Genesis
28
- So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him
and commanded him: "Do not marry a Canaanite woman.
- Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house
of your mother's father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among
the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.
- May God Almighty bless you and make you
fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples.
- May he give you and your descendants the
blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where
you now live as an alien, the land God gave to Abraham."
- Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he
went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah,
who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.
- Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed
Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that
when he blessed him he commanded him, "Do not marry a Canaanite woman,"
- and that Jacob had obeyed his father and
mother and had gone to Paddan Aram.
- Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite
women were to his father Isaac;
- so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath,
the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition
to the wives he already had.
- Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran.
- When he reached a certain place, he stopped
for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he
put it under his head and lay down to sleep.
- He had a dream in which he saw a stairway
resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God
were ascending and descending on it.
- There above it stood the LORD, and he said:
"I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac.
I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.
- Your descendants will be like the dust of
the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north
and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your
offspring.
- I am with you and will watch over you wherever
you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until
I have done what I have promised you."
- When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought,
"Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it."
- He was afraid and said, "How awesome
is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate
of heaven."
- Early the next morning Jacob took the stone
he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top
of it.
- He called that place Bethel, though the
city used to be called Luz.
- Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If
God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and
will give me food to eat and clothes to wear
- so that I return safely to my father's house,
then the LORD will be my God
- and this stone that I have set up as a pillar
will be God's house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth."
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