Jacob Part 9: Jacob at the Gate of Heaven

Jacob’s Exile

We just finished act one, the first main part of the Yaaqov story. Where we had lots of deceit.

Now we are going to follow the deceiver into exile and see where it leads him. 

The first thing that happens to Yaaqov in his exile is he ends up alone in a field, so he falls asleep, as one does in the night time. And he has a vision, dream, that blows his mind, freaks him out. 

He then goes into the house of Lavan. He arrives at the house of Lavan, and there are three big blocks to the story of Yaaqov and Lavan. And it's just deception, more deceptions within deceptions within deceptions. Everybody's working each other over.

Until Yaaqov finally can't deal with this anymore, and he gives a report that he had another dream.  He tells this to his four wives now, and at that point in the story. He says, "It's time for us to go. The God who I met in my dream back then, he appeared to me again. We gotta get outta here." And so then, there's this whole chase scene, like right out of an American old Western, or something like that. It's a chase scene through the wilderness, and right when you think Lavan and Yaaqov, who have been deceiving each other for 20 years, you think, aw man, one of these guys is gonna kill each other, they don't. 

They decide to make a covenant of peace with each other, and they sit on a high hill and have a feast, where they eat and drink with their brothers.

We're about to walk through the melody of Genesis 1-9 again, but this time, of course, with another twist. 

Jacob at the Gate of Heaven

Genesis 28:10–22 CSB

10 Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. 11 He reached a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set. He took one of the stones from the place, put it there at his head, and lay down in that place. 12 And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground with its top reaching the sky, and God’s angels were going up and down on it. 13 The Lord was standing there beside him, saying, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your offspring the land on which you are lying. 14 Your offspring will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out toward the west, the east, the north, and the south. All the peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 Look, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” 16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven.” 18 Early in the morning Jacob took the stone that was near his head and set it up as a marker. He poured oil on top of it 19 and named the place Bethel, though previously the city was named Luz. 20 Then Jacob made a vow: “If God will be with me and watch over me during this journey I’m making, if he provides me with food to eat and clothing to wear, 21 and if I return safely to my father’s family, then the Lord will be my God. 22 This stone that I have set up as a marker will be God’s house, and I will give to you a tenth of all that you give me.”

"And Yaaqov went out from Beersheba."

Do you remember the meaning of Beersheba? Be'er, the well, and then sheva', which is the same words, same letters as the word "seven" or "oath," which is the synonym for covenant. 

"So Yaaqov went out from Beersheba, and he went to Haran," where Avraham came from long ago.

"And he encountered the place." What place?

"And he stayed the night there.

For the sun had gone down, and he took from the stones of the place, and he set his head rest." Some of our translations say pillow or, but it's the word "the place of the head." "And he laid down in that place." What place?

"And he had a dream, and behold a ramp was set on the land, and its head was up in the skies.

And behold, messengers of Elohim were going up and were going down on it.

And behold, Yahweh stood upon it and he said, 'I myself am Yahweh the Elohim of Avraham, your father, and the Elohim of Yitskhaq, your father.

The land that you are lying on, to you I will give it and to your seed. And your seed will be like the dust of the land. You'll break out to the west, to the east, to the north, to the south, and in you, all the families of the ground will find blessing and also in your seed.

And behold, I myself, I am with you.

I will keep you wherever you go. I will return you back to this ground. Indeed, I will not abandon you until I do what I have spoken to you.'

And Yaaqov woke up from his sleep, and he said, 'Whoa, Yahweh is in this place. I had no clue.' And Yaaqov was afraid. And he said, 'This place is terrifying. This is none other than the house of Elohim.'"

In Hebrew, beyt Elohim.

"'This is the gate of the skies.' And Yaaqov got up in the morning and he took that stone." Remember the one he had set as his head rest? "And he set it up as a pillar, and he poured out olive oil on its head. And he called the name of that place Beyt El." House of El.

"Now, you should know that the name of the city at its beginning of this place, was named Almond Tree, Luz." Chillin' by a tree, the city named Tree, when he was ... so good. "And Yaaqov vowed a vow saying, 'If Elohim will be with me, if he keeps me on this path that I'm going, if he'll give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, and if I come back here to the house of my father, then yeah, yeah, Yahweh will be my Elohim.

Also then, the stone that I put here as a pillar, yeah, that will become, I've got this great idea. That will become a house of Elohim.'" It's the phrase beyt Elohim. "And then, everything that you give me, I'll give a 10th of it back to you." And that's the story.

Leaving Canaan, Leaving Eden

As Yaaqov leaves the land promised to Abraham’s seed, he encounters divine messengers coming and going between the skies and the land. He happens upon a portal, as it were, between Heaven and Earth. This is a notvery-subtle recall of the cherubim that Yahweh posted at the entrance of Eden when he exiled the humans.

Genesis 3:22–24 CSB

22 The Lord God said, “Since the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove the man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.

The strength of this analogy is bolstered by the fact that when Yaaqov returns from his exile in Lavan’s house and crosses back into the land, he has another encounter with divine messengers.

There is another important parallel between the exile of Adam and Eve and Yaaqov. In the midst of a tragic departure, God promises that a future seed will restore the Eden blessing to the world.

However, notice the contrast. Yaaqov is likened to the deceitful snake (both are heel-strikers), but instead of receiving a curse, God gives him a blessing. Instead of a sentence of death, he is given a promise of life.

Sleep

When's the last time somebody fell asleep and had a dream? 

Genesis 15:1–15 CSB

1 After these events, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield; your reward will be very great. 2 But Abram said, “Lord God, what can you give me, since I am childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Abram continued, “Look, you have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house will be my heir.” 4 Now the word of the Lord came to him: “This one will not be your heir; instead, one who comes from your own body will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “Your offspring will be that numerous.” 6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. 7 He also said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “Lord God, how can I know that I will possess it?” 9 He said to him, “Bring me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 So he brought all these to him, cut them in half, and laid the pieces opposite each other, but he did not cut the birds in half. 11 Birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. 12 As the sun was setting, a deep sleep came over Abram, and suddenly great terror and darkness descended on him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be resident aliens for four hundred years in a land that does not belong to them and will be enslaved and oppressed. 14 However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions. 15 But you will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age.

Well, it was the day that Avram was freaking out about the fact that he doesn't have any kids.

And Elohim's like, listen, I got you. Like, don't be afraid. Your reward, I got you. I'm your shield. Really? I'm not sure. I don't, can you really pull this off, really? And so, he takes him outside, shows him the stars. I'll make your seed like the stars.

And he just trusts, a very bold act. He trusts, and then his trust waivers. And he says, listen, can you give me a guarantee?

How can I have certainty that you're gonna do that thing that you just said you're gonna do? And thus we get the elaborate story about the cutting of the animals and so on. And then, right when God passes through the animals, Abram, he doesn't just kind of pass out. God makes him pass out on the ground, a deep. He causes him. He prevents Abram from being able to walk through the animals with him. He makes him pass out on the ground. So, something similar, this ... We're now to the grandson of this guy, and God just told him everything, excuse me. And he passes out of his own accord, and it's once his consciousness is shut down, that's when the nature of reality becomes visible to him.

Those are cases two and three of somebody falling asleep.  Who is the First

Adam?

Genesis 2:18–22 CSB

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper corresponding to him.” 19 The Lord God formed out of the ground every wild animal and every bird of the sky, and brought each to the man to see what he would call it. And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal; but for the man no helper was found corresponding to him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. 22 Then the Lord God made the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man.

So the first thing in all creation that is not good,

It is not good for 'adam to be just one.

You can't do fruitful and multiply and rule the land as kings and queens if there's just one human. So what God does is trial one with the animals. 

Yahweh makes 'adam pass out. And then, he takes one of the sides. 

And he closes up, and he builds male and female. 

so, in other words, when God's chosen one is at a moment, a crossroads moment, when the thing that God has purposed for his chosen one, that looks like there's no way forward, how is the promise of God ever going to happen in this situation? 

A lonely human, a childless couple, a lonely Yaaqov alone in a field exiled from his family, and the rescue of the universe is sitting and resting on this guy's future. 

So this, and ... these are moments when God makes his chosen one pass out, and then when they pass out, God shows the thing. It's like they're able to see the thing that God can do if they would just chill out.

It's like he has to stop the humans from being human so that he can do the thing that he said he's gonna do. 

This is so powerful.

And this begins this theme of this awareness that the biblical authors have that like when we're conscious and awake, that we only see so much of reality. And that somehow when our conscious shuts down, because these are all these dreams, and think of where this is going in terms of apocalyptic literature. 

That it's when John the visionary has these dreams, or Daniel. It's somehow when you're asleep, the socialized ... The ways that we protect ourselves with our consciousness, actually prevents us from seeing reality the way that it is. And it's this deep assumption the biblical authors have that it's when our conscious mind is disarmed that we are open to the presence of Heaven in ways that we're not, right now.

Heaven and Earth, Angels and Ultimate Reality

The imagery of Yaaqov's dream reveals a core aspect of the Bible’s portrait of reality: Heaven and Earth are distinct realms, but they're not wholly separate. Rather, they are made for one another, and they intersect and overlap in ways that humans only dimly perceive. Eden is the foundational biblical image of a realm where Heaven and Earth are one. But this story takes us one step further, and it shows us how Heaven and Earth can overlap when a person's consciousness is heightened to awareness of this overlap.

The fact that Yaaqov is asleep and dreaming, and this is what makes him able to perceive Heaven’s presence linked to Earth, is of greatest significance. Our normal, socialized, conscious states only make us aware of some aspects of reality.

The dream is also an Eden image, where the first “dream” is alluded to when Elohim causes a deep sleep to fall upon the human so that he can be divided into two (see Gen. 2:18-25).

Genesis 28:12 CSB

12 And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground with its top reaching the sky, and God’s angels were going up and down on it.

The Hebrew word for “ramp,” or possibly “stairway,” is sullam (םלס), and it appears only here in all of ancient Hebrew literature. It is related to the word simmiltu in Akkadian, a ancient cognate Semitic language related to Hebrew, which means “stepped ramp” and could refer to the tall, ascending stairways that lead to the top of Mesopotamian ziggurats, sacred temples that connected Heaven and Earth with an altar on top.

The great Etemenanki ziggurat in Babylon, and the accompanying Esagila temple, was one of the largest temple structures in the ancient world. It was built, remodeled, and rebuilt several times within the 700 years between the 14th and 7th century B.C.E.

The great Etemenanki ziggurat in Babylon, and the accompanying Esagila temple, was one of the largest temple structures in the ancient world. It was built, remodeled, and rebuilt several times within the 700 years between the 14th and 7th century B.C.E.

The point of this image is that Yaaqov is seeing the reality to which ancient temples pointed: the intersection of Heaven and Earth, of the divine and human realms in one place

Eden, Babylon, and Bethel

Yaaqov's exile is also set on analogy to the sons of Noah who go east and attempt to build their own cosmic mountain that reaches to the skies.

There is an important contrast here between Yaaqov's experience and the Babylonian builders.

The Babylonians are actively attempting to build their way back up to the heavens. Yaaqov is a passive recipient of the vision. His inactivity emphasizes that the connection between Heaven and Earth cannot be achieved by humans, but only received as a gift.

The Hebrew word for Babylon is which is a Hebrew spelling of the Akkadian word, which means “gate of the gods.” Notice that this is precisely what Yaaqov calls the stair-ramp he sees in his vision. bavel, (בבל)  bab-il

Within the compositional design of Genesis 1-11, the story of the building of Babylon forms a crucially important match to the story of Eden. The fact that both stories are being hyperlinked to within this story about Yaaqov shows the author’s awareness of their linkage.

Genesis 11:4 CSB

4 And they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky. Let’s make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered throughout the earth.”

And it's actually, it's not just random. It's exactly what the people say. When they're building Babylon is they say, "Let us make a city and a tower who." It's the same phrase in Hebrew. "With its head in the skies." With its head in the skies. So in Genesis 1 to 11, Babylon, it's an anti-Eden. It's the human attempt to reunite Heaven and Earth, which of course God frustrates 'cause he knows that it's gonna create hell on earth if he lets 'em go through with the project. And so, ironically, here's Yaaqov, and when he sees the reality to which Babylon is just an imitation, what he sees is a tower with its head up in the skies.

So, in other words, if Heaven and Earth are going to be reunited, and Eden is ever gonna fully touch down, it's going to be God's initiative and God's gift, not a human scheme.

So think of what that means for Yaaqov. What's he all about?

Like he's all about creating his own little Eden by his own plans and schemes, and this is one of them.

So this whole thing about "I will build you a house" is surely like parody.

So, he says, I'm gonna call the name of this place Bethel, Beyt 'El. Is this place gonna like play a role in the biblical story to come?

The Blessing of Abraham, Yitskhaq, and Yaaqov

God’s words to Yaaqov blend together phrases from God’s blessing speeches to both Abraham and Yitskhaq.

Yitskhaq gave Yaaqov the Eden blessing, but now Yahweh himself is giving the blessing. And so it, I mean, all this thing, your seed like the dust of the earth. I'll give you the land. You'll spread out to the north, south, east and west. All the families of the earth with your seed. I am with you. All of this has been said before. 

So it's very clear marking the next generation becomes the inheritor.

Yaaqov's Two Curious Responses

Look at that vow that you just saw that Elohim

vow that Yaaqov makes, like this, if then. Like, if God does this, if God does this, if God does this, then he can be my God. and I'll give him a tenth of everything. 

He met God in the heavens and his is till saying If you do this then I will do that. only if all these things work out, then you can be my God.

Yaaqov has two very curious responses here. 

almost everything that God just said, look at how Yaaqov, he takes what God says and he just, he just tweaks, tweaks it, yeah? Yeah. So Yahweh said, "I am Yahweh, the God of Avraham your father, and the God of Yitskhaq your father." That gets turned by Jacob to saying, if you do all this stuff, then you can be my God. I mean, the very clear implication is I'm your God too, and this is the moment where I'm declaring it to be the case. And for Yaaqov, if it's like a if-then scenario,

So Yaaqov just glosses right over. He doesn't even mention all of the promises about the land, the blessing, the seed, blessing for the nations. He just acts like none of that was even said. 

What he really fixates on is the promise of I am with you, but even then he twists it. If God will be with me, not. God just said, I'm going to be with you. And he's like, nah, if you'll be with me.

God said, I will keep you wherever you go. If he will keep me on the path I am going. I will return you back to the land. If I return. Do you get it here? This is really just through these little details, the narrator creates a moment for the reader to really try and get into the psychology of this character.

Yaaqov takes God’s promise of protection and blessing and turns it into a transactional obligation on God’s part.

How many of us have transactional relationship with God or with others in our close circles, friends, family?

Yahweh offers to give the blessing of Yaaqov's ancestors to him as a gift, but Yaaqov turns it into a condition: Yahweh can be his God if he protects him.

Notice that Yaaqov reduces the cosmic scope of the divine promises down to the confines of his own personal survival (“food and clothing”) and return to the land. God’s promise to Yaaqov is about his seed, the land, fruitfulness, and blessing for the nations. Yaaqov's response only repeats what is important for his personal survival (note that “food and clothing” is exactly what Yaaqov used to deceive his brother and father).

“Jacob the trickster is now bound to this God who presides over all the trickery yet to come in the narrative. God has been committed to Jacob since the oracle of 25:23. But only now is Jacob also bound. Jacob's response strikes one as a genuine act of faith. But Jacob will be Jacob. Even in this solemn moment, he still sounds like a bargain-hunter. He still adds an ‘if’ (v. 20).”

Brueggemann, Walter (1982). Genesis: Interpretation, A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. Westminster John Knox Press. 248.

From the very beginning, God said he's going to be the one, and there's like disbelief in his actions all the way through. Like he, it's like he always sees himself as the younger that has to overcome the stronger. And like even to the point to where he just doesn't trust anything or anyone. I just think of him as like an animal in a corner, like always trying to grab, always trying to get, like victim mentality, maybe.

Somebody's trying to give him a gift, and it's like he can't conceive of a world where he isn't fully responsible for everything that happens to him. He's gotta scheme it all. 

He sounds like the serpent. If you eat of the fruit, then you'll be like Elohim. It's like you're twistin' what God directly said in your own mind for your own agenda.

Build a House - Bethel

After negotiating with God’s promise, Yaaqov goes on to promise to build God a temple—something that God has not asked for. This is similar to David’s offer to build a temple for God when God never asked for such a thing.

2 Samuel 7:1–7 CSB

1 When the king had settled into his palace and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies, 2 the king said to the prophet Nathan, “Look, I am living in a cedar house while the ark of God sits inside tent curtains.” 3 So Nathan told the king, “Go and do all that is on your mind, for the Lord is with you.” 4 But that night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: 5 “Go to my servant David and say, ‘This is what the Lord says: Are you to build me a house to dwell in? 6 From the time I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until today I have not dwelt in a house; instead, I have been moving around with a tent as my dwelling. 7 In all my journeys with all the Israelites, have I ever spoken a word to one of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, asking: Why haven’t you built me a house of cedar?’

Genesis 28:10-22 is the founding story of the temple at Bethel, which will later become an idolatrous center of worship for the estranged tribes of Israel and eventually lead to Israel’s destruction and exile.

It feel like, is that what's going on when the transfiguration happens? Oh my gosh, this is like.

Oh yeah, let's build three tents.

Let's build some tents.

Yeah, no, that's totally right. That's right. But what does, what is, what does Eden mean?

It represents the vanguard point from which God wants to colonize Earth with Heaven. The whole point is the union, the total union of Heaven and Earth. 

And what Yaaqov is realizing and wakes up to here is like, oh wow, this place. What he wants to do is contain the Heaven-on-Earth spot within a house that he can build and control. And so right on through the house of Bethel becomes the place of idolatry, which is what Babylon was all about. 

So this whole narrative is so complex because you think on one level, oh, maybe he's just pious, and he wants to honor the God who appears to him. This is the foundation story of the most idolatrous temple that Israel ever made. You just gotta stop and you gotta be like, what on earth? 

Yes, and it's this sad parody of the real thing that he sees, which is the true gate of the skies, which God builds, not humans. So that all the way, we'll just land the plane with what you just brought up. 

1 Kings 12:28–32 NASB95

28 So the king consulted, and made two golden calves, and he said to them, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt.” 29 He set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. 30 Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. 31 And he made houses on high places, and made priests from among all the people who were not of the sons of Levi. 32 Jeroboam instituted a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast which is in Judah, and he went up to the altar; thus he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves which he had made. And he stationed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.

Amos 3:14 NASB95

14 “For on the day that I punish Israel’s transgressions, I will also punish the altars of Bethel; The horns of the altar will be cut off And they will fall to the ground.

Amos 4:4–5 CSB

4 Come to Bethel and rebel; rebel even more at Gilgal! Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tenths every three days. 5 Offer leavened bread as a thanksgiving sacrifice, and loudly proclaim your freewill offerings, for that is what you Israelites love to do! This is the declaration of the Lord God.

Bethel, the Son of Man, and Jesus

This story is alluded to in an important moment in the Gospel of John, where Jesus is assembling a symbolic restored Israel.

When Jesus is forming his crew of disciples in the conclusion of John 1, he, it's so good. So he's collecting some disciples, and he sees this guy Nathaniel.

And what he says when he sees Nathaniel is, "Look, an Israelite in whom there is no treachery." No deceit in that Israelite. What's Yaaqov's other name? Israel. (laughing) Yeah, yeah, an Israelite, finally an Israel I can work with here, yeah? Yeah. How do you know me? Oh, listen, buddy, I saw you sitting under the tree.

And whoa, Rabbi, you're the Son of God. Oh yeah, you know, you think it's cool, right, that I saw you under the tree? I tell you, here's what you're gonna see. You're going to see heavens, the sky's open, and the angels of God descending and descending on the Son of Man. 

John 1:44–51 CSB

44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law (and so did the prophets): Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” 46 “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nathanael asked him. “Come and see,” Philip answered. 47 Then Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said about him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” 48 “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you,” Jesus answered. 49 “Rabbi,” Nathanael replied, “You are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel!” 50 Jesus responded to him, “Do you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” 51 Then he said, “Truly I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

John here retells the story of Nathanael’s calling into the group of Jesus’ disciples. However, he has told the story in order to portray Jesus as Yahweh, summoning a morally transformed (= new covenant) Yaaqov/Israel to follow him.

Nathanael is presented as a renewed Israel, being summoned as a new Adam (from “under the tree”) to follow Jesus into a new Eden (= a renewed and united Heaven and Earth).

The hyperlinks that John is activating show how the Yaaqov story was understood in relationship to the larger themes about Yaaqov at work in the TaNaK.

So what is the reality to which Eden points, to which the temple points, the tabernacle points? It's to the link, the portal between Heaven and Earth. And what all, what Jesus is saying, all of those narrative images are pointing, or ways of talking about the reality, which is the true image of God, who is the divine and human. He is Heaven and Earth in one person.

Jesus puts himself in the place of the ramp, the stairway

Deception in the House of Lavan

Bibliography

https://bibleproject.com/classroom/jacob

Freedman, David Noel, Gary A. Herion, David F. Graf, John David Pleins, and Astrid B. Beck, eds. in The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

Freedman, David Noel, Allen C. Myers, and Astrid B. Beck. in Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 2000.

Mathews, K. A. Genesis 11:27–50:26. Vol. 1B of The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2005.

Brannan, Rick, and Israel Loken. The Lexham Textual Notes on the Bible. Lexham Bible Reference Series. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014.

Barry, John D., Douglas Mangum, Derek R. Brown, Michael S. Heiser, Miles Custis, Elliot Ritzema, Matthew M. Whitehead, Michael R. Grigoni, and David Bomar. Faithlife Study Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016.

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https://hebrew4christians.com/Scripture/Parashah/Summaries/Vayetzei/Leah_s_Eyes/leah_s_eyes.html

https://biblepure.com/tender-eyed-meaning-in-the-bible/

https://www.logos.com/grow/tender-eyed-leah-meaning/

John D. Currid, A Study Commentary on Genesis: Genesis 25:19–50:26, EP Study Commentary (Darlington, England; Carlisle, PA: Evangelical Press, 2003), 97–98.

Abraham Kuruvilla, Genesis: A Theological Commentary for Preachers (Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2014), 374.

John D. Currid, A Study Commentary on Genesis: Genesis 25:19–50:26, EP Study Commentary (Darlington, England; Carlisle, PA: Evangelical Press, 2003), 97–98.

Abraham Kuruvilla, Genesis: A Theological Commentary for Preachers (Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2014), 374.

Scott Noegel's “Sex, Sticks, and Tricksters in Genesis 30:31-43: A New Look at an Old Crux” in Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society, vol. 25 (1997), p. 7-17.