18, 19. 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" (Ho 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].
JFB.
Outline
1 Isaac blesses Jacob and sends him to Padan-aram
6 Esau marries the daughter of Ishmael
10 The vision of Jacob's ladder
18 The stone of Bethel
20 Jacob's vow
Ancient Customs
Ladder
Pillar
Oil
Vow
The Tenth
Map of Abraham's
Journey and Paddan-Aram
The Journey of Abram from Ur to Haran and Paddan Aram
The Old Testament
Genesis Resources
Creation
Adam and Eve
The
Flood
The Tower of Babel
Abraham the First Hebrew
Isaac, Son of Promise
Jacob
and the 12 Tribes
Joseph
and Egypt