Reading Jacob's Ladder as Israel's Exiles and the Furnace of Babylon

Another interpretation: the angels who accompany a person within the land of Israel do not accompany him outside the land. "Ascending" - these are the ones who accompanied him in the land of Israel; "descending" - these are the ones who accompanied him outside the land. Rabbi Levi in the name of Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman: because the ministering angels revealed the secret of the Holy One, blessed be He, they were banished from their precinct for one hundred and thirty-eight years. Rabbi Tanchuma would utter the saying [aloud]: because they exalted themselves and said, "for we are about to destroy this place" (Genesis 19:13). Where did they return? Here - "ascending" and afterward "descending." Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi interpreted the passage concerning the exiles. "And Jacob went out" - "and there went out from the daughter of Zion all her splendor" (Lamentations 1:6). "From Beer-sheba" - "the LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob" (Amos 8:7). "And he went toward Haran" - "which the LORD afflicted in the day of His fierce anger [charon]" (Lamentations 1:12). "And he came upon the place" - "until there was no room" (Isaiah 5:8). "And he lay there because the sun had set" - "she who bore seven languishes, her sun has set" (Jeremiah 15:9). "And he took of the stones of the place" - "the holy stones are poured out" (Lamentations 4:1). "And he put them at his head" - "for your headdress has come down" (Jeremiah 13:18). "And he lay down in that place" - "let us lie down in our shame and let our disgrace cover us, for against the LORD our God [we have sinned]" (Jeremiah 3:25). "And he dreamed" - this is the dream of Nebuchadnezzar. "And behold a ladder" - this is the image of Nebuchadnezzar; the ladder [sulam] is the idol [semel], the letters of the one being the letters of the other. "Set upon the earth" - "he set it up in the plain of Dura" (Daniel 3:1). "And its top reached toward heaven" - "its height sixty cubits" (Daniel 3:1). "And behold, angels of God" - this is Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. "Ascending and descending on it" - they brought him down, leaping upon him, springing upon him, reviling him: "and to the golden image that you have set up they do not bow" (Daniel 3:14). "And behold, the LORD stood over it" - "servants of the Most High God, come out and come here" (Daniel 3:26).