Kejadian 12:7-8

12:7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants ¹  I will give this land.” So Abram ²  built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

12:8 Then he moved from there to the hill country east of Bethel ³  and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and worshiped the Lord. ⁴ 

Kejadian 13:18

13:18 So Abram moved his tents and went to live ⁵  by the oaks ⁶  of Mamre in Hebron, and he built an altar to the Lord there.

Kejadian 22:9

22:9 When they came to the place God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there ⁷  and arranged the wood on it. Next he tied up ⁸  his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood.

Kejadian 26:25

26:25 Then Isaac built an altar there and worshiped ⁹  the Lord. He pitched his tent there, and his servants dug a well. ¹⁰ 

Kejadian 33:20

33:20 There he set up an altar and called it “The God of Israel is God.” ¹¹ 

Kejadian 35:7

35:7 He built an altar there and named the place El Bethel ¹²  because there God had revealed himself ¹³  to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

Keluaran 17:15

17:15 Moses built an altar, and he called it “The Lord is my Banner,” ¹⁴ 

Keluaran 24:4

24:4 and Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Early in the morning he built ¹⁵  an altar at the foot ¹⁶  of the mountain and arranged ¹⁷  twelve standing stones ¹⁸  – according to the twelve tribes of Israel.

[12:7]  ¹ tn The same Hebrew term זֶרַע (zera’) may mean “seed” (for planting), “offspring” (occasionally of animals, but usually of people), or “descendants” depending on the context.

[12:7]  ² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been supplied in the translation for clarification.

[12:8]  ³ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[12:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “he called in the name of the Lord.” The expression refers to worshiping the Lord through prayer and sacrifice (see Gen 4:26; 13:4; 21:33; 26:25). See G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 1:116, 281.

[13:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “he came and lived.”

[13:18]  ⁶ tn Or “terebinths.”

[22:9]  ⁷ sn Abraham built an altar there. The theme of Abraham’s altar building culminates here. He has been a faithful worshiper. Will he continue to worship when called upon to make such a radical sacrifice?

[22:9]  ⁸ sn Then he tied up. This text has given rise to an important theme in Judaism known as the Aqedah, from the Hebrew word for “binding.” When sacrifices were made in the sanctuary, God remembered the binding of Isaac, for which a substitute was offered. See D. Polish, “The Binding of Isaac,” Jud 6 (1957): 17-21.

[26:25]  ⁹ tn Heb “called in the name of.” The expression refers to worshiping the Lord through prayer and sacrifice (see Gen 4:26; 12:8; 13:4; 21:33). See G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 1:116.

[26:25]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and they dug there, the servants of Isaac, a well.”

[33:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “God, the God of Israel.” Rather than translating the name, a number of modern translations merely transliterate it from the Hebrew as “El Elohe Israel” (cf. NIV, NRSV, REB). It is not entirely clear how the name should be interpreted grammatically. One option is to supply an equative verb, as in the translation: “The God of Israel [is] God.” Another interpretive option is “the God of Israel [is] strong [or “mighty”].” Buying the land and settling down for a while was a momentous step for the patriarch, so the commemorative naming of the altar is significant.

[35:7]  ¹² sn The name El-Bethel means “God of Bethel.”

[35:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “revealed themselves.” The verb נִגְלוּ (niglu), translated “revealed himself,” is plural, even though one expects the singular form with the plural of majesty. Perhaps אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) is here a numerical plural, referring both to God and the angelic beings that appeared to Jacob. See the note on the word “know” in Gen 3:5.

[17:15]  ¹⁴ sn Heb “Yahweh-nissi” (so NAB), which means “Yahweh is my banner.” Note that when Israel murmured and failed God, the name commemorated the incident or the outcome of their failure. When they were blessed with success, the naming praised God. Here the holding up of the staff of God was preserved in the name for the altar – God gave them the victory.

[24:4]  ¹⁵ tn The two preterites quite likely form a verbal hendiadys (the verb “to get up early” is frequently in such constructions). Literally it says, “and he got up early [in the morning] and he built”; this means “early [in the morning] he built.” The first verb becomes the adverb.

[24:4]  ¹⁶ tn “under.”

[24:4]  ¹⁷ tn The verb “arranged” is not in the Hebrew text but has been supplied to clarify exactly what Moses did with the twelve stones.

[24:4]  ¹⁸ tn The thing numbered is found in the singular when the number is plural – “twelve standing-stone.” See GKC 433 §134.f. The “standing-stone” could be a small piece about a foot high, or a huge column higher than men. They served to commemorate treaties (Gen 32), or visions (Gen 28) or boundaries, or graves. Here it will function with the altar as a place of worship.