And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.
Jacob ... took the stone, ... - a monument, a cippus (cf. 1 Samuel 7:12). The mere setting up of the stone might have been as a future memorial to mark the spot; and this practice is still common in the East, in memory of a religious vow or engagement. Oil is so much used in the East for food and for bodily refreshment that a supply of it invariably forms an important part of a traveler's viaticum. From its excellent material properties, it came to be used as a symbol for spiritual influences, and, still later, as a means for setting apart or consecrating anything to God.
The pouring of oil upon the stone was a consecration; nor was oil the only substance used for this purpose, but wine also, as ghee is in India. Accordingly Jacob gave it a new name, Beth-el, "the house of God" (Hosea 12:4); and it will not appear a thing forced or unnatural to call a stone a house, when one considers the common practice in warm countries of sitting in the open air by or on a stone, as are those of that place, 'broad sheets of bare rock, some of them standing like the cromlechs of Druidical monuments ' (Stanley).
Although this act of Jacob is the first instance of stone consecration on record, it was evidently a familiar and established practice in the time of the patriarchs. But the unction of stones was ere long abused and perverted even by the Hebrews themselves to idolatry. Libations were poured upon them; meat offerings presented to them, and, as we learn from classical writers (Tibullus, 1:, 1-11), the pagan were accustomed to select smooth stones of a singular appearance or extraordinary shape, which were not only anointed, but, being considered instinct with the divine presence [lithoi empsuchoi], were wound with festive garlands, and regarded as tutelary deities. [This superstition of consecrated stones was both very ancient and very extensive, from the Greco-Phoenician Baitulia, or Boetylia, the monlithic temples of Egypt and Hindustan, the lithoi liparoi of the Greeks, the 'lapides informes' of the Romans, the pyramids and obelisks of others, the cairns and cromlechs of Northern Europe, and the caaba of Arabia. That black stone of Mecca, which is in all probability a relic of this superstition, is described by Burckhardt ('Travels in Arabia') as 'an irregular oval, about seven inches in diameter, with an undulated surface, composed of about a dozen smaller stones of different sizes and shapes, well joined together with a small quanity of cement, and perfectly smooth.']
The name of that city was called Luz at the first, х Luwz (H3870)] - almond or hazel (Gesenius), a declivity (Furst). [The Septuagint, joining 'uwlaam (H197) (rendered in our version, "at the first") with luwz (H3870) makes the ancient name of the place Oulamlouz).] It is not easy to discover whether Beth-el is identical with Luz, or they were two distinct places. Some passages seem to countenance the former view (Genesis 35:6; Judges 1:23), others the latter (Genesis 12:8; Genesis 13:3; Joshua 16:2; Joshua 18:13). The probability is that they were in close contiguity, and were in time merged into one.