And this stone, which I have set [for] a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.
22. God’s house ] See note on Gen 28:17. Here the title “God’s house” is applied to the stone itself.
of all give the tenth ] Very strange is this concluding promise to pay a tithe to Jehovah. In Gen 14:20, Abraham pays a tithe to Melchizedek of Jerusalem (?). The payment of tithe was maintained at Bethel in the times of the Israelite monarchy, cf. Amo 4:4. The mention of Jacob’s promise at Bethel to pay a tenth to Jehovah, shews that this Israelite religious usage was believed to go back to pre-Mosaic times. For the Levitical tenth or tithe, cf. Lev 27:30-33.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 22. This stone shall be God’s house] That is, (as far as this matter refers to Jacob alone,) should I be preserved to return in safety, I shall worship God in this place. And this purpose he fulfilled, for there he built an altar, anointed it with oil, and poured a drink-offering thereon.
For a practical use of Jacob’s vision, See Clarke on Ge 28:12.
ON the doctrine of tithes, or an adequate support for the ministers of the Gospel, I shall here register my opinion. Perhaps a word may be borne from one who never received any, and has Done in prospect. Tithes in their origin appear to have been a sort of eucharistic offering made unto God, and probably were something similar to the minchah, which we learn from Gen. iv. was in use almost from the foundation of the world. When God established a regular, and we may add an expensive worship, it was necessary that proper provision should be made for the support of those who were obliged to devote their whole time to it, and consequently were deprived of the opportunity of providing for themselves in any secular way. It was soon found that a tenth part of the produce of the whole land was necessary for this purpose, as a whole tribe, that of Levi, was devoted to the public service of God; and when the land was divided, this tribe received no inheritance among their brethren. Hence, for their support, the law of tithes was enacted; and by these the priests and Levites were not only supported as the ministers of God, but as the teachers and intercessors of the people, performing a great variety of religious duties for them which otherwise they themselves were bound to perform. As this mode of supporting the ministers of God was instituted by himself, so we may rest assured it was rational and just. Nothing can be more reasonable than to devote a portion of the earthly good which we receive from the free mercy of God, to his own service; especially when by doing it we are essentially serving ourselves. If the ministers of God give up their whole time, talents, and strength, to watch over, labour for, and instruct the people in spiritual things, justice requires that they shall receive their support from the work. How worthless and wicked must that man be, who is continually receiving good from the Lord’s hands without restoring any part for the support of true religion, and for charitable purposes! To such God says, Their table shall become a snare to them, and that he will curse their blessings. God expects returns of gratitude in this way from every man; he that has much should give plenteously, he that has little should do his diligence to give of that little.
It is not the business of these notes to dispute on the article of tithes; certainly it would be well could a proper substitute be found for them, and the clergy paid by some other method, as this appears in the present state of things to be very objectionable; and the mode of levying them is vexatious in the extreme, and serves to sow dissensions between the clergyman and his parishioners, by which many are not only alienated from the Church, but also from the power as well as the form of godliness. But still the labourer is worthy of his hire; and the maintenance of the public ministry of the word of God should not be left to the caprices of men. He who is only supported for his work, will be probably abandoned when he is no longer capable of public service. I have seen many aged and worn-out ministers reduced to great necessity, and almost literally obliged to beg their bread among those whose opulence and salvation were, under God, the fruits of their ministry! Such persons may think they do God service by disputing against “tithes, as legal institutions long since abrogated,” while they permit their worn-out ministers to starve: – but how shall they appear in that day when Jesus shall say, I was hungry, and ye gave me no meat; thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; naked, and ye clothed me not? It is true, that where a provision is established on a certain order of priesthood by the law, it may be sometimes claimed and consumed by the worthless and the profane; but this is no necessary consequence of such establishment, as there are laws which, if put in action, have sufficient energy to expel every wicked and slothful servant from the vineyard of Christ. This however is seldom done. At all events, this is no reason why those who have served God and their generation should not be comfortably supported during that service; and when incapable of it, be furnished at least with the necessaries of life. Though many ministers have reason to complain of this neglect, who have no claims on a legal ecclesiastical establishment, yet none have cause for louder complaint than the generality of those called curates, or unbeneficed ministers, in the Church of England: their employers clothe themselves with the wool, and feed themselves with the fat; they tend not the flock, and their substitutes that perform the labour and do the drudgery of the office, are permitted at least to half starve on an inadequate remuneration. Let a national worship be supported, but let the support be derived from a less objectionable source than tithes; for as the law now stands relative to them, no one purpose of moral instruction or piety can be promoted by the system. On their present plan tithes are oppressive and unjust; the clergyman has a right by law to the tenth of the produce of the soil, and to the tenth of all that is supported by it. He claims even the tenth egg, as well as the tenth apple; the tenth of all grain, of all hay, and even of all the produce of the kitchen garden; but he contributes nothing to the cultivation of the soil. A comparatively poor man rents a farm; it is entirely out of heart, for it has been exhausted; it yields very little, and the tenth is not much; at the expense of all he has, he dresses and manures this ungrateful soil; to repay him and keep up the cultivation would require three years’ produce. It begins to yield well, and the clergyman takes the tenth which is now in quantity and quality more in value than a pound, where before it was not a shilling. But the whole crop would not repay the farmer’s expenses. In proportion to the farmer’s improvement is the clergyman’s tithe, who has never contributed one shilling to aid in this extra produce! Here then not only the soil pays tithes, but the man’s property brought upon the soil pays tithes: his skill and industry also are tithed; or if he have been obliged to borrow cash, he not only has to pay tithes on the produce of this borrowed money, but five per cent interest for the money itself. All this is oppressive and cruelly unjust. I say again, let there be a national religion, and a national clergy supported by the state; but let them be supported by a tax, not by tithes, or rather let them be paid out of the general taxation; or, if the tithe system must be continued, let the poor-rates be abolished, and the clergy, out of the tithes, support the poor in their respective parishes, as was the original custom.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Gods house, i.e. a place where I will offer prayers and sacrifices to God; such places being commonly called Gods houses, and God is oft said to dwell in them, in regard of his special presence there. See Exo 20:24. Compare Gen 28:17, and Gen 35:1,3,7.
I will surely give the tenth unto thee, to be laid out in thy service, and for sacrifices, and for the use and benefit of those who shall attend upon sacred things; as also for the relief of the poor and needy, whom God hath substituted in his room, and to whom part of the tithes were to be given by a following law, Deu 14:28,29.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house,…. Building an altar of it with some others, and sacrificing to God on it; and wherever God is worshipped, that place is his house, be it what or where it will; and Jacob did as he promised to do, see
Ge 35:3:
and of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee; for the support of his worship; for the maintenance of such that were employed in it; for the provision of sacrifice, and for the relief of the poor, or for any use or service in which God might be glorified: this was imitated by the Heathens in later times, who gave the tenth of their substance to their gods, Jupiter, Hercules, and others w.
w Herodot. Clio sive, l. 1. c. 89. Varro apud Macrob. Saturnal. l. 3. c. 12. Pompon. Laet. de Sacerdot. Rom. c. 3.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
22. And this stone which I have set for a pillar. This ceremony was an appendage to divine worship; for external rites do not make men true worshippers of God, but are only aids to piety. But because the holy fathers were then at liberty to erect altars wherever they pleased, Jacob poured a libation upon the stone, because he had then no other sacrifice to offer; not that he worshipped God according to his own will, (for the direction of the Spirit was instead of the written law,) but he erected in that place a stone — as he was permitted to do by the kindness and permission of God, which should be a testimony of the vision. Moreover, this form of speech, that the stone shall be Beth-el, is metonymical; as we are sanctioned, by common usage, to transfer to external signs what properly belongs to the things represented. I have lately shown how ignorantly posterity has abused this holy exercise of piety. What next follows respecting the offering of tithes, is not a simple ceremony, but has a duty of charity annexed; for Jacob enumerates, in a threefold order, first, the spiritual worship of God; then the external rite, by which he both assists his own piety, and makes profession of it before men; in the third place, an oblation, by which he exercises himself in giving friendly aid to his brethren; for there is no doubt that tithes were applied to that use.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
22. This stone God’s house Jacob undoubtedly means that here he will establish some sanctuary of worship, and the tenth, which he vows unto God, is what he proposes to devote to maintaining such a place of worship . On the fulfilling of this vow, see Gen 35:7. It is noticeable how in this case, as in that of Abraham, Gen 14:20, the tithe of all is specified as the proper portion of one’s increase to be consecrated to God . It is mentioned, not as a new, strange thing, but in such an incidental way as to imply that even in Abraham’s and Jacob’s day the custom was one of long previous standing . Thus early, it would seem, God had in some way revealed to man his claim to the tenth part of his gains. Jacob himself here recognises that whatever prosperity he might have would be a gift of God, for which the tithe would be on his part only a fitting acknowledgment.
Jacob’s dream and vow at Bethel have more than a mere historical importance. The dream was prophetic and far-reaching in its scope and bearings. We should note especially the four beholds, three of vision: “behold a ladder,” “behold the angels,” “behold Jehovah,” (Gen 28:12-13,) and one of promise. Gen 28:15. These words denote the intensely realistic character of the whole revelation, appealing at once to heart and soul and mind and strength. By symbol and by promise the great prophetic future of Jacob and his seed is opened to his soul.
We think of the lonely, helpless man at the bottom of the ladder, and Jehovah at the top, and the angels ascending and descending, and at once the vision becomes a complex symbol. It indicates: 1) That there is a passageway for spirits between earth and heaven; an invisible bridge between God and man; but a way supernaturally prepared and spiritually discerned. 2) The ministry of angels. Whatever revelation had previously been made of angelic natures, and there had been not a few, this vision deepened and confirmed them all. 3) The special and mighty providence of God, caring for his chosen by his own omnipresent gaze, and by innumerable ministering spirits. 4) The mystery of the Incarnation. The ladder was a symbol of the Son of Man, as Mediator of the New Covenant, upon whom (as on the sole ground and basis of all possibility of grace) the angels of God ascend and descend to minister to the heirs of salvation. John 1:52 . In that mystery of grace Jehovah himself comes down, as from the top of the ladder, and reaching frail and helpless man below, lifts him upward to the heavens, and redeems him with the power of an endless life .
The vision and promise would serve to soften and change the heart of Jacob. It marked an epoch in his life, and we may now, with New Testament light, observe how grandly it fore-shadowed that his seed should be the depositaries of Divine revelation. To them were committed the oracles of God, and through them have those oracles been communicated to the world.
CHAPTER 29 .
JACOB’S ARRIVAL AT HARAN, 1-14.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Gen 28:22. This stone, &c. Not that he intended, as Le Clerc observes, to erect any building in the place, but only that by coming and worshipping there, he would appropriate this stone to the service of God, and probably build an altar there; for in these early times they adored God under the open canopy of heaven, and groves or mountains were all their temples. And we may observe, as we have already intimated, that it has been usual in all the early ages of the world to consider such sacred scenes, or theatres of devotion, as peculiar habitations of the Divinity, on account of that Divine Presence, or intercourse with God, which truly pious minds enjoyed in acts of worship there. Superstition at length abused this relative sanctity into a notion of the Divine Presence being confined to statues, temples, groves, and consecrated houses.
I will surely give the tenth unto thee This is the second place in which we find mention of the tenth, or tythes, solemnly consecrated to God. Jacob promises to give them in return for his prosperous journey, as his grandfather Abraham had given them in return for his victory. To what use these tythes were immediately appropriated is not quite clear. Upon our hypothesis, that a regular priest-hood, as well as sacrifices, was appointed from the beginning, there will be no great doubt about the matter. Bp. Patrick observes very judiciously upon the subject, that it may certainly be hence concluded, that Jacob was induced to vow a tenth by the custom which was then among religious people. How they came to pitch upon this portion, rather than a fifth, twentieth, or any other, is not so easily to be resolved. But they seem to speak with much reason who observe, that in the number ten all nations in a manner end their account, (Aristotle in his Problems, Gen 50:3 : 15.) and then begin again with compound numbers; or, as others phrase it, this is the end of less numbers, and the beginning of greater; so that it was looked upon as the most perfect of all other, and accordingly had in great regard. But, after all, it seems most likely to me that they had some divine direction for it, as they had for sacrificing.
REFLECTIONS.Jacob had a blessed night’s rest: he probably wished rather still thus to sleep than to awake. Observe,
1. How he was affected when he awoke. Struck with surprize and reverential awe, he cries, How dreadful is this place! God was there, and he knew it not. Note; (1.) God is nearer us than we are always aware. (2.) His comfortable presence is the joy of heaven: we are at the gate, when in his ordinances he manifests himself to us, as he doth not to the world. (3.) Whenever we are conscious of his nearness, it will ever humble us in the dust under the view of our own vileness.
2. What he did to preserve the memory of such a visit. He set up his pillow for a pillar, and pouring out his oil upon it, called it by a new name, Beth-el, the house of God. Note; The time and place where God first appeared to us in mercy deserve a perpetual memorial.
3. His vow thereupon. If God bring him back in peace, and during his exile supply him with food and raiment, (he asks no more,) then, (1.) The Lord shall be his God. (2.) Whatever God bestows on him, the tenth shall be dedicated to him. Note; [1.] To bind our souls to God by solemn engagements is a grateful return we owe to his love. [2.] We should learn with Jacob to be content with food and raiment. [3.] To have the Lord for our God is not more our duty than our privilege.
[4.] We must make conscience in dedicating part of our worldly goods to the use of the poor, and the service of God’s cause, according to our ability.
We may observe on this whole chapter, that the regard which the Lord paid to Jacob shews, that HE is present with his children wherever they are, and that he employs his angels for their security and defence. While from Jacob we may observe, that a believer is never alone; he finds his God every where, in the silence of the night, in the hurry of travelling, in the noise of the most busy towns, in the solitude of the most frightful desarts. And from Jacob we may learn, to moderate our desires, and to devote to God part of our substance, in a peculiar sense, as a proof of our piety and gratitude.
Reflections on Jacob’s vision as typical of the mediatorial office of the Messiah.
We have already shewn how this vision, in its immediate and primary sense, was representative of the providence of God. And we shall not perhaps think amiss, if we consider the emblematical ladder as a figure of the Messiah himself, who is the blessed Medium of communication between heaven and earth; the way without whom no one comes to the Father, and the one Mediator between God and man. We cannot perhaps find a better explication of what Christ himself promised to Nathanael, that Israelite indeed, “Hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man,” Joh 1:51 than by comparing it with this wonderful ladder, which he seems to compare to himself. And there is no contemptible analogy; for, first, whereas the foot of this ladder was on earth, and the top reached to heaven, this may represent both what is the constitution of his person, and what are the blessed fruits of his mediatorial interposition. As the ladder seemed to unite the heaven and earth, the most distant extremes, so the Person of Immanuel unites the Human Nature and the Divine, though the distance between them is infinitely great: and as the ladder opened a path from God to man, and from man to God, by reaching from heaven to earth, so the mediation of Jesus Christ has paved a way both for the approach of the Deity to sinners, that he may dwell with them; and for the access of sinners unto God, that they may dwell with him, and have their conversation in heaven. O merciful and faithful High-Priest, by thy incarnation and satisfaction a friendly correspondence is established between heaven and earth; for thou hast laid thy hand upon us both, and art thyself our new and living way to everlasting bliss, and the channel of conveyance to every spiritual blessing!Whereas the angels of God were seen to ascend and descend upon the ladder: this may both signify, that in Jesus Christ angels and men shall be united in one society; and that by Jesus Christ those angelic hosts are upheld from falling, and supported in their happy state. Were not they the friends of men, why should they be represented as running upon our errands? Were they not confirmed and supported by Jesus our Mediator, why should spiritual beings and winged messengers be said to ascend and descend upon the Son of Man as on a ladder?Whereas the Lord stood above this ladder, and from its top spoke good and comfortable words to his servant Jacob, confirming the gracious covenant made with his fathers: is not this an intimation, that God is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, confirming his covenant, and uttering his gracious promise, as well pleased in his Beloved Son?Whereas, in the vision, Jacob alone was at the foot of the ladder, on whose top the Lord seemed to stand: might not this have been considered by the adoring patriarch, after he awoke, as a comfortable intimation, that the glorious Person who was signified by the vision should spring out of his loins, and be made of his seed according to the flesh, as the true possessor of the birth-right, and inheritor of the patriarchal blessing? And, lastly, Whereas he saw but one ladder, Jesus Christ is the alone Mediator, without whom the Father comes to no man, and no man comes to the Father.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
God’s house, means a spot made sacred to God’s worship. Gen 35:14Gen 35:14 .
REFLECTIONS
Reader! may you and I learn, from this interesting account of Jacob’s pilgrimage, that when the providences of our God seem most to frown, the gracious tendencies of God are perhaps most smiling. And let the truly awakened soul say, whether the sweetest seasons have not been those, when, like the Patriarch, tribulations from the world have been most powerful. But I must not close this Chapter of Jacob’s mercies, when the visions of God began with him, without first requesting the Reader not to overlook the precious outlines which are here drawn by the Holy Ghost of Jesus’s manifestations to all his people. Is it not by him that a channel of communication is opened to our souls for access to God, when like Jacob, we have left our father’s house, and are as wanderers on the earth? Is He not the way, and the truth, and the life, by which all mercies come down, and all praises and prayers go up, through his divine mediations. And is it not by him alone, that we humbly hope, when all the pilgrimage of this life is over, to come again to our Father’s house which is in heaven: to which hope we are begotten by his glorious undertaking, and his accomplishment of our redemption? Precious, precious Jesus! be thou with me, and keep me in the way that I go; and give me food and raiment convenient for me: fill my soul with the bread of life, and clothe me with the garment of thy salvation; then wilt thou be indeed the Lord my God; and I shall be thine, in an everlasting covenant, not to be broken.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
this stone. See verses: Gen 28:11, Gen 28:18.
God’s house. Hebrew. Beth-elohim, not Beth-el.
tenth. See App-15and Compare Gen 14:20.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
God’s: Gen 28:17, Gen 12:8, Gen 21:33, Gen 33:20, Gen 35:1, Gen 35:15
I will: Gen 14:20, Lev 27:30-33, Deu 14:22, Deu 14:23
Reciprocal: Gen 35:6 – Luz Gen 35:7 – General Gen 48:15 – fed me Exo 15:2 – an habitation Exo 24:4 – twelve pillars Jos 4:3 – twelve stones 1Sa 10:3 – Bethel 1Ch 29:14 – all things Neh 10:32 – to charge Pro 3:9 – General Ecc 5:2 – not rash Heb 7:2 – a tenth