be always pronounced as two distinct syllables, each strongly accented, Beth-El.
Was called Luz at the first - The Hebrew has אולם לוז Ulam Luz, which the Roman edition of the Septuagint translates Ουλαμλουζ Oulamlouz; the Alexandrian MS., Ουλαμμους Oulammaus; the Aldine, Ουλαμμαους Oulammaous; Symmachus, Λαμμαους Lammaous; and some others, Ουλαμ Oulam. The Hebrew אולם ulam is sometimes a particle signifying as, just as; hence it ma…
(Chapter 28, verse 19) And he called the name of that place Bethel, but previously its name was Luz. From what he had said above: How awesome is this place, it is nothing but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven: now he gives the place a name, and he calls it Bethel, which means the house of God. The place was previously called Luz, which means nut or almond. Therefore, some foolishly think that the Hebrew word Ulam is the name of a city, when Ulam actually means previously. Therefore, the order of the reading is as follows: And he called the name of that place Bethel, and before it was called Luz, a city. All the ancient scriptures are full of the word 'ulam', or 'Elam', which signifies nothing else but before, or previously, or threshold, or gateposts.
HOUSE OF GOD. — And Jacob called the name of that place, the House of God; and the name of the city before was Ulamluz . There is no problem in this text if it is understood that he slept next to the city. But if it is in the city, it seems astonishing that he could erect a monument there. The fact that Jacob made a vow if God helped him in his comings and goings and promised to pay tithing to the House of God that was to be in that place (Cf. Gen. 28:20-22), it is a prophecy about the house of God, where he himself, upon returning, offered sacrifices to God, is the prophetic proclamation of the house of God, where he himself offered a sacrifice to the Lord. He does not call this stone God, but the House of God, to signify that there was to be a house consecrated to the Lord. [
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Bethel — House of God. (1.) A place in Central Palestine, about 10 miles north of Jerusalem, at the head of the pass of Michmash and Ai. It was originally the royal Canaanite city of Luz (Gen. 28:19). The…
Luz — A nut-bearing tree, the almond. (1.) The ancient name of a royal Canaanitish city near the site of Bethel (Gen. 28:19; 35:6), on the border of Benjamin (Josh. 18:13). Here Jacob halted, and had a…
Vows — Voluntary promises which, when once made, were to be kept if the thing vowed was right. They were made under a great variety of circumstances (Gen. 28: 18-22; Lev. 7:16; Num. 30:2-13; Deut. 23:18;…
Beth-El · .The place where Jacob saw the vision of the lad — .The place where Jacob saw the vision of the lad
Jacob · His vision of the lad — His vision of the lad
Religion · .Jacob — .Jacob
Stones · Memorial pillars of — Memorial pillars of
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Gill on Genesis 28:19
And he called the name of that place Bethel,.... The house of God, which he took this place to be:
but the name of that city was called Luz at the first; which signifies an almond or hazel nut, Genesis 30:37; perhaps from the number of this sort of trees that grew there, under which Jacob might lay himself down, which was probably in the field of Luz; and being at night, he might not know there was a city so near, until the morning. Though Josephus (r) says he did it purposely, out of hatred to the Canaanites, and chose rather to lie under the open air. This was about twelve miles from Jerusalem, as Jerom (s) says.
(r) Antiqu. l. 1. c. 19. sect. 1.((s) De loc. Heb. fol. 89. C.
John Calvin on Genesis 28:19
And he called the name of that place Beth-el. It may appear absurd that Moses should speak of that place as a city, respecting which he had a little while before said that Jacob had slept there in the open air; for why did not he seek an abode, or hide himself in some corner of a house? But the difficulty is easily solved, because the city was not yet built; neither did the place immediately take the name which Jacob had assigned, but lay long concealed. Even when a town was afterwards built on the spot, no mention is made of Beth-el, as if Jacob had never passed that way; for the inhabitants did not know what had been done there, and therefore they called the city Luz, [60] according to the…
In the morning Jacob set up the stone at his head, as a monument (מצּבה) to commemorate the revelation he had received from God; and poured oil upon the top, to consecrate it as a memorial of the mercy that had been shown him there (visionis insigne μνημόσυνον, Calvin), not as an idol or an object or divine worship (vid., Exo 30:26.). - He then gave the place the name of Bethel, i.e., House of God, whereas (ואוּלם) the town had been called Luz before. This antithesis shows that Jacob gave the name, not to the place where the pillar was set up, but to the town, in the neighbourhood of which he had received the divine revelation. He renewed it on his return from Mesopotamia (Gen 35:15). This…
Bethel later became a holy site for Israel (see Judg 20:18-27; 1 Sam 7:16; 10:3; 1 Kgs 12:26–13:10; 2 Kgs 2:2-3).
Rashi on Genesis 28:17
כי אם בית אלהים THIS IS NONE OTHER THAN THE HOUSE OF GOD —R. Eleazar said in the name of R. José the son of Zimra: “This ladder stood in Beersheba and [the middle of]) its slope reached opposite the Temple” (Genesis Rabbah 69:7). For Beersheba is situated in the South of Judah, Jerusalem in the North of it on the boundary between Judah and Benjamin and Bethel in the North of Benjamin’s territory, on the border between the land of Benjamin and that of the children of Joseph. It follows, therefore, that a ladder whose foot is in Beersheba and whose top is in Bethel has the middle of its slope reaching opposite Jerusalem. Now as regards what our Rabbis stated (Chullin 91b) that the Holy One, bl…
