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Jacob's flight and Esau's remarriage Gen.28:1. And Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and commanded him and said: Do not take yourself a wife from the daughters of Canaan; Isaac calls Jacob to himself for the purpose of officially recognizing him as the birthright; in the words of Rabbi Eliezer, this is like applying a seal to the act of blessing, to certify his consciousness. Gen.28:2. Arise, go to Mesopotamia, to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and take yourself a wife from there, from the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother; To the question: why does Jacob, after so many blessings, run away from his parental home, deprived of everything he needs, Blessed Theodoret answers: “In these imaginary disasters, God’s care is clearly revealed... Jacob runs and goes alone for this purpose, so that, returning with a great name, he can see for himself what the providence of God is for everyone, and teach others about this. God immediately revealed His care for Jacob by appearing” (Blessed Theodoret, answer to question 85; cf. John Chrysostom, p. 574). The country where Jacob is going to go, in the story of Eliezer’s departure there, was simply called the homeland of Abraham (Gen. 24:4, 7), now by Isaac is called directly Mesopotamia (Heb. Padan-Aram): this country has now become more famous to the patriarchal family, which is why Jacob makes the journey alone. Isaac's instruction for Jacob to take a wife from Laban's daughters is given to them not without the influence of Rebekah (Gen. 27:46) and following the example of Abraham (Gen. 24:3–4) and in any case indicates that Isaac well understands that the purity of the blood of the patriarchal family is required by the essence of theocratic law. Gen.28:3–4. May Almighty God bless you, may He make you fruitful and multiply you, and may there be from you many nations, and may the blessing of Abraham [my father] give you, you and your descendants with you, that you may inherit the land of your sojourning, which God gave to Abraham! Just as God, announcing to Abraham the birth of a son from him and the origin of numerous offspring, calls Himself Almighty God, El-Shaddai (Gen. 17:1), so El-Shaddai also calls God by the same name when promising Jacob offspring and transferring to him all the benefits of Abraham's inheritance. Slav. “into the collection of languages” (LXX: εἰς συναγωγὰς ἐθνῶν) more precisely and stronger than in Russian. transl., transmits Hebrew. expression zehal-ammim, church of the nations. Gen.28:5. And Isaac released Jacob, and he went to Mesopotamia to Laban, the son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau. The apparently unnecessary definition of Rebekah as the mother of Esau and Jacob, has, according to Jewish interpreters, the meaning that Rebekah bequeathed to both sons to marry relatives, but only Jacob followed his mother’s instructions, and then, in imitation of him, Esau married (for the 3rd time) a relative - the daughter of Ishmael. Gen.28:8–9. And Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan were not pleasing to Isaac his father; and Esau went to Ishmael and took for himself a wife, Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, the sister of Nebaioth, besides his other wives. This act of Esau stemmed from the desire to make amends to his parents: “and he went... to Ishmael,” i.e. to the house of Ishmael, since Ishmael himself had already died (no less than 14 years before), which is why, perhaps, his daughter is called here the sister of Nabaioth, the firstborn of Ishmael (Gen. 25.13); in Gen. 36:3 This woman is called Basematha, not Mahalatha, as here. Jewish commentators explained this diversity (noted in relation to the other wives of Ishmael, cf. Gen. 26:34 and Gen. 36:3) either by the actual duality of a given woman, or by renaming for some significant occasion: both of these were, as is known, customary among the ancient Jews. About the very act of Esau, Rabbi. Eliezer says: “If he had let his former wives go, I would say that he did the right thing, but since it is said: “He took her over his wives,” this shows that scab followed scab, pain after pain, thorn after thorn” (Beresch. g., s. 326). Jacob's Dream and God's Promise to Him Gen.28:10. Jacob left Beersheba and went to Haran, From Art. 10 describes almost exclusively the story of Jacob (a brief mention of the death of Isaac in Gen. 35:28–29), naturally falling into 3 periods according to habitat: Mesopotamian, Canaanite and Egyptian. Jacob went from Beersheba north along Canaan, then through Jordan and Gilead (cf. Gen. 31:25), Bashan and then towards Damascus and beyond. The difficulty of the path and Jacob's determination are beyond doubt. “A person raised at home, who used such services, when setting out on a journey, did not require any pack animals, nor a retinue, nor travel supplies, but sets out on the journey as if following the apostolic example” (John Chrysostom, Bes. on Genesis 54, p. 581). According to the rabbis, the expression of Art. 10 indicates that Jacob painfully left his father's house (Abarbanel) and that the city (Bathsheba) lost its glory (Rashi) with the departure of the pious husband. Gen.28:11. and came to one place and stayed there overnight because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place, and put it at his head, and lay down in that place. Jacob's stopping place, which he called Bethel, lies 12 Roman miles from Jerusalem, on the way to Shechem; Jacob could have walked to this place for more than one day (according to the rabbis, Jacob was the “son of the day,” i.e., on the day he left Beersheba he arrived in Harran, which, of course, is incredible). Slav: “you will find a place” is more accurately answered by the Hebrew. paga (and Greek ἀπαντάω). Talmudists understand this expression about Jacob's prayer and it is on the basis of this verse that they attribute to Jacob the introduction of evening prayer (to Isaac - daytime prayer: mincha, based on Genesis 24:63; and to Abraham - morning prayer); the place itself is identified with the place of Isaac's sacrifice. In these speculations, the only true idea is that Jacob was in a prayerful mood. He spent the night, no doubt, in an open place, since he avoided communication with the Canaanites after the commandment he had just received from his father - not to enter into family relations with them (v. 1). Gen. 28:12–15. And I saw in a dream: behold, a ladder stands on the ground, and its top touches the sky; and behold, the angels of God ascend and descend on it. And behold, the Lord stands on it and says: I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac; [don't be afraid]. The land on which you lie will I give to you and to your descendants; and your descendants will be like the sand of the earth; and you will spread to the sea, and to the east, and to the north, and to the noonday; and in you and in your seed all families of the earth will be blessed; and behold, I am with you, and I will keep you wherever you go; and I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you. Jacob's distressed and anxious state is a favorable condition for him to receive the first revelation (in a dream). This revelation directly responded to Jacob's immediate needs: • be established in faith in the divine promises to Abraham and Isaac and • receive assurance of personal safety from Esau and other possible disasters. Both are given to Jacob in the words of the Lord v. 13–14, and here the highest promise is given about blessing in the descendants of the patriarchs chosen by God; however, “The entire future of the Israeli people is not revealed to Jacob, like Abraham (Gen. 15:13), a man of strong spirit...” (G.K. Vlastov, Sacred Chronicle, St. Petersburg 1878, 1, 253). The character of Jacob’s entire vision corresponds to the circle of views in which the future patriarch of the people of God lived and moved. In the whole picture of vision there are 3 elements (externally distinguished through the triple “behold”, Heb. hinneh). A staircase from earth to heaven, as an expression of the close connection of earth with heaven: a comforting truth for man that he is not left on earth to the world’s forces alone, but has access to heaven and help from there! Gunkel's message (p. 289) is plausible that the idea of ​​a heavenly ladder was widespread in the ancient East, especially in Egypt (Gator's ladder, along which the souls of the dead ascend to heaven); but the statement of the said scholar that the vision of the ladder has no connection with the rest of the story of Jacob is false. The connection, on the contrary, is very close. Angels ascend and descend on the ladder, i.e. offer prayers, thoughts, concerns, etc. man to God, on the other hand, various types of God's mercy are brought down to man. Talmud and Midrash (Beresch. g., 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 had to accompany Jacob to Chaldea descended from heaven to earth; Some support for this interpretation is what is mentioned in Gen. 32:1–2 reinforced militia (“mahanaim”) of Angels. Art. 12 is recognized as a classic testimony to the Old Testament faith in the existence and activity of Angels as mediators between God and people (cf. John 1.51). But this mediation of Angels does not exclude the direct action of God on His chosen ones: Jehovah, as the God of the covenant or the Angel of Jehovah (Son of God before his incarnation, cf. (Gen. 31:11-13); Blessed Theodoret, answer to question 90; according to Targ.: Shekinah, the glory of God), stands on the stairs above her, (alav) and teaches gracious consolations to His chosen one, and in his person to all future generations of believing humanity. Gen.28:16. Jacob awoke from his sleep and said: Truly the Lord is present in this place; but I didn’t know! Expressing his deep impression from the miraculous vision, Jacob expresses that until now he had not thought that God would manifest His presence not in places sanctified only by sacrifices, but also in areas inhabited by pagans. It is possible, however, to see here an expression of still imperfect faith in the omnipresence of God (as Saint Cyril of Alexandria understands the exclamation of James). Gen.28:17. And he was afraid and said: How terrible is this place! this is nothing less than the house of God, this is the gate of heaven. This idea, however, is needlessly exaggerated when they assert (Gunkel) that the holiness of a place is understood here exclusively objectively, i.e. confined exclusively to the place itself. It is known that God sometimes pointed out the special holiness of this or that place (Exod. 3:5; Josh. 5:15), but in all cases the holiness was recognized by people who were worthy to receive revelation from above, and was reflected in the hearts of people with a feeling of mortal fear and deep reverence (for example, in Hagar Gen. 16:13; Moses Exod. 3:6, etc.). “House of God” (beth Elohim - beth El, v. 19) and “gate of heaven” (schaar hasehamaim) - terms that later became common names for the church - are borrowed by the patriarch from the content of the vision and are adopted by him to the place of the vision, as if by prophetic foreknowledge of the future sanctuary of God (from the time of the division of the Jewish kingdom in Bethel there was one of the two churches of the ten-tribe kingdom, 1 Kings 12:29). Gen.28:18. And Jacob arose early in the morning, and took the stone which he had put for his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on the top of it. Impressed by the vision, Jacob, first, sets up the stone that served as his head, a monument (mazzebah) and pours oil on it. The custom of erecting pillars and similar structures as monuments to famous events is very common in the ancient and modern East. In the Bible, in addition to the story of Jacob (Gen. 28:18, 31:45, 35:14), the placing of stones with the indicated purpose is mentioned in the history of Joshua (Joshua 4:9, 24:26), the prophet Samuel (1 Sam. 7:12) and others. Later abuses of this custom for the purposes of idolatry caused a prohibition in the Law of Moses ( Lev. 26:1) set up pillars. Likewise, the custom of dedicating stones to a deity was known in the East, for example, among the Phoenicians, and in the classical world. Oil, as a necessary accessory for traveling in hot countries, as a means of reinforcement and nutrition, naturally was at hand for the traveler Jacob: “probably, he carried only one oil with him while on the road” (John Chrysostom, p. 585). Thus, “whatever he had, he gave back to the greatly gifted Lord” (Blessed Theod., answer to question 85). Gen.28:19. And [Jacob] called the name of that place Bethel *****, but the former name of that city was Luz. Jacob's second act: in accordance with his impression mentioned, he calls the place of the vision the name: Beth-El or Bethel (“house of God”), while the previous name of the neighboring town was: Luz. Jacob secondarily and definitively affirms the name Bethel upon his return from Mesopotamia (Gen. 35:15). Reading LXX and glory. Οὐλαμλούς (options Οὐλαμμάους, Συλλαμμάους, etc. - from Golmes). Ulam-luz is clearly an erroneous combination of the Hebrew words ulam (same, before) and Luz. From the subsequent history it is clear that the Canaanite name Luz existed together with the Hebrew Bethel: Jacob himself uses the first (Gen. 48:3), and in the book. I. Joshua Luz and Bethel appear to be the names of different localities (Joshua 16:2, 18:13). The name Bethel, however, was known earlier than Jacob - during the time of Abraham (Gen. 12:8, 13:3). An echo of this name was preserved in the name Βαιτυλία, known among the Phoenicians and Greeks, Baitilia, which was the name given by those and others to sacred stones, mainly from meteorites and aerolites, dedicated to deities by anointing. Thus, we can assume that this “custom originated from Jacob” (Filaret, Zap. on Genesis 2, 52). Gen.28:20–22. And Jacob made a vow, saying: If [the Lord] God will be with me and keep me on this journey that I am going on, and give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, and I will return in peace to my father’s house, and the Lord will be my God, Jacob's 3rd act: his vow to God is the first vow recorded in the Bible. In this vow (considered by the rabbis to be the model or norm of all vows and for all times) there are 3 elements: internal and sincere recognition of the Almighty as your God, with dedication of yourself to serving Him; special dedication and veneration of the place of vision; and promising God a tithe of everything. Apparently, Jacob bases his faith in God on external and personal interests. But, firstly, this condition of the vow in James is a simple paraphrase of the immediately preceding promise of God (vv. 13-15); secondly, Jacob asks the Lord only for bread and clothing and thus fulfills the gospel covenant about non-covetousness (John Chrysostom, Philaret); thirdly, with what humility and gratitude Jacob understood the blessings of God, is evident from his prayer (Gen. 32:10). Tithing, as can be seen from the example of Abraham (Gen. 14:20), was an ancient custom also in the community, in relation to kings. Here for the first time we read about tithing to God. then this stone, which I have set up as a monument, will be [for me] the house of God; and of all that You, O God, give me, I will give You a tenth. “House of God” (beth Elohim) - perhaps in connection with this idea stands the Old Testament magnification of God - Zur Israel, the rock, the stronghold of Israel (Gen. 49:24; Is. 30:29). You might be interested in: