So Jacob rose early in the morning: So renders the common Hebrew connective, which is better expressed here in English as a time clause; for example, “When Jacob got up in the morning.” Or without a time clause it may be expressed as in Good News Translation.

Set it up for a pillar: set it up means that Jacob stood it on end, set it upright. Pillar translates a word that refers to a stone that is stood upright in a place to mark it as a sacred spot. Such pillars erected by the Canaanites were later ordered to be destroyed in Exo 23.24; 2 Kgs 10.26-27.

In translation it may be necessary to say, for example, “He took the stone he had used for a pillow and stood it on end to show this place was holy” or “He took the stone he had slept on and stood it on end to mark this as a place where God had appeared to him.” In some parts of the world, stone or concrete pillars are commonly set up as memorials to past events or to people, and the terms for “pillar” reflect this. Translations in such places often say something like “he stood it up as a memorial of what had happened.”

And poured oil on the top of it: the pouring of oil was to ritually consecrate the stone as set apart for God from other stones. It may be necessary to state that the oil is “olive oil.” On the top means that Jacob poured the oil on the upper end of the stone. In some cases it will be necessary to make clear the purpose of Jacob’s symbolic act. Note that Good News Translation does this with “dedicate it to God.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .