B'resheet (Gen) 28

1So Yitz’chak called Ya‘akov, and, after blessing him, charged him: “You are not to choose a wife from the Hitti women. 2Go now to the home of B’tu’el your mother’s father, and choose a wife there from the daughters of Lavan your mother’s brother. 3May El Shaddai bless you, make you fruitful and increase your descendants, until they become a whole assembly of peoples. 4And may he give you the blessing which he gave Avraham, you and your descendants with you, so that you will possess the land you will travel through, the land God gave to Avraham.”

(vii) 5So Yitz’chak sent Ya‘akov away; and he went to Paddan-Aram, to Lavan, son of B’tu’el the Arami, the brother of Rivkah Ya‘akov’s and ‘Esav’s mother. 6Now ‘Esav saw that Yitz’chak had blessed Ya‘akov and sent him away to Paddan-Aram to choose a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he charged him, “You are not to choose a Kena‘ani woman as your wife,” (Maftir) 7and that Ya‘akov had listened to his father and mother and gone to Paddan-Aram. 8‘Esav also saw that the Kena‘ani women did not please Yitz’chak his father. 9So ‘Esav went to Yishma‘el and took, in addition to the wives he already had, Machalat the daughter of Yishma‘el Avraham’s son, the sister of N’vayot, to be his wife.

Haftarah Tol’dot: Mal’akhi (Malachi) 1:1–2:7

B’rit Hadashah suggested readings for Parashah Tol’dot: Romans 9:6–16; Messianic Jews (Hebrews) 11:20; 12:14–17

Parashah 7: Vayetze (He went out) 28:10 –32:3(2)

10Ya‘akov went out from Be’er-Sheva and traveled toward Haran. 11He came to a certain place and stayed the night there, because the sun had set. He took a stone from the place, put it under his head and lay down there to sleep. 12He dreamt that there before him was a ladder resting on the ground with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of Adonai were going up and down on it. 13Then suddenly Adonai was standing there next to him; and he said, “I am Adonai, the God of Avraham your [grand]father and the God of Yitz’chak. The land on which you are lying I will give to you and to your descendants. 14Your descendants will be as numerous as the grains of dust on the earth. You will expand to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. By you and your descendants all the families of the earth will be blessed. 15Look, I am with you. I will guard you wherever you go, and I will bring you back into this land, because I won’t leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

16Ya‘akov awoke from his sleep and said, “Truly, Adonai is in this place — and I didn’t know it!” 17Then he became afraid and said, “This place is fearsome! This has to be the house of God! This is the gate of heaven!” 18Ya‘akov got up early in the morning, took the stone he had put under his head, set it up as a standing-stone, poured olive oil on its top 19and named the place Beit-El [house of God]; but the town had originally been called Luz.

20Ya‘akov took this vow: “If God will be with me and will guard me on this road that I am traveling, giving me bread to eat and clothes to wear, 21so that I return to my father’s house in peace, then Adonai will be my God; 22and this stone, which I have set up as a standing-stone, will be God’s house; and of everything you give me, I will faithfully return one-tenth to you.”

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B'resheet (Gen) 28: CJB

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Genesis 28

Jacob left home

1Isaac sent somebody to get Jacob, and Jacob came to Isaac’s room. Then Isaac talked strongly to Jacob. Isaac said, “My son, don’t marry any women that live here in Canaan country. 2I want you to marry somebody from our family. So leave this place straight away, and go to Paddan Aram country. Your mother’s father Bethuel, he lives in that place. And your mother’s brother Laban, he lives there too. I want you to pick one of Laban’s daughters and marry her.”

3Then Isaac said, “God has power over everything. So I’m asking God to be good to you. I’m asking him to give you lots of kids and grand-kids, so that your family will grow into lots of different tribes. 4And I’m asking him to give all this country to you and the people that will be born into your family later on. Right now, this country doesn’t belong to you. You are just camping here. But one day, your family will take this country for themselves, just like God promised to your grand-father Abraham.”#Genesis 17:4-8

5Then Isaac sent Jacob away, and Jacob left to go to his uncle Laban in Paddan Aram country. Laban was the brother of Rebekah, she was Jacob and Esau’s mother. Laban and Rebekah’s father was Bethuel, and he was from the Aram tribe.

Esau married another woman

6Esau found out that Isaac asked God to be good to Jacob, and that Isaac said to Jacob, “Don’t marry any of the women that live here in Canaan country.” And he found out that Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan Aram country, to find a wife there. 7And Esau knew that Jacob left to go to Paddan Aram country, just like his father and mother told Jacob to. 8Then Esau knew that his father Isaac didn’t like the women from Canaan country. 9Esau already had 2 wives, and they were both from Canaan country. So he thought, “I have to marry a woman from our own family, so that my father will be happy with me again.”

So Esau went to the place where his uncle Ishmael lived. Ishmael was Abraham’s son. And Esau married Ishmael’s daughter Mahalath. Her oldest brother was called Nebayoth.

Then Esau had 3 wives.

Jacob saw God in a dream

10This is the story about what happened to Jacob next, after his father Isaac sent him away to find a wife.

Jacob left his home in Beersheba, and he started to go towards the town called Haran, in Paddan Aram country. 11He kept on walking until the sun started to go down. Then he stopped for the night. There were lots of stones in that place, and Jacob got one of those stones, and he put it on the ground at his head. Then he lay down and went to sleep.

12While Jacob was asleep, he had a dream. In that dream, he saw lots of steps going up from the earth, and those steps went all the way up into the sky. And Jacob saw lots of God’s angel messengers on those steps. Some of those angel messengers were going up the steps towards the sky, and some of them were going down the steps towards the earth.#John 1:51 13Then Jacob saw God standing near him. And God talked to Jacob. He said, “I am God, my name is Yahweh. I am the one that looked after your grand-father Abraham and your father Isaac. I’m making you a promise about this country where you are sleeping right now. I will give all this country to you and to the people that will be born into your family later on.#Genesis 13:14-15 14Lots of people will be born into your family, and they will become a really big mob of people. There will be lots and lots of them, just like there are lots of little bits of dirt on the ground. And those people in your family, they will spread out a long way, and they will live in lots of different places. Some of them will go west, some of them will go east, some of them will go north, and some of them will go south. And I will use your family to do good things for all the families in the world.#Genesis 12:3; 22:18 15You can be sure that I will be with you wherever you go. I will look after you and I will keep you safe. Right now, you are going to another country. But one day, I will bring you back to this country again. Yes, I will stay with you, and I will keep all these promises that I’m making to you.”

16Then Jacob woke up, and he said, “Now I know that God is in this place. I didn’t know that before, but now I do.” 17So Jacob got frightened. He said, “This place frightens me. I know for sure that God lives here. This place joins up with heaven.”

18Early the next morning, Jacob picked up the stone that was at his head, and he stood it up and poured olive oil on top of it. Jacob did those things to show that God was in that place, and that place was special. 19And Jacob named that place Bethel. That name means God’s house. At that time, the town nearby was called Luz. But later, people called that town Bethel.

20-22Jacob prayed to God. He said, “God, you know that I’m walking a long way to Haran. Please stay with me and look after me while I’m away. Please give me food to eat and clothes to wear. And please keep me safe, so that one day I can go back home to my family.”

Then Jacob made promises to God. He said, “God, if you will do all those things that I asked, then I will respect you properly, and you Yahweh will be my God. And this special stone that I put here, it will show people that you are here in this place, and people can come here to show you respect. And I promise that whenever you give me good things, I will always split them up into 10 parts and give one part back to you.”

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