Lit., he.

Or, glory.

Lit., rescued, or, salvaged. So also in v. 16.

See note Gen. 16:7^1a.

Jehovah’s word to Jacob here indicates that he became wealthy not through his own cleverness but through God’s sovereign hand (v. 16).

Heb. El-Bethel.

These were idols worshipped in Laban’s home. So also in vv. 34, 35.

I.e., the Euphrates.

The crucial person in this chapter is neither Jacob nor Laban, but the invisible, transforming God, who was sovereignly preparing the environment for Jacob’s transformation (cf. Rom. 8:28-29). Jacob was under the secret care of Christ as the Angel of God (v. 11) because Christ would eventually be born of Jacob’s descendant Mary (Matt. 1:2, 16).

Lit., said.

In Aramaic, meaning the heap of witness.

In Hebrew, meaning the heap of witness.

Meaning watchpost.

The pillar set up here by Jacob was a witness, a testimony. The thought of a pillar as a testimony is seen also in the two pillars (two is the number for a witness, a testimony — Matt. 18:16; Luke 10:1) set up by Solomon in front of the temple (1 Kings 7:21), and in the church, the house of God, as the pillar that upholds the truth by testifying, manifesting, the truth (1 Tim. 3:15-16). The three pillars set up by Jacob in Gen. 31 and Gen. 35 were three landmarks of Jacob’s life. (The pillar set up in Gen. 28:18 was in response to a dream and was not part of Jacob’s spiritual experience; hence, it is not considered a landmark in his life. See note Gen. 35:14¹.) The first pillar, set up at Galeed (vv. 45, 47), was a testimony of God’s sovereign care for him in the first stage of his experience. The second pillar, set up at Bethel (Gen. 35:14), was a testimony of God’s building, God’s house, in the second stage. The third pillar, set up on Rachel’s grave on the way to Bethlehem (Gen. 35:20), was a testimony of the death of Jacob’s natural choice for the bringing forth of Christ, typified by Benjamin, in the third stage of his experience (see note Gen. 35:18¹ and note Gen. 35:18^3a).