Open Earth
Genesis places these altars at different stops in the patriarchs’ travels: near Shechem and Bethel, by Mamre, and at Beersheba. The open earth and footpath provide an outdoor setting for study; they are not a surveyed plan of one of those sites.
Key points
- Calling on God accompanies the family’s movement through the land.
- Look for: Bare earth, scattered rocks, and a path leading toward the altar.
- Illustrated location: Landscape
- An educational illustration, not an exact historical reconstruction. Genesis records the patriarchs building altars but does not specify their dimensions, masonry, or full appearance. The low rough fieldstones, ash, tent fabric, and arrangement are illustrative choices. Wood on an altar is explicit in Genesis 22:9. The later earth and unhewn-stone altar instructions in Exodus 20:24–25 offer a comparison, not a direct blueprint for Abraham or Jacob. The tent, oak, and separate Jacob pillar bring together different passages for study; they do not establish that all these features stood together at one historical site.
Scripture
- Genesis 12:6–8 — Genesis places these altars at different stops in the patriarchs’ travels: near Shechem and Bethel, by Mamre, and at Beersheba. The open earth and footpath provide an outdoor setting for study; they are not a surveyed plan of one of those sites.
- Genesis 13:3–4, 18 — Genesis places these altars at different stops in the patriarchs’ travels: near Shechem and Bethel, by Mamre, and at Beersheba. The open earth and footpath provide an outdoor setting for study; they are not a surveyed plan of one of those sites.
- Genesis 26:23–25 — Genesis places these altars at different stops in the patriarchs’ travels: near Shechem and Bethel, by Mamre, and at Beersheba. The open earth and footpath provide an outdoor setting for study; they are not a surveyed plan of one of those sites.
- Genesis 33:18–20 — Genesis places these altars at different stops in the patriarchs’ travels: near Shechem and Bethel, by Mamre, and at Beersheba. The open earth and footpath provide an outdoor setting for study; they are not a surveyed plan of one of those sites.