Genesis 28

28Then 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. ^2cArise, 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;

⁴And 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.”

⁵So 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.

Esau Marries Mahalath

⁶Esau 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,” ⁷and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Padan Aram. ⁸Also Esau saw ^kthat the daughters of Canaan did not please his father Isaac. ⁹So 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.

Jacob’s Vow at Bethel

¹⁰Now Jacob ^owent out from Beersheba and went toward ^pHaran. ¹¹So 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. ¹²Then 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.

^13sAnd 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. ¹⁴Also 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. ¹⁵Behold, ^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.”

¹⁶Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in ^dthis place, and I did not know it.” ¹⁷And 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!”

¹⁸Then 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. ¹⁹And he called the name of ^gthat place ⁴Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously. ^20hThen 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, ²¹so that ^kI come back to my father’s house in peace, ^lthen the Lord shall be my God. ²²And 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.”