Genesis 28:20

Translation
King James Version
And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,
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KJV (with Strong's)
And Jacob H3290 vowed H5087 a vow H5088, saying H559, If God H430 will be with me, and will keep me H8104 in this way H1870 that I go H1980, and will give H5414 me bread H3899 to eat H398, and raiment H899 to put on H3847,
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Complete Jewish Bible
Ya'akov took this vow: "If God will be with me and will guard me on this road that I am traveling, giving me bread to eat and clothes to wear,
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Berean Standard Bible
Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and watch over me on this journey, and if He will provide me with food to eat and clothes to wear,
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American Standard Version
And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,
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World English Bible Messianic
Jacob vowed a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and clothing to put on,
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Geneva Bible (1599)
Then Iaakob vowed a vowe, saying, If God will be with me, and will keepe me in this iourney which I go, and wil giue me bread to eate, and clothes to put on:
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Young's Literal Translation
And Jacob voweth a vow, saying, `Seeing God is with me, and hath kept me in this way which I am going, and hath given to me bread to eat, and a garment to put on--
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See also
1 Timothy 6:82 Samuel 15:8Psalms 66:13Genesis 31:13John 1:16Psalms 56:12Acts 18:18
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All Genesis Sites (Canaan)
All Genesis Sites (Canaan) View full PDF
All Genesis Sites (Middle East)
All Genesis Sites (Middle East) View full PDF
Genesis 24:1-14, Genesis 27:41-28:9, Genesis 28:10-22, Genesis 29:1-13
Genesis 24:1-14, Genesis 27:41-28:9, Genesis 28:10-22, Genesis 29:1-13 View full PDF

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In the KJVVerse 794 of 31,102

Study This Verse

SUMMARY

Genesis 28:20 records Jacob's conditional vow to God, made in the desolate wilderness after his profound dream at Bethel. Alone and vulnerable, Jacob responds to God's divine initiative by seeking explicit divine presence, protection, and provision—specifically bread and clothing—as he embarks on a perilous journey. This vow reveals a nascent faith, both dependent on and responsive to God's recently reiterated covenant promises, marking a pivotal moment in Jacob's developing relationship with the God of his fathers.

CONTEXT

  • Literary Context: Jacob's vow in Genesis 28:20 is a direct and immediate response to the preceding divine encounter at Bethel. Having deceitfully secured the patriarchal blessing from his father Isaac, Jacob is now a fugitive, fleeing the wrath of his brother Esau (Genesis 27:41-45). His journey from Beersheba to Haran is one of isolation and uncertainty. The dream of the ladder connecting heaven and earth, with God speaking directly to him and reaffirming the Abrahamic covenant promises of land, innumerable descendants, and unwavering divine presence and protection (Genesis 28:13-15), profoundly impacts Jacob. His vow, therefore, is not an arbitrary act but a solemn, personal commitment made in the wake of a life-altering revelation, setting the stage for his subsequent experiences in Haran and his eventual return (Genesis 29).

  • Historical & Cultural Context: In the ancient Near East, vows were a significant aspect of religious and social life, representing a solemn promise made to a deity, often in exchange for a specific blessing or deliverance. Such vows were considered binding and carried serious implications if not fulfilled (Numbers 30:2). Jacob, as a solitary traveler in a dangerous land, would have been acutely aware of his vulnerability. His request for "bread to eat, and raiment to put on" reflects the fundamental necessities for survival in such an environment, where food and clothing were not guaranteed but were daily concerns. His vow, though conditional, demonstrates a culturally understood means of engaging with the divine, seeking assurance and provision from a God who had just revealed Himself in a powerful, personal way.

  • Key Themes: Genesis 28:20 contributes significantly to several overarching themes in the book of Genesis and biblical theology. Foremost is the theme of Divine Initiative and Human Response, where God sovereignly initiates contact and makes promises, prompting a human, albeit imperfect, response from Jacob. The verse also highlights Divine Providence and Provision, emphasizing God's faithful care for the practical needs of His people, even in their vulnerability. Furthermore, it underscores the Developing Nature of Faith, as Jacob's faith, while real, is still conditional and self-interested, a stark contrast to the unwavering faith of his grandfather Abraham. This passage also touches on the Solemnity of Vows and the Covenant Relationship, as Jacob's vow is a personal engagement within the broader framework of God's covenant with his ancestors, a covenant reiterated to him personally in Genesis 28:13-15.

EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS

Key Word Analysis

  • vowed (Hebrew, nâdar', H5087): This primitive root (H5087) signifies "to promise (positively, to do or give something to God)." When paired with its cognate noun, as in "vowed a vow," it emphasizes the solemnity and binding nature of the commitment. Jacob's action here is a deliberate, voluntary, yet serious promise made directly to God, establishing a reciprocal expectation.
  • keep me (Hebrew, shâmar', H8104): The root (H8104) primarily means "to hedge about (as with thorns), i.e., guard." More broadly, it encompasses protecting, attending to, observing, and preserving. Jacob's plea for God to "keep me" is a request for active, watchful safeguarding and preservation throughout his perilous journey, recognizing his need for divine protection against unseen dangers and uncertainties.
  • bread (Hebrew, lechem', H3899): This term (H3899) refers to food generally, but specifically to "bread" or "grain (for making it)." It represents the most basic and essential form of sustenance. Jacob's request for "bread to eat" highlights his immediate, fundamental need for daily provision, underscoring his complete dependence on God for even the most mundane necessities of life.

Verse Breakdown

  • "And Jacob vowed a vow, saying": This opening clause immediately establishes the solemnity of Jacob's declaration. The repetition of the root nâdar (vowed) and its cognate noun neder (vow) in Hebrew (neder nadar) emphasizes the gravity and binding nature of his commitment. This is a deliberate, conscious act of making a sacred promise to God.
  • "If God will be with me": This is the first and foundational condition of Jacob's vow. He desires God's active, guiding presence, recognizing his vulnerability as a solitary traveler. This echoes God's prior promise in the dream: "I am with you and will keep you wherever you go" (Genesis 28:15). Jacob's "if" clause here is not a doubt, but rather a plea for the tangible manifestation of that promised presence.
  • "and will keep me in this way that I go": This second condition builds on the first, specifying the nature of God's presence as protective. Jacob seeks divine safeguarding from the dangers of his journey, both known and unknown. The "way that I go" signifies his entire life's path and journey, acknowledging his need for constant divine oversight and preservation.
  • "and will give me bread to eat": This condition shifts to the practical, daily needs for survival. "Bread" (Hebrew: lechem) represents the most basic form of sustenance. Jacob's request highlights his complete dependence on God for even the most fundamental provisions necessary to sustain life on his journey.
  • "and raiment to put on": Complementing the request for food, this final condition addresses the need for clothing. "Raiment" (Hebrew: beged) signifies protective covering. Together, "bread to eat, and raiment to put on" form a merism, representing all the basic necessities for physical survival. Jacob is asking God to provide for his every essential need.

Literary Devices

The verse employs several significant literary devices. The most prominent is the Conditional Clause, marked by the repeated "If God will..." (Hebrew: im). This structure reveals the nature of Jacob's faith at this point: it is responsive to God's initiative but still seeks tangible evidence of divine commitment before a full, reciprocal vow is made. This "if-then" structure sets up the subsequent verses where Jacob outlines his part of the bargain. Another device is Merism, seen in the phrase "bread to eat, and raiment to put on." By mentioning these two fundamental necessities, the text implies a request for all essential provisions for life and travel, encompassing comprehensive care. There is also a subtle Contrast or Antithesis between the grandeur of God's covenant promises (land, descendants, universal blessing) and the very basic, immediate needs Jacob articulates (food and clothing), highlighting the human perspective of faith that often begins with practical concerns before fully grasping the vastness of divine grace. Finally, the Repetition of the root nâdar in "vowed a vow" (Hebrew: neder nadar) serves as a Cognate Accusative, intensifying the action and emphasizing the solemnity and binding nature of Jacob's commitment.

THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS

Genesis 28:20 profoundly illustrates the dynamic between God's sovereign initiative and human response, even an imperfect one. God had just unilaterally reaffirmed His covenant promises to Jacob, yet Jacob's immediate reaction is a conditional vow focused on his personal safety and basic needs. This does not diminish the vow's significance but rather highlights the nascent stage of Jacob's faith journey, where trust is still being forged through experience. The verse underscores God's meticulous care for His people, demonstrating that divine providence extends not only to grand covenant promises but also to the most mundane and essential aspects of daily life, such as food and clothing. It also reinforces the solemnity of promises made to God in ancient Israelite culture, even if initially conditional, setting the stage for Jacob's subsequent faithfulness (or lack thereof) in fulfilling his part of the vow.

REFLECTION AND APPLICATION

Jacob's vow in Genesis 28:20 offers a powerful mirror for our own spiritual journeys. Like Jacob, we often find ourselves on uncertain paths, facing unknown futures, and feeling vulnerable. This passage invites us to bring our most basic, even seemingly mundane, needs and fears before God, trusting in His comprehensive providence. While Jacob's vow was conditional, it was nonetheless a direct engagement with the Living God who had just revealed Himself. This encourages us to move beyond passive acknowledgment of God's promises to an active, albeit imperfect, response of faith and dependence. How do we articulate our dependence on God for daily sustenance and protection? Are we honest with God about our fears and practical needs, or do we carry them alone? This passage challenges us to consider how our personal commitments and responses reflect our growing trust in God's unwavering presence and provision, even when our faith is still maturing.

Questions for Reflection

  • In what ways do I, like Jacob, sometimes make my commitment to God conditional on His provision or protection?
  • How does Jacob's request for "bread and raiment" speak to my own daily needs and my reliance on God for them?
  • What specific "ways that I go" am I asking God to "keep me" in today, and how does that reflect my trust in His guidance?
  • How can I move from a conditional faith to a more unwavering trust in God's promises, even when circumstances are uncertain?

FAQ

Why is Jacob's vow conditional?

Answer: Jacob's vow is conditional ("If God will be with me...") primarily because his faith is still in its formative stages. While he has just experienced a profound, direct encounter with God and heard explicit divine promises (Genesis 28:13-15), he is still a man on the run, feeling vulnerable, isolated, and uncertain about his future. His conditionality reflects a deep human need for tangible assurance of God's continuous presence, protection, and provision before he fully commits to the reciprocal terms of his vow (to make Bethel God's house and give a tenth). It's a practical, rather than fully mature, expression of trust, revealing a developing relationship where Jacob seeks confirmation of God's faithfulness before fully dedicating himself.

What is the significance of Jacob asking for "bread to eat, and raiment to put on"?

Answer: Jacob's request for "bread to eat, and raiment to put on" is profoundly significant because it highlights his immediate, fundamental, and universal human needs as a solitary traveler. These are the most basic necessities for survival in any context, particularly in the ancient wilderness. By asking for these specific items, Jacob acknowledges his complete and utter dependence on God for daily sustenance and protection. This underscores a crucial biblical truth: God cares not only about grand covenant promises and spiritual matters but also about the most practical and seemingly mundane aspects of human life. It demonstrates God's comprehensive providence, extending to every detail of His people's well-being, and invites believers to bring all their needs, great and small, before Him (Matthew 6:25-34).

CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT

Jacob's conditional vow, made in response to God's promise of unwavering presence and provision, finds its ultimate and unconditional fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jacob sought God's "being with me" and the provision of "bread and raiment," foreshadowing Christ as Emmanuel, "God with us" (Matthew 1:23), who permanently bridges the gap between God and humanity. Jesus is the true and living Bread of Life, providing not merely physical sustenance but eternal spiritual nourishment that satisfies the deepest hunger (John 6:35). Furthermore, He offers the garments of salvation and the robe of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10), covering our spiritual nakedness and making us acceptable before God, a far greater provision than mere physical raiment. The very ladder dream that preceded Jacob's vow is explicitly linked to Christ by Jesus Himself as the ultimate mediator and connection between heaven and earth, upon whom angels ascend and descend (John 1:51). Thus, all of God's promises of presence, protection, and comprehensive provision, which Jacob tentatively sought, are fully and perfectly realized in Christ, who is our all in all (Colossians 3:11).

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Commentary on Genesis 28 verses 16–22

God manifested himself and his favour to Jacob when he was asleep and purely passive; for the spirit, like the wind, blows when and where he listeth, and God's grace, like the dew, tarrieth not for the sons of men, Mic 5:7. But Jacob applied himself to the improvement of the visit God had made him when he was awake; and we may well think he awaked, as the prophet did (Jer 31:26), and behold his sleep was sweet to him. Here is much of Jacob's devotion on this occasion.

I. He expressed a great surprise at the tokens he had of God's special presence with him in that place: Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not, Gen 28:16. Note, 1. God's manifestations of himself to his people carry their own evidence along with them. God can give undeniable demonstrations of his presence, such as give abundant satisfaction to the souls of the faithful that God is with them of a truth, satisfaction not communicable to others, but convincing to themselves. 2. We sometimes meet with God where we little thought of meeting with him. He is where we did not think he had been, is found where we asked not for him. No place excludes divine visits (Gen 16:13, here also); wherever we are, in the city or in the desert, in the house or in the field, in the shop or in the street, we may keep up our intercourse with Heaven if it be not our own fault.

II. It struck an awe upon him (Gen 28:17): He was afraid; so far was he from being puffed up, and exalted above measure, with the abundance of the revelations (Co2 12:7), that he was afraid. Note, The more we see of God the more cause we see for holy trembling and blushing before him. Those to whom God is pleased to manifest himself are thereby laid, and kept, very low in their own eyes, and see cause to fear even the Lord and his goodness, Hos 3:5. He said, How dreadful is this place! that is, "The appearance of God in this place is never to be thought of, but with a holy awe and reverence. I shall have a respect for this place, and remember it by this token, as long as I live:" not that he thought the place itself any nearer the divine visions than other places; but what he saw there at this time was, as it were, the house of God, the residence of the divine Majesty, and the gate of heaven, that is, the general rendezvous of the inhabitants of the upper world, as the meetings of a city were in their gates; or the angels ascending and descending were like travellers passing and re-passing through the gates of a city. Note, 1. God is in a special manner present where his grace is revealed and where his covenants are published and sealed, as of old by the ministry of angels, so now by instituted ordinances, Mat 28:20. 2. Where God meets us with his special presence we ought to meet him with the most humble reverence, remembering his justice and holiness, and our own meanness and vileness.

III. He took care to preserve the memorial of it two ways: 1. He set up the stone for a pillar (Gen 28:18); not as if he thought the visions of his head were any way owing to the stone on which it lay, but thus he would mark the place against he came back, and erect a lasting monument of God's favour to him, and because he had not time now to build an altar here, as Abraham did in the places where God appeared to him, Gen 12:7. He therefore poured oil on the top of this stone, which probably was the ceremony then used in dedicating their altars, as an earnest of his building an altar when he should have conveniences for it, as afterwards he did, in gratitude to God for this vision, Gen 35:7. Note, Grants of mercy call for returns of duty, and the sweet communion we have with God ought ever to be remembered. 2. He gave a new name to the place, Gen 28:19. It had been called Luz, an almond-tree; but he will have it henceforward called Beth-el, the house of God. This gracious appearance of God to him put a greater honour upon it, and made it more remarkable, than all the almond-trees that flourished there. This is that Beth-el where, long after, it is said, God found Jacob, and there (in what he said to him) he spoke with us, Hos 12:4. In process of time, this Beth-el, the house of God, became Beth-aven, a house of vanity and iniquity, when Jeroboam set up one of his calves there.

IV. He made a solemn vow upon this occasion, Gen 28:20-22. By religious vows we give glory to God, own our dependence upon him, and lay a bond upon our own souls to engage and quicken our obedience to him. Jacob was now in fear and distress; and it is seasonable to make vows in times of trouble, or when we are in pursuit of any special mercy, Jon 1:16; Psa 66:13, Psa 66:14; Sa1 1:11; Num 21:1-3. Jacob had now had a gracious visit from heaven. God had renewed his covenant with him, and the covenant is mutual. When God ratifies his promises to us, it is proper for us to repeat our promises to him. Now in this vow observe, 1. Jacob's faith. God had said (Gen 28:15), I am with thee, and will keep thee. Jacob takes hold of this, and infers, "Seeing God will be with me, and will keep me, as he hath said, and (which is implied in that promise) will provide comfortably for me, - and seeing he has promised to bring me again to this land, that is, to the house of my father, whom I hope to find alive at my return in peace" (so unlike was he to Esau who longed for the days of mourning for his father), - "I depend upon it." Note, God's promises are to be the guide and measure of our desires and expectations. 2. Jacob's modesty and great moderation in his desires. He will cheerfully content himself with bread to eat, and raiment to put on; and, though God's promise had now made him heir to a very great estate, yet he indents not for soft clothing and dainty meat. Agur's wish is his, Feed me with food convenient for me; and see Ti1 6:8. Nature is content with a little, and grace with less. Those that have most have, in effect, no more for themselves than food and raiment; of the overplus they have only either the keeping or the giving, not the enjoyment: if God give us more, we are bound to be thankful, and to use it for him; if he give us but this, we are bound to be content, and cheerfully to enjoy him in it. 3. Jacob's piety, and his regard to God, which appear here, (1.) In what he desired, that God would be with him and keep him. Note, We need desire no more to make us easy and happy, wherever we are, than to have God's presence with us and to be under his protection. It is comfortable, in a journey, to have a guide in an unknown way, a guard in a dangerous way, to be well carried, well provided for, and to have good company in any way; and those that have God with them have all this in the best manner. (2.) In what he designed. His resolution is, [1.] In general, to cleave to the Lord, as his God in covenant: Then shall the Lord be my God. Not as if he would disown him and cast him off if he should want food and raiment; no, though he slay us, we must cleave to him; but "then I will rejoice in him as my God; then I will more strongly engage myself to abide with him." Note, Every mercy we receive from God should be improved as an additional obligation upon us to walk closely with him as our God. [2.] In particular, that he would perform some special acts of devotion, in token of his gratitude. First, "This pillar shall keep possession here till I come back in peace, and then it shall be God's house," that is, "an altar shall be erected here to the honour of God." Secondly, "The house of god shall not be unfurnished, nor his altar without a sacrifice: Of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee, to be spent either upon God's altars or upon his poor," both which are his receivers in the world. Probably it was according to some general instructions received from heaven that Abraham and Jacob offered the tenth of their acquisitions to God. Note, 1. God must be honoured with our estates, and must have his dues out of them. When we receive more than ordinary mercy from God we should study to give some signal instances of gratitude to him. 2. The tenth is a very fit proportion to be devoted to God and employed for him, though, as circumstances vary, it may be more or less, as God prospers us, Co1 16:2; Co2 9:7.

Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 16–22. Public domain.
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Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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