Genesis 28

Chapter 28

Jacob Is Sent Away

¹So Isaac called Jacob and ^ablessed him and charged him, and said to him, “^bYou shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.

²“Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of ^aBethuel your mother’s father; and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother.

³“May ^1aGod Almighty ^bbless you and ^cmake you fruitful and ^dmultiply you, that you may become a ^ecompany of peoples.

⁴“May He also give you the ^ablessing of Abraham, to you and to your ¹descendants with you, that you may ^bpossess the land of your ^csojournings, which God gave to Abraham.”

⁵Then ^aIsaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

⁶Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take to himself a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he charged him, saying, “^aYou shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,”

⁷and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan-aram.

⁸So Esau saw that ^athe daughters of Canaan displeased ¹his father Isaac;

⁹and Esau went to Ishmael, and ¹married, ^abesides the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth.

Jacob’s Dream

¹⁰Then Jacob departed from ^aBeersheba and went toward ^bHaran.

¹¹He ¹came to ²a ^acertain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it ³under his head, and lay down in that place.

^12aHe had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, ^bthe angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

¹³And behold, ^athe Lord stood ¹above it and said, “I am the Lord, ^bthe God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it ^cto you and to ^dyour ²descendants.

¹⁴“Your ¹descendants will also be like ^athe dust of the earth, and you will ²spread out ^bto the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and ^cin you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

¹⁵“Behold, ^aI am with you and ^bwill keep you wherever you go, and ^cwill bring you back to this land; for ^dI will not leave you until I have done what I have ¹promised you.”

¹⁶Then Jacob ^aawoke from his sleep and said, “^bSurely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”

¹⁷He was afraid and said, “^aHow awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

¹⁸So Jacob rose early in the morning, and took ^athe stone that he had put ¹under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top.

¹⁹He called the name of that place ^1aBethel; however, ²previously the name of the city had been ^bLuz.

²⁰Then Jacob ^amade a vow, saying, “^bIf God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I ¹take, and will give me ^2cfood to eat and garments to wear,

²¹and ^aI return to my father’s house in ¹safety, ^bthen the Lord will be my God.

²²“This stone, which I have set up as a pillar, ^awill be God’s house, and ^bof all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”