And he removed—literally, caused (i.e. his tent) to be broken up (cf. Genesis 26:22—from thence—no cause for which being assigned, the hostility of his neighbors (Luther, Calvin) and the commencement of the famine (Alford, Keil) have been conjectured as the probable reasons—unto a (literally, the) mountain east of Bethel.
Here proleptically named "house of God," being called in the time of Abram Luz (Genesis 28:19). Its present name is Beitin. And pitched his tent (of. Genesis 9:21), having Bethel on the west—literally, sea-ward, the Mediterranean being the western boundary of Palestine (cf.
Genesis 28:14; Exodus 10:19; Exodus 26:22; Ezekiel 48:1, Ezekiel 48:2)—and Hai—Ai ( עַי; עַיָּא, Nehemiah 11:31; עַיָּת, Isaiah 10:28); with the article, because signifying "the heap of ruins," near which it was no doubt built; the scene of the first Israelitish defeat under Joshua (Genesis 7:2): its ruins still exist under the name of Medinet Gai—on the east (about five miles from Bethel): and there he builded an altar unto the Lord (vide supra), and called upon the name of the Lord (vide Genesis 4:26).