Genesis 28
1 Isaac called Jacob, blessed him, and commanded him, “Do not take a wife from among the daughters of Canaan.
2 Get up, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and take a wife from there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.
3 May God Almighty bless you, make you fruitful, and multiply you, so that you may become an assembly of peoples.
4 May he give you and your offspring the blessing of Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you live as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.”
5 So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.
6 Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there, and that when blessing him he had commanded him, “Do not take a wife from among the daughters of Canaan.”
7 Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Paddan-aram.
8 Esau also saw that the daughters of Canaan were displeasing to Isaac, his father.
9 So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath, daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, sister of Nebaioth, as a wife in addition to the wives he already had.
10 Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran.
11 He came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had already set. He took one of the stones from that place, put it under his head, and lay down there.
12 He dreamed: there was a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching the sky, and the angels of God were going up and down on it.
13 The LORD was standing beside him and said, “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you are lying, I will give to you and your offspring.
14 Your offspring will be like the dust of the earth; you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.
15 Look, I am with you and will protect you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land, because I will not abandon you until I have done what I promised you.”
16 Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.”
17 He was afraid and said, “How awe-inspiring this place is! This is nothing less than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
18 Jacob got up early in the morning, took the stone he had put under his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on its top.
19 He named that place Bethel, though the city had previously been called Luz.
20 Jacob made a vow: “If God is with me and protects me on this journey I am taking, and gives me bread to eat and clothes to wear,
21 and if I return safely to my father’s house, then the LORD will be my God.
22 This stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God’s house; and of everything you give me, I will surely give you a tenth.”
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