Genesis 28:16

Hebrew Bible

15 I am with you! I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you!” 16 Then Jacob woke up and thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, but I did not realize it! 17 He was afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! This is nothing else than the house of God! This is the gate of heaven!”

Onkelos Genesis 28:16

Targum

15 And, behold, My Word shall be for thy help, and I will keep thee in every place whither thou goest, and I will bring thee again to this land; for I will not leave thee until I have done what I say to thee. 16 And Jakob awoke from his sleep, and said, Verily the Glory of the Lord dwelleth in this place, and I knew it not. 17 And he feared and said, How awful is this place! This place is not common (ground), but a place where there is pleasantness before the Lord; and this is nigh the gate of heaven.

 Notes and References

"... “Glory” can also be used wherever the targumist wished to render any biblical text that suggested God was spatially located in a place, as in Genesis 28:16 (Onkelos, Neofiti) or Genesis 17:22 ... Usually, however, God’s local manifestation was denoted by the term “presence” ... Unlike the term “glory,” the term Shekhinah did not already have a long tradition behind it in Jewish theology, but the concept goes back to the biblical use of the verb used to denote the “dwelling” or local manifestation of God (Exodus 40:35; Deuteronomy 33:16) ..."

Cook, Edward M. "The Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in the Targums" in Henze, Matthias (ed.) A Companion to Biblical Interpretation in Early Judaism (pp. 92-117) William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2012

 User Comments

Do you have questions or comments about these texts? Please submit them here.