Jacob's Pillow-Pillar Stone

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Jacob's Pillow-Pillar Stone refers to an episode in the Book of Genesis 28:10-18 [1] when the Hebrew patriarch Jacob was running from home after getting the blessing of the first born from his father Isaac (and which his brother Esau also wanted), he came to a place where he rested his head on a stone and then consecrated it after God appeared to him in a dream.

The text of Genesis describes the event as follows:

Jacob left Beer-sheba and headed toward Charan. He came to a familiar place and spent the night there because the sun had already set. Taking some stones, he placed them at his head and lay down to sleep there. He had a vision in a dream. A ladder was standing on the ground, and its top reached up toward heaven. God's angels were going up and down on it. Suddenly he saw God standing over him. [God] said, "I am God, Lord of Abraham your father, and Lord of Isaac. I will give to you and your descendants the land upon which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth. You shall spread out to the west, to the east, to the north, and to the south. All the families on earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. I am with you. I will protect you wherever you go and bring you back to this soil. I will not turn aside from you until I have fully kept this promise to you." Jacob awoke from his sleep. "God is truly in this place," he said, "but I did not know it." He was frightened. "How awe-inspiring this place is!" he exclaimed. "It must be God's temple. It is the gate to heaven!" Jacob got up early in the morning and took the stone that he had placed under his head. He stood it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He named the place God's Temple (Beth El). The town's original name, however, had been Luz. Jacob made a vow. "If God will be with me," he said, "if He will protect me on the journey that I am taking, if He gives me bread to eat and clothing to wear, and if I return in peace to my father's house, then I will dedicate myself totally to God. Let this stone that I have set up as a pillar become a temple to God. Of all that You give me, I will set aside a tenth to You." (Genesis 28: 10-22) [2]

[edit] Other traditions

Scottish tradition holds the Stone of Scone to be Jacob's stone.