Genesis 28:1-22

28  And Isaac called Jacob and gave him a parting blessing and commands, and said to him “You are not to marry one of the Canaanite girls; 2  be off to Paddan-Aram, the home of your mother’s father Bethuel, and marry a wife from there, a daughter of your mother’s brother Laban. 3  And may El Shaddai bless you and make you prolific and multiply you, and may you become an assembly of peoples; 4  and may he give you Abraham’s blessing, you and your descendants with you, to possess the country in which your immigrant life has been spent, which God gave to Abraham.” 5  And Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-Aram, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Syrian, brother to Rebekah the mother of Jacob and ʽEsau. 6  And ʽEsau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-Aram to marry a wife from there, when he blessed him and gave him the command “Do not marry one of the Canaanite girls,” 7  and Jacob listened to his father and mother and went to Paddan-Aram; 8  and ʽEsau saw that his father Isaac did not like the Canaanite girls, 9  and ʽEsau went to Ishmaʽel and married Mahalath the daughter of Ishmaʽel the son of Abraham, the sister of Nebajoth, besides the wives he had. 10  And Jacob went out from Beer-Shebaʽ and went toward Harran. 11  And he happened upon a place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and laid it for his pillow, and lay down to sleep in that place. 12  And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, and its top touched the sky, and that angels were going up and down on it; 13  and that Jehovah stood over him and said “I am Jehovah, the God of your father Abraham and of Isaac; the land you are lying on I will give to you and your descendants, 14  and your descendants shall be like the dust on the ground, and you shall spread west and east and north and south; and all the clans of the world shall bless by you and by your descendants. 15  And I am with you and will guard you wherever you go and bring you back to this soil; for I will never quit you till I have done what I promised you to.” 16  And Jacob awoke from his sleep and said “Why, Jehovah is in this place and I did not know it”; 17  and he was afraid and said “How terrible this place is! this is nothing else than God’s house, and this is the gate to the skies.” 18  And the first thing in the morning Jacob took the stone he had laid for his pillow and set it for an obelisk and poured oil on the top of it 19 * and named that place Bethel (but the name of the city was Luz originally); 20  and Jacob made a vow, “If God shall be with me and guard me on this journey I am going on and give me food to eat and clothing to wear, 21  and I come safe back home, then I will have Jehovah for my God, 22  and this stone I have set for an obelisk shall be God’s house, and everything you give me I will tithe to you.”

Footnotes

28:19 Bethel means House of Deity