Genesis 28:1-15

New King James Version

Jacob Sent to His Uncle Laban

28 Then Isaac called Jacob and ^(A)blessed him, and ^[a]charged him, and said to him: ^(B)“You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. ²^(C)Arise, go to ^(D)Padan Aram, to the house of ^(E)Bethuel your mother’s father; and take yourself a wife from there of the daughters of ^(F)Laban your mother’s brother.

³“May ^(G)God Almighty bless you,
And make you ^(H)fruitful and multiply you,
That you may be an assembly of peoples;
⁴And give you ^(I)the blessing of Abraham,
To you and your descendants with you,
That you may inherit the land
^(J)In^[b] which you are a stranger,
Which God gave to Abraham.”

⁵So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Padan Aram, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

Esau Marries Mahalath

⁶Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan Aram to take himself a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,” ⁷and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Padan Aram. ⁸Also Esau saw ^(K)that the daughters of Canaan did not please his father Isaac. ⁹So Esau went to Ishmael and ^(L)took ^(M)Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, ^(N)the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.

Jacob’s Vow at Bethel

¹⁰Now Jacob ^(O)went out from Beersheba and went toward ^(P)Haran. ¹¹So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. ¹²Then he ^(Q)dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there ^(R)the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

¹³^(S)And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: ^(T)“I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; ^(U)the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. ¹⁴Also your ^(V)descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad ^(W)to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and ^(X)in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. ¹⁵Behold, ^(Y)I am with you and will ^(Z)keep^[c] you wherever you go, and will ^(AA)bring you back to this land; for ^(AB)I will not leave you ^(AC)until I have done what I have spoken to you.”