O God of Bethel, by whose hand

O God of Bethel, by whose hand. Philip Doddridge* (1702-1751). First published in the Church of Scotland’s Translations and Paraphrases of Several Passages of Sacred Scripture (1745), and then as No. 4 in Hymns founded on Various Texts in the Holy Scriptures (1755), edited by Job Orton, where it began ‘O God of Jacob, by whose Hand/ Thine Israel still is fed’. It was entitled ‘Jacob’s Vow: from Genesis 28: 20-22’. The alternative opening phrase, ‘O God of Bethel’ was written by Doddridge in the margin of the manuscript, dated 16 January 1736/7, and this has generally been preferred to Orton’s published text. It had five stanzas, and in its original form, the hymn expressed Doddridge’s...