Genesis 31:11

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

The angel of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacob,' and I said, 'Here I am.'

World English Bible · Public Domain

Download a study sheet

One document with this verse’s original text, its word-by-word gloss line, the meaning frame, cross-references with their text, attributed commentary, and full source and license credits — printable, and it pastes into notes with its structure intact.

This verse Autodidact and up

Study sheet (.html) Plain text (.txt)

A passage Seminary Student

Up to 50 verses in one chapter. A passage sheet keeps up to 6 commentary sources and 12 cross-references per verse, in the order this page ranks them, and says so on the sheet whenever that leaves anything out. Ask for a single verse and you get the Autodidact verse sheet above.

Everything on this page stays free to read, with no account — the sheet is a download of what is already on screen, not access to it.

Want to remove ads? Support Godless Engineer

Word by word

More ways to search: Search by grammar → Find every occurrence → Compare this word →

Practice this passage: Drill this verse → Learn its vocabulary →

בַּחֲל֖וֹם

chălôwm

H2472

“in/at · dream”

Preposition + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 64× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 20:3

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H2492

TWOT: 663a

dream - dream (ordinary) - dream (with prophetic meaning)

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

8: words
7: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
4 nouns
1 preposition
1 particle

Verb forms

וַיֹּ֨אמֶר Qal · Sequential Imperfect
וָאֹמַ֖ר Qal · Sequential Imperfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

וַיֹּ֨אמֶר to say H559 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 17 words from the Hebrew and 18 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 8 Hebrew tokens and 15 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Genesis 31:11 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Genesis 31:13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you vowed a vow to me. Now arise, get out from this land, and return to the land of your birth."
Isaiah 58:9 Then shall you call, and Yahweh will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, Here I am. If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking wickedly;
Genesis 18:17 Yahweh said, "Will I hide from Abraham what I do,
Genesis 22:1 It happened after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" He said, "Here I am."
Genesis 31:5 and said to them, "I see the expression on your father's face, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me.
Genesis 48:15–16 He blessed Joseph, and said, "The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day,
Exodus 3:4 When Yahweh saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the midst of the bush, and said, "Moses! Moses!" He said, "Here I am."
1 Samuel 3:4 that Yahweh called Samuel; and he said, Here am I.

1 Samuel 3:6 Yahweh called yet again, Samuel. Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for you called me. He answered, I didn't call, my son; lie down again.
1 Samuel 3:8 Yahweh called Samuel again the third time. He arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for you called me. Eli perceived that Yahweh had called the child.
1 Samuel 3:16 Then Eli called Samuel, and said, Samuel, my son. He said, Here am I.
Genesis 16:7–13 The angel of Yahweh found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.
Genesis 18:1 Yahweh appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Genesis 31:11 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיֹּ֨אמֶר אֵלַ֜י מַלְאַ֧ךְ הָאֱלֹהִ֛ים בַּחֲל֖וֹם יַֽעֲקֹ֑ב וָאֹמַ֖ר הִנֵּֽנִי

The angel of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacob,' and I said, 'Here I am.'

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Genesis 31:11 Septuagint · lemma form

καί εἶπον ἐγώ ὁ ἄγγελος ὁ θεός κατά ὕπνος ἰακώβ ἐγώ δέ εἶπον τίς εἰμί

And the angel of God said to me in a dream, Jacob; and I said, What is it?

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וַאֲמַר לִי מַלְאָכָא דַּיְיָ בְּחֶלְמָא יַעֲקֹב וַאֲמָרִית הָא אֲנָא

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וַאֲמַר לִי מַלְאָכָה דַיְיָ בְּחֶלְמָא יַעֲקב וַאֲמָרִית הָא נָא

And the Angel of the Lord said to me, in a dream, Jakob. And I said, Behold me.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Genesis 31:11 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

11. And the angel of God] The vision combines the account of the events connected with the wages in Gen_30:31-42 with the mention of the Divine word to Jacob in Gen_31:3.

Notice the frequent use of “God” (Elohim), not Lord (Jehovah), in this chapter, Gen_31:9; Gen_31:11; Gen_31:16; Gen_31:24; Gen_31:42.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Gen 31:11 And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream, [saying], Jacob: And I said, Here [am] I.

Ver. 11. {See Trapp on "Gen 31:10"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joseph Benson's Commentary

Gen 31:11-13. The angel of the Lord spake, I am the God of Beth-el — This, no doubt, was the Word, or Son of God, who now condescended to be the angel or messenger of the Father to Jacob, and yet styles himself the God of Beth-el. Thus was Jacob reminded of Beth-el, and of the promises made to him there, by the same divine person, who now again appeared to him in a dream, to his great comfort.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 11. The angel of God spake unto me in a dream] It is strange that we had not heard of this dream before; and yet it seems to have taken place before the cattle brought forth, immediately after the bargain between him and Laban. If we follow the Samaritan the difficulty is at once removed, for it gives us the whole of this dream after Ge 30:36 of the preceding chapter,

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And he said, lift up now thine eyes, and see,.... This was all visionary, Jacob was still in a dream; but it was so impressed upon his mind, that he was spoke to, and bid to observe, and take notice, as follows: that

all the rams that leap upon the cattle are ringstraked, speckled,

and grisled; thereby assuring him, that such would be those the ewes would bring forth, which would be right in him to agree with Laban for as his hire; and it is probable that there was some distance of time, at least a night, between the first motion of Laban's to Jacob to settle his wages, Gen 30:28; and his repeating that, and being urgent to have it done, Gen 31:31; and in this interval of time might be the night Jacob had this dream and vision in, for his direction; or if it was after the bargain made, since it is said to be at the time the cattle conceived, he had it to assure him of God's approbation of it, and of his success in it:

for I have seen all that Laban doeth to thee; had took notice how he had made him serve fourteen years for his wives, and had given him nothing for his service; and how he now was taking advantage of Jacob's modesty to get him to fix his own wages, which he supposed would be lower than he could have the face to, offer him.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

11. The angel of God spake — He refers probably to the same revelation as that of Gen_31:3. This word came to him in a dream, in which was repeated the vision of many a previous dream. Gen_31:10.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

And the angel of God literally, the angel (or Maleach) of Elohim, i.e. of the God who was with me and protecting me, though himself continuing unseenspake unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob: And I said, Here am I. (vide Gen_20:1, Gen_20:11)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Scofield Reference Notes

C. I. Scofield

angel

See note, (See Scofield "Heb 1:4").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Genesis, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 8 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is chălôwm (“dream”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “dream” (chălôwm) shape what this verse is saying?
Genesis 31:13 shares this passage’s theme. How do the two illuminate each other?
“to say” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
The verb «וַיֹּ֨אמֶר» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges and Trapp's Complete Commentary read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 8 Hebrew ↔ 15 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 5 words in this verse.
“to say” occurs 2× in this single verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.