Genesis 28

1 Now Isaac called Jacob, blessed him, and commanded him, “Don’t take a wife from the Canaanite women. 2 Get up, go to Paddan Aram, to the house of Betuel your mother’s father. And take a wife from there from the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. 3 May God Almighty bless you, and make you reproduce, and make you become many, that you may become an assembly of peoples. 4 And may He give you the blessing of Abraham—to you and to your offspring with you--that you may inherit the land of your travels which God gave to Abraham.”

5 And Isaac sent Jacob away. And he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban the son of Betuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

6 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan Aram, to take a wife for himself from there. As he blessed him he had given him a command, saying, “Don’t take a wife from the Canaanite women,” 7 and Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother, and had gone to Paddan Aram. 8 And Esau saw that the Canaanite women didn’t please his father Isaac. 9 So Esau went to Ishmael, and took Maḥalat the daughter of Ishmael the son of Abraham, who was the sister of Nevayot, to be his wife in addition to the wives that he had.

10 Now Jacob went out from Be’er-Sheva, and went toward Ḥarran. 11 And he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of the place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. 12 And he dreamed—and look!—a stairway set up on the earth, and its top touched the sky. And look! The angels of God were going up and coming down on it. 13 And look! Yehovah stood next to him and said, “I am Yehovah, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. I will give the land that you lie on to you and to your offspring. 14 And your offspring will be as the dust of the earth, and you will spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. In you and in your offspring all the families of the earth will be blessed. 15 And look, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this ground, because I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”

16 And Jacob woke up from his sleep and said, “Surely Yehovah is in this place, and I didn’t know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome* this place is! This is none other than God’s house, and this is the gate of heaven.”

18 And Jacob got up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, and set it up to be a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. 19 And he called the name of that place Bethel (which means God’s-House), but the name of the city was Luz previously. 20 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, “If God is going to be with me, and is going to watch over me in this way that I go, and is going to give me food to eat, and clothing to wear, 21 and I am going to come back in peace to my father’s house, then Yehovah is going to be my God, 22 and this stone which I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house. And everything that You give me, I will give a tenth of it. I will give a tenth to You.”


Next: Chapter 29

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