And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob: And I said, Here am I.
Parallel translations
- WEB The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’
- BSB In that dream the angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ And I replied, ‘Here I am.’
- NKJV Then the Angel of God spoke to me in a dream, saying, ‘Jacob.’ And I said, ‘Here I am.’
- NASB Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob’; and I said, ‘Here I am.’
- NLT Then in my dream, the angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ And I replied, ‘Yes, here I am.’
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The angel of God calls Jacob by name in the dream, and Jacob answers, 'Here I am.' God personally addresses Jacob.
Overview
The 'angel of God' here speaks as God himself, identifying as 'the God of Bethel' in verse 13, a striking instance of God's personal self-revelation. Jacob's ready answer, 'Here I am,' echoes the responsiveness of Abraham and others called by God. Many faithful interpreters see in such appearances of 'the angel of the LORD' a foreshadowing of the pre-incarnate Son, though the text does not explicitly say so.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Isa 58:9Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
- Gen 31:13I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.
- Gen 31:5And said unto them, I see your father’s countenance, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father hath been with me.
- 1 Sam 3:4That the LORD called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I.
- Gen 18:17And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do;
- Gen 48:15–16And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day,
- Exod 3:4And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.
- 1 Sam 3:16Then Eli called Samuel, and said, Samuel, my son. And he answered, Here am I.
- 1 Sam 3:6And the LORD called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again.
- 1 Sam 3:8And the LORD called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the LORD had called the child.
- Gen 22:1And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
- Gen 18:1And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;
- Gen 16:7–13And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 31:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.