Angels & Demons
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Sources & method

Source basis: Ranks, names, enemy titles, and encounters link back to scripture references; later tradition is not blended into the order. Sources

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Sources & method

Source basis: Ranks, names, enemy titles, and encounters link back to scripture references; later tradition is not blended into the order. Sources

Worlds
Visual stories02 / Bethel

Genesis 28:10–19

I am
with you.

A stone for a pillow.
A stairway in a dream.

Enter the night
Jacob arrives alone at a rocky stopping place beneath a fading dusk sky. Interpretive illustration.
The road to Haran.
Four moments · Your paceInterpretive illustration

Nightfall

Beersheba → Haran

On the way to Haran, Jacob stops for the night.

“because
the sun had set.”

Genesis 28:11 · WEB

A stone beneath his head.
Then sleep.

Jacob settles his head on a stone in a rocky landscape at night. Interpretive illustration.
Nightfall · Genesis 28:11Interpretive illustration

The dream

Set upon
the earth.
Reaching
to heaven.

“He dreamed and saw a stairway set upon the earth, and its top reached to heaven.”

Genesis 28:12 · WEB
Jacob sleeps with his head on a stone beneath an immense night sky. A luminous stairway rises from the earth into the heavens, with small angels ascending and descending. Interpretive illustration.
Earth & heaven

The whole dream, from the stone beneath Jacob’s head to the stairway reaching heaven.

Interpretive illustration · Genesis 28:11–12

“Behold, the angels of God were
ascending and descending on it.”Genesis 28:12 · WEB

The promise

Yahweh speaks.

“Behold,
I am with you,

and will keep you,
wherever you go,”

Genesis 28:15 · WEB

The traveler is not alone.

At sunrise, Jacob pours oil from a small vessel onto an upright stone pillar. Interpretive illustration.
The stone, now a pillar.

Waking

He wakes, afraid.

“Surely Yahweh
is in this place,
and I didn’t know it.”

Genesis 28:16 · WEB

At morning, Jacob sets up the stone as a pillar and pours oil on it. He calls the place Bethel.

Genesis 28:18–19

A place he had passed through.
A place he would remember.

The passage behind the story

These are interpretive illustrations of Jacob’s night at Bethel. Genesis describes a stairway reaching from earth to heaven, with angels ascending and descending. Their appearance, the landscape, and the light are artistic choices. No visible figure is presented as God.

Read the passageGenesis 28:10–19

World English Bible (WEB)

10Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.

11He came to a certain place, and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. He took one of the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep.

12He dreamed and saw a stairway set upon the earth, and its top reached to heaven. Behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

13Behold, Yahweh stood above it, and said, “I am Yahweh, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. I will give the land you lie on to you and to your offspring.

14Your offspring will be as the dust of the earth, and you will spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. In you and in your offspring, all the families of the earth will be blessed.

15Behold, I am with you, and will keep you, wherever you go, and will bring you again into this land. For I will not leave you until I have done that which I have spoken of to you.”

16Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said, “Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I didn’t know it.”

17He was afraid, and said, “How awesome this place is! This is none other than God’s house, and this is the gate of heaven.”

18Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on its top.

19He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first.

Read the full chapter