Genesis 28:17

וַיִּירָא וַיֹּאמַר מַה־נּוֹרָא הַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה אֵין זֶה כִּי אִם־בֵּית אֱלֹהִים וְזֶה שַׁעַר הַשָּׁמָֽיִם׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַיִּירָא֙ וַיֹּאמַ֔ר מַה־נּוֹרָ֖א הַמָּק֣וֹם הַזֶּ֑ה אֵ֣ין זֶ֗ה כִּ֚י אִם־בֵּ֣ית אֱלֹהִ֔ים וְזֶ֖ה שַׁ֥עַר הַשָּׁמָֽיִם׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ ἐφοβήθη, καὶ εἶπεν Ὡς φοβερὸς ὁ τόπος οὗτος· οὐκ ἔστιν τοῦτο ἁλλ’ ἢ οἶκος θεοῦ, καὶ αὕτη ἡ πύλη τοῦ οὐρανοῦ.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Pavensque, Quam terribilis est, inquit, locus iste! non est hic aliud nisi domus Dei, et porta cæli.

Spanish

Lleno de temor, exclamó: “¡Qué impresionante es este lugar! No es otra cosa que la casa de Dios y la puerta del cielo”.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y tuvo miedo, y dijo: ¡ Cuán terrible es este lugar! No es otra cosa que casa de Dios, y puerta del cielo.

English

And he was afraid and said, “ How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven!” The Stone of Bethel

✦ What the text says

Summary

Genesis 28:17 narrates Jacob's reaction after waking from his dream: he becomes afraid and declares the place awesome, identifying it as the "house of God" and "gate of heaven." The verse is structured as two sequential narrative actions (fear, then speech) followed by Jacob's direct exclamation.

Key words

yi.yi.Ra' ("he was afraid", H3372H) — qal narrative verb, third person masculine, continuing the story sequence with "and then he was afraid."
no.Ra' ("awesome", H3372H) — niphal participle, masculine singular; the passive/reflexive stem conveys a quality inherent to the place ("the one causing fear/awe"), sharing the same root as yi.yi.Ra'.
ma.Kom ("place", H4725) — masculine singular noun with definite article ha (H9009) and demonstrative zeh (H2088), forming "this place."
beit ("house of", H1004B) — construct form (masculine singular), linking directly to 'E.lo.Him ("God", H0430G) to form the construct phrase "house of God."
sha.'ar ("gate of", H8179G) — construct form (masculine singular), linking to ha.sha.Ma.yim ("the heavens", H8064) to form "gate of the heavens."

What the text says

The verse opens with two narrative verbs joined by the narrative vav (H9001): yi.yi.Ra' ("he was afraid") and yi.yo.Mar ("he said"), both qal forms marking sequential action — first Jacob's emotional response, then his speech. The exclamation itself begins with the interrogative mah ("how!", H4100) followed by the niphal participle no.Ra' ("awesome"), which shares its root with the verb "to be afraid" used moments earlier — the text thus links Jacob's fear directly to the quality he attributes to the place.

The second half of the verse uses a construction with 'ein... ki 'im (H0369, H3588B, H0518B), an idiomatic negation-exception pattern rendered as "there is not... except," which introduces the identification of the place as beit 'Elohim ("house of God"). This phrase uses the construct form beit ("house of," H1004B) directly bound to 'Elohim ("God," H0430G) — note that 'Elohim is grammatically plural in form though referring to a singular divine referent, consistent with its standard usage. The final clause repeats the demonstrative zeh ("this," H2088) and uses another construct phrase, sha'ar ha-shamayim ("gate of the heavens," H8179G + H8064), paralleling the "house of God" phrase in structure.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders the 'ein... ki 'im construction as "non est hic aliud nisi" ("there is nothing else here except"), while the LXX uses "οὐκ ἔστιν τοῦτο ἁλλ' ἢ" ("this is not other than"). Both convey the same exceptive sense as the Hebrew idiom but with different syntactic emphasis — the Vulgate stresses "nothing else here," while the LXX and Hebrew focus on "this" (the place) not being other than the house of God.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.