Genesis chapter 28, verses 11 – 15
Initially Rembrandt pictured the sleeping king at the foot of the ladder. He was probably made aware (by Menasseh himself?) that the middle of the ladder symbolizes Jerusalem as the centre of the earth and that Jacob should be positioned there. To solve this, the artist simply added a lower part to the ladder, which makes Jacob look like a floating person. Jacob was resting his head on the miraculous stone.

More than ten years earlier, Rembrandt made a drawing of Jacob dreaming, now in the Louvre.

New Hollstein lists two states before the plate was cut and two thereafter. Most other authors do not see new states after the plate was cut.
In the 1st state (NH, WB, R124, NU) only the upper part of the ladder is visible.
In the 2nd state (NH, WB, NU) the lower part of the ladder is added.
In the 3rd state (NH, WB, R126, NU) the plate is cut, the rungs of the lower part of the ladder have been burnished in.
In the 4th state (NH) the plate is reworked in drypoint. There is burr visible in many places.

Many impressions of the 1st and 2nd state are on Japanese paper or vellum.
There is a maculature of the 1st state in the Rijksmuseum.
Of the 4th state only one impression is known (in Moscow).

In the 2nd and 3rd state: Fleur-de-lis (1655).

Spijkerboer 2006, p. 58;

New Hollstein: 1st state of IV/White-Boon: 1st state of III
The lower part of the ladder missing, confirming a 1^st state (NH, WB).
Sheet 102/103  74/75 mm. Trimmed just outside the border all around, cutting off the signature and date.