The Hebrew Bible says Jacob dreamed of a ladder "set up on the earth, and the top of it reached toward heaven" (Genesis 28:12). Targum Onkelos says the ladder was "planted in the earth"—a subtle but meaningful change. A ladder that is "set up" can be moved. A ladder that is "planted" is permanent, rooted, organic. The connection between heaven and earth is not temporary scaffolding. It is a living structure.
When Jacob wakes and declares, "God is in this place, and I did not know it" (Genesis 28:16), Onkelos renders it: "The Glory of God dwells in this place, and I would not have known it." Two adjustments. First, it is God's Glory, not God Himself, that inhabits a physical location. Second, Onkelos shifts from "did not know" to "would not have known"—implying that without the dream, this knowledge would have been inaccessible. The ladder was a revelation, not a confirmation of something Jacob already suspected.
Jacob's famous exclamation—"This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven" (Genesis 28:17)—receives Onkelos's longest interpretive addition in this chapter: "This is not a regular place, but a place where it is the will of God to receive prayers, and this is the gate opposite heaven." The site is not inherently sacred. It is sacred because God wills it to be a place of prayer. Holiness, for Onkelos, is not a property of geography. It is a function of divine intention.
When Jacob makes his vow—"If God will be with me" (Genesis 28:20)—Onkelos writes: "If the Word of God will be my support." Jacob's conditional faith is expressed not as a demand for companionship but as a request for the sustaining power of the divine Word.