Genesis 28

¹ Isaac summoned Jacob and blessed him; and he gave him this order: ‘You are not to choose a wife from the Canaanite women.

² Away now to Paddan-aram, the home of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and there choose a wife for yourself among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.

³ May El Shaddai bless you; may he make you fruitful and make you multiply so that you become a group of nations.’

⁴ May he grant you the blessing of Abraham, and your descendants after you, so that you may take possession of the land in which you live now, which God gave to Abraham.’

⁵ Isaac sent Jacob away, and Jacob went to Paddan-aram, to Laban the son of Bethuel, the Aramaean, and brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

⁶ Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to choose a wife there, and that in blessing him he had given him this order: ‘You are not to choose a wife from the Canaanite women’,

⁷ and that in obedience to his father and mother Jacob had gone to Paddan-aram.

⁸ Esau saw from this that the women of Canaan were not held in favour by his father Isaac,

⁹ so he went to Ishmael and chose for wife, in addition to the wives he had, Mahalath, daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.

¹⁰ Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran.

¹¹ When he had reached a certain place he passed the night there, since the sun had set. Taking one of the stones to be found at that place, he made it his pillow and lay down where he was.

¹² He had a dream: a ladder was there, standing on the, ground with its top reaching to heaven; and there were angels of God going up it and coming down.

¹³ And Yahweh was there, standing over him, saying, ‘I am Yahweh, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. I will give to you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.

¹⁴ Your descendants shall be like the specks of dust on the ground; you shall spread to the west and the east, to the north and the south, and all the tribes of the earth shall bless themselves by you and your descendants.

¹⁵ Be sure that I am with you; I will keep you safe wherever you go, and bring you back to this land, for I will not desert you before I have done all that I have promised you.’

¹⁶ Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Truly, Yahweh is in this place and I never knew it!’

¹⁷ He was afraid and said, ‘How awe-inspiring this place is! This is nothing less than a house of God; this is the gate of heaven!’

¹⁸ Rising early in the morning, Jacob took the stone he had used for his pillow, and set it up as a monument, pouring oil over the top of it.

¹⁹ He named the place Bethel,[*a] but before that the town was called Luz.

²⁰ Jacob made this vow, ‘If God goes with me and keeps me safe on this journey I am making, if he gives me bread to eat and clothes to wear,

²¹ and if I return home safely to my father, then Yahweh shall be my God.

²² This stone I have set up as monument shall be a house of God, and I will surely pay you a tenth part of all you give me.’