Genesis 28  Legacy Standard Bible

Jacob Is Sent to Laban

28 So Isaac called Jacob and ^(A)blessed him and commanded him and said to him, “^(B)You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. ² Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of ^(C)Bethuel your mother’s father; and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother. ³ May ^[a](D)God Almighty ^(E)bless you and ^(F)make you fruitful and ^(G)multiply you, that you may become an ^(H)assembly of peoples. ⁴ May He also give you the ^(I)blessing of Abraham, to you and to your seed with you, that you may ^(J)possess the land of your ^(K)sojournings, which God gave to Abraham.” ⁵ Then ^(L)Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

⁶ And Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take for himself a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, saying, “^(M)You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,” ⁷ and that Jacob had listened to his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan-aram. ⁸ So Esau saw that ^(N)the daughters of Canaan were displeasing ^[b]in the sight of his father Isaac; ⁹ and Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife, ^(O)besides the wives that he had.

Jacob’s Dream

¹⁰ Then Jacob departed from ^(P)Beersheba and went toward ^(Q)Haran. ¹¹ And he reached ^[c]a ^(R)certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it ^[d]under his head and lay down in that place. ^12 (S)Then he had a dream, and behold, a ^[e]ladder stood on the earth with its top touching heaven; and behold, ^(T)the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ¹³ And behold, ^(U)Yahweh stood ^[f]above it and said, “I am Yahweh, ^(V)the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it ^(W)to you and to ^(X)your seed. ¹⁴ And your seed will also be like ^(Y)the dust of the earth, and you will ^[g]spread out ^(Z)to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and ^(AA)in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. ¹⁵ Behold, ^(AB)I am with you and ^(AC)will keep you wherever you go. And ^(AD)I will bring you back to this land; for ^(AE)I will not forsake you until I have done what I have ^[h]promised you.” ¹⁶ Then Jacob ^(AF)awoke from his sleep and said, “^(AG)Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I did not know it.” ¹⁷ And he was afraid and said, “^(AH)How fearsome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

¹⁸ So Jacob rose early in the morning and took ^(AI)the stone that he had put ^[i]under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top. ¹⁹ And he called the name of that place ^[j](AJ)Bethel; however, ^[k]previously the name of the city had been ^(AK)Luz. ²⁰ Then Jacob ^(AL)made a vow, saying, “^(AM)If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey on which I am going, and will give me ^[l](AN)food to eat and garments to wear, ²¹ and ^(AO)I return to my father’s house in peace, ^(AP)then Yahweh will be my God. ²² Now this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, ^(AQ)will be God’s house, and ^(AR)of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”