Genesis 15:1–21
15 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram ain a vision, saying, b“Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your cshield, 1your exceedingly dgreat reward.”
2 eBut Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, fseeing I 2go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed gone 3born in my house is my heir!”
4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who hwill come from your own body shall be your heir.” 5 Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and icount the jstars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, k“So shall your ldescendants be.”
6 And he mbelieved in the Lord, and He naccounted it to him for righteousness.
7 Then He said to him, “I am the Lord, who obrought you out of pUr of the Chaldeans, qto give you this land to inherit it.”
8 And he said, “Lord God, rhow shall I know that I will inherit it?”
9 So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 Then he brought all these to Him and scut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut tthe birds in two. 11 And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12 Now when the sun was going down, ua deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly vthat your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and wthey will afflict them four hundred years. 14 And also the nation whom they serve xI will judge; afterward ythey shall come out with great possessions. 15 Now as for you, zyou shall 4go ato your fathers in peace; byou shall be buried at a good old age. 16 But cin the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity dof the Amorites eis not yet complete.”
17 And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that fpassed between those pieces. 18 On the same day the Lord gmade a covenant with Abram, saying:
h“To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—19 the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
Genesis 28:1–29:35
28 Then Isaac called Jacob and ablessed him, and 1charged him, and said to him: b“You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. 2 cArise, go to dPadan Aram, to the house of eBethuel your mother’s father; and take yourself a wife from there of the daughters of fLaban your mother’s brother.
3 “May gGod Almighty bless you,
And make you hfruitful and multiply you,
That you may be an assembly of peoples;
4 And give you ithe blessing of Abraham,
To you and your descendants with you,
That you may inherit the land
jIn 2which you are a stranger,
Which God gave to Abraham.”
5 So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Padan Aram, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.
6 Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan Aram to take himself a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,” 7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Padan Aram. 8 Also Esau saw kthat the daughters of Canaan did not please his father Isaac. 9 So Esau went to Ishmael and ltook mMahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, nthe sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.
10 Now Jacob owent out from Beersheba and went toward pHaran. 11 So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. 12 Then he qdreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there rthe angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
13 sAnd behold, the Lord stood above it and said: t“I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; uthe land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. 14 Also your vdescendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad wto the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and xin your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 15 Behold, yI am with you and will zkeep 3you wherever you go, and will abring you back to this land; for bI will not leave you cuntil I have done what I have spoken to you.”
16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in dthis place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”
18 Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, eset it up as a pillar, fand poured oil on top of it. 19 And he called the name of gthat place 4Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously. 20 hThen Jacob made a vow, saying, “If iGod will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me jbread to eat and clothing to put on, 21 so that kI come back to my father’s house in peace, lthen the Lord shall be my God. 22 And this stone which I have set as a pillar mshall be God’s house, nand of all that You give me I will surely give a 5tenth to You.”
29 So Jacob went on his journey aand came to the land of the people of the East. 2 And he looked, and saw a bwell in the field; and behold, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it; for out of that well they watered the flocks. A large stone was on the well’s mouth. 3 Now all the flocks would be gathered there; and they would roll the stone from the well’s mouth, water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place on the well’s mouth.
4 And Jacob said to them, “My brethren, where are you from?”
And they said, “We are from cHaran.”
5 Then he said to them, “Do you know dLaban the son of Nahor?”
And they said, “We know him.”
6 So he said to them, e“Is he well?”
And they said, “He is well. And look, his daughter Rachel fis coming with the sheep.”
7 Then he said, “Look, it is still 1high day; it is not time for the cattle to be gathered together. Water the sheep, and go and feed them.”
8 But they said, “We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together, and they have rolled the stone from the well’s mouth; then we water the sheep.”
9 Now while he was still speaking with them, gRachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. 10 And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, that Jacob went near and hrolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. 11 Then Jacob ikissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept. 12 And Jacob told Rachel that he was jher father’s relative and that he was Rebekah’s son. kSo she ran and told her father.
13 Then it came to pass, when Laban heard the report about Jacob his sister’s son, that lhe ran to meet him, and embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house. So he told Laban all these things. 14 And Laban said to him, m“…