And Jacob set up a pillar When he was going to Padan-aram he set up that stone which he had laid his head on for a pillow; but now he took time to erect one more stately and durable, probably inserting that stone in it. And in token of his intending it for a sacred memorial of his communion with God, he poured oil, and the other ingredients of a drink- offering, upon it. And he confirmed the name he had formerly given to the place, Beth-el, the house of God. Yet this very place afterward lost the honour of its name, and became Beth-aven, a house of iniquity; for here it was that Jeroboam set up one of his calves. It is impossible for the best men to entail so much as the profession and form of religion upon a place.
Genesis 35:16. She had hard labour Harder than usual. Rachel had said when she bore Joseph, God shall give me another son, which now the midwife remembers, and tells her, her words were made good. Yet this did not avail; unless God command away fear, no one else can. We are apt in extreme perils to comfort ourselves and our friends with the hopes of a temporal deliverance, in which we may be disappointed; we had better ground our comforts on that which cannot fail us, the hope of eternal life. Rachel had passionately said, Give me children, or else I die; and now she had children (for this was her second) she died.