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 calleth unto Jacob, and blesseth him, and commandeth him, and saith to him, ‘Thou dost not take a wife of the daughters of Caanan;
2rise, go to Padan-Aram, to the house of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and take for thyself from thence a wife, of the daughters of Laban, thy mother's brother;
3and God Almighty doth bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and thou hast become an assembly of peoples;
4and He doth give to thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee and to thy seed with thee, to cause thee to possess the land of thy sojournings, which God gave to Abraham.’
5And Isaac sendeth away Jacob, and he goeth to Padan-Aram, unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramaean, brother of Rebekah, mother of Jacob and Esau.
6And Esau seeth that Isaac hath blessed Jacob, and hath sent him to Padan-Aram to take to himself from thence a wife — in his blessing him that he layeth a charge upon him, saying, Thou dost not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan —
7that Jacob hearkeneth unto his father and unto his mother, and goeth to Padan-Aram —
8and Esau seeth that the daughters of Canaan are evil in the eyes of Isaac his father,
9and Esau goeth unto Ishmael, and taketh Mahalath, daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, sister of Nebajoth, unto his wives, to himself, for a wife.
10And Jacob goeth out from Beer-Sheba, and goeth toward Haran,
11and he toucheth at a [certain] place, and lodgeth there, for the sun hath gone in, and he taketh of the stones of the place, and maketh [them] his pillows, and lieth down in that place.
12And he dreameth, and lo, a ladder set up on the earth, and its head is touching the heavens; and lo, messengers of God are going up and coming down by it;
13and lo, Jehovah is standing upon it, and He saith, ‘I [am] Jehovah, God of Abraham thy father, and God of Isaac; the land on which thou art lying, to thee I give it, and to thy seed;
14and thy seed hath been as the dust of the land, and thou hast broken forth westward, and eastward, and northward, and southward, and all families of the ground have been blessed in thee and in thy seed.
15‘And lo, I [am] with thee, and have kept thee whithersoever thou goest, and have caused thee to turn back unto this ground; for I leave thee not till that I have surely done that which I have spoken to thee.’
16And Jacob awaketh out of his sleep, and saith, ‘Surely Jehovah is in this place, and I knew not;’
17and he feareth, and saith, ‘How fearful [is] this place; this is nothing but a house of God, and this a gate of the heavens.’
18And Jacob riseth early in the morning, and taketh the stone which he hath made his pillows, and maketh it a standing pillar, and poureth oil upon its top,
19and he calleth the name of that place Bethel, [house of God,] and yet, Luz [is] the name of the city at the first.
20And Jacob voweth a vow, saying, ‘Seeing God is with me, and hath kept me in this way which I am going, and hath given to me bread to eat, and a garment to put on —
21when I have turned back in peace unto the house of my father, and Jehovah hath become my God,
22then this stone which I have made a standing pillar is a house of God, and all that Thou dost give to me — tithing I tithe to Thee.’
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