Genesis 28
28
1Isaac called Jacob and blessed him. Then Isaac gave him a command and said, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman. 2So leave this place and go to Paddan Aram. Go to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father. Laban, your mother’s brother, lives there. Marry one of his daughters. 3I pray that God All-Powerful#28:3 God All-Powerful Literally, “El Shaddai.” will bless you and give you many children. I pray that you will become the father of a great nation 4and that God will bless you and your children the same way he blessed Abraham. And I pray that you will own the land where you live. This is the land God gave to Abraham.”
5So Isaac sent Jacob to Rebekah’s brother in Paddan Aram. Jacob went to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean. Laban was the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.
6Esau learned that his father Isaac blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan Aram to find a wife there. He also learned that Isaac commanded Jacob not to marry a Canaanite woman. 7Esau learned that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother and went to Paddan Aram. 8Esau saw from this that his father did not want his sons to marry Canaanite women. 9Esau already had two wives, but he went to Abraham’s son Ishmael and married another woman, Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael. Mahalath was Nebaioth’s sister.
Jacob’s Dream at Bethel
10Jacob left Beersheba and went to Haran. 11The sun had already set when he came to a good place to spend the night. He took a rock there and laid his head on it to sleep. 12Jacob had a dream. He dreamed there was a ladder that was on the ground and reached up into heaven. He saw the angels of God going up and down the ladder. 13And then Jacob saw the Lord standing by the ladder. He said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham. I am the God of Isaac. I will give you the land that you are lying on now. I will give this land to you and to your children. 14You will have as many descendants as there are particles of dust on the earth. They will spread east and west, north and south. All the families on earth will be blessed because of you and your descendants.
15“I am with you, and I will protect you everywhere you go. I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised.”
16Then Jacob woke up and said, “I know that the Lord is in this place, but I did not know he was here until I slept.”
17Jacob was afraid and said, “This is a very great place. This is the house of God. This is the gate to heaven.”
18Jacob got up very early in the morning. He took the rock he had slept on and set it up on its edge. Then he poured oil on the rock. In this way he made it a memorial to God. 19The name of that place was Luz, but Jacob named it Bethel.#28:19 Bethel A town in Israel. This name means “God’s house.”
20Then Jacob made a promise. He said, “If God will be with me, and if he will protect me on this trip, and if he gives me food to eat and clothes to wear, 21and if I return in peace to my father’s house—if he does all these things—then the Lord will be my God. 22I am setting this stone up as a memorial stone. It will show that this is a holy place for God, and I will give God one-tenth of all he gives me.”
© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
Genesis 28
28
1And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, saying: Take not a wife of the stock of Chanaan:
2But go, and take a journey to Mesopotamia of Syria, to the house of Bathuel, thy mother's father: and take thee a wife thence of the daughters of Laban thy uncle.
3And God almighty bless thee, and make thee to increase, and multiply thee: that thou mayst be a multitude of people.
4And give the blessings of Abraham to thee, and to thy seed after thee: that thou mayst possess the land of thy sojournment, which he promised to thy grandfather.
5And when Isaac had sent him away, he took his journey and went to Mesopotamia of Syria to Laban the son of Bathuel the Syrian, brother to Rebecca his mother.
6And Esau, seeing that his father had blessed Jacob, and had sent him into Mesopotamia of Syria, to marry a wife thence; and that after the blessing he had charged him, saying: Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Chanaan:
7And that Jacob obeying his parents was gone into Syria:
8Experiencing also that his father was not well pleased with the daughters of Chanaan:
9He went to Ismael, and took to wife, besides them he had before, Maheleth the daughter of Ismael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nabajoth.
10But Jacob, being departed from Bersabee, went on to Haran.
11And when he was come to a certain place, and would rest in it after sunset, he took of the stones that lay there, and putting under his head, slept in the same place.
12And he saw in his sleep a ladder standing upon the earth, and the top thereof touching heaven; the angels also of God ascending and descending by it;
13And the Lord, leaning upon the ladder, saying to him: I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac. The land, wherein thou sleepest, I will give to thee and to thy seed.
14And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth: Thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: AND IN THEE AND THY SEED ALL THE TRIBES OF THE EARTH SHALL BE BLESSED.
15And I will be thy keeper whithersoever thou goest, and will bring thee back into this land: neither will I leave thee, till I shall have accomplished all that I have said.
16And when Jacob awaked out of sleep, he said: Indeed the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not.
17And trembling he said: How terrible is this place! This is no other but the house of God, and the gate of heaven.
18And Jacob, arising in the morning, took the stone, which he had laid under his head, and set it up for a title, pouring oil upon the top of it.
19And he called the name of the city Bethel, which before was called Luza.
20And he made a vow, saying: If God shall be with me, and shall keep me in the way by which I walk, and shall give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,
21And I shall return prosperously to my father's house: the Lord shall be my God:
22And this stone, which I have set up for a title, shall called the house of God: and of all things that thou shalt give to me, I will offer tithes to thee.
An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.