28 Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him. Then he charged him and said to him, “You must not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. ² Arise, go to Paddan Aram to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father, and take for yourself a wife from there, from the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother. ³ May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, so that you may become a multitude of people. ⁴ May He give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and your descendants with you, that you may inherit the land where you are a stranger, which God gave to Abraham.” ⁵ Then Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan Aram to Laban, the son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob’s and Esau’s mother.

⁶ Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan Aram to take for himself a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, “You must not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan,” ⁷ and that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan Aram. ⁸ Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan did not please Isaac his father. ⁹ So Esau went to Ishmael and took as his wife Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth, in addition to the wives he had.

Jacob’s Dream at Bethel

¹⁰ Then Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Harran. ¹¹ He came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. He took one of the stones of that place and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep. ¹² He dreamed and saw a ladder set up on the earth with the top of it reaching to heaven. The angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ¹³ The Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie, to you will I give it and to your descendants. ¹⁴ Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and in your descendants all the families of the earth will be blessed. ¹⁵ Remember, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you.”

¹⁶ Jacob awoke out of his sleep, and he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” ¹⁷ He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

¹⁸ So Jacob rose up early in the morning and took the stone that he had put under his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. ¹⁹ He called the name of that place Bethel, but previously the name of the city was called Luz.

²⁰ Jacob vowed a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will protect me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, ²¹ so that I return to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord will be my God. ²² Then this stone, which I have set for a pillar, will be the house of God, and from all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”