创世记 28
Chinese Contemporary Bible (Simplified)
28 以撒把雅各叫来，给他祝福，又嘱咐他说：“你不要娶迦南的女子为妻。 2 马上去巴旦·亚兰，到你外祖父彼土利家，在你舅父拉班的女儿中选一个做妻子。 3 愿全能的上帝赐福给你，使你的子孙众多，成为许多民族。 4 愿上帝把赐给亚伯拉罕的福气赐给你和你的后代，让你承受你寄居之地为产业，就是上帝赐给亚伯拉罕的地方。” 5 以撒让雅各前往巴旦·亚兰，去亚兰人彼土利的儿子拉班那里。拉班是雅各和以扫的舅父。
6 以扫看见父亲给雅各祝福，让他到巴旦·亚兰娶妻，叮嘱他不要娶迦南的女子， 7 又看见雅各听从父母到巴旦·亚兰去了， 8 就知道父亲以撒不喜欢迦南的女子。 9 他便到亚伯拉罕的儿子以实玛利那里，娶了以实玛利的女儿、尼拜约的妹妹玛哈拉为妻。他娶玛哈拉以前已经有两个妻子了。
雅各的梦
10 雅各离开别示巴，前往哈兰。 11 到了一个地方，太阳已经下山，他便在那里过夜。他枕着一块石头睡觉， 12 梦中看见有个梯子立在地上，直通到天上，梯子上有上帝的天使上上下下。 13 耶和华站在梯子上[a]对雅各说：“我是耶和华，是你祖父亚伯拉罕的上帝，也是以撒的上帝。我要把你现在躺卧的地方赐给你和你的后代。 14 你的后代必多如地上的尘沙，遍布四方，地上万族必因你和你的后代而蒙福。 15 我与你同在，无论你去哪里，我都会保护你，领你返回这片土地。我必实现对你的应许，决不离弃你。”
16 雅各一觉醒来，说：“耶和华居然在这里，我却不知道。” 17 他就害怕起来，说：“这地方何等可畏！这里是上帝的家，是通天的大门。”
18 雅各清早起来，把枕的那块石头立成柱子作记号，在上面浇上油。 19 他称那地方为伯特利[b]，那地方以前叫路斯。 20 雅各许愿说：“如果上帝与我同在，在路上保护我，供给我衣食， 21 带领我平安地回到父亲的家，我就一定敬奉耶和华为我的上帝。 22 我立为柱子的这块石头必成为上帝的殿。凡你赐给我的，我必把十分之一献给你。”
Genesis 28
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 28
1 [a]Isaac therefore summoned Jacob and blessed him, charging him: “You shall not marry a Canaanite woman!(A) 2 Go now to Paddan-aram, to the home of your mother’s father Bethuel, and there choose a wife for yourself from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.(B) 3 May God Almighty bless you and make you fertile, multiply you that you may become an assembly of peoples. 4 May God extend to you and your descendants the blessing of Abraham, so that you may gain possession of the land where you are residing, which he assigned to Abraham.”(C) 5 Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way; he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, and brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.(D)
6 Esau noted that Isaac had blessed Jacob when he sent him to Paddan-aram to get himself a wife there, and that, as he gave him his blessing, he charged him, “You shall not marry a Canaanite woman,” 7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and gone to Paddan-aram. 8 Esau realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac, 9 so Esau went to Ishmael, and in addition to the wives he had, married Mahalath, the daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.(E)
Jacob’s Dream at Bethel.[b] 10 Jacob departed from Beer-sheba and proceeded toward Haran. 11 When he came upon a certain place,[c] he stopped there for the night, since the sun had already set. Taking one of the stones at the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. 12 Then he had a dream: a stairway[d] rested on the ground, with its top reaching to the heavens; and God’s angels were going up and down on it.(F) 13 And there was the Lord standing beside him and saying: 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 descendants.(G) 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and through them you will spread to the west and the east, to the north and the south. In you and your descendants all the families of the earth will find blessing.(H) 15 I am with you and will protect you wherever you go, and bring you back to this land. I will never leave you until I have done what I promised you.(I)
16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he said, “Truly, the Lord is in this place and I did not know it!” 17 He was afraid and said: “How awesome this place is! This is nothing else but the house of God, the gateway to heaven!” 18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head, set it up as a sacred pillar,[e] and poured oil on top of it.(J) 19 He named that place Bethel,[f] whereas the former name of the town had been Luz.(K)
20 Jacob then made this vow:[g] “If God will be with me and protect me on this journey I am making and give me food to eat and clothes to wear, 21 and I come back safely to my father’s house, the Lord will be my God. 22 This stone that I have set up as a sacred pillar will be the house of God. Of everything you give me, I will return a tenth part to you without fail.”
Footnotes
- 28:1–9 A glimpse of Rebekah’s shrewdness is provided by 27:42–28:2. She is aware of Esau’s murderous plot against Jacob (27:42–45) but realizes the episode of the stolen blessing is still painful to Isaac; she therefore uses another motive to persuade Isaac to send Jacob away—he must marry within the family (endogamy), unlike Esau. Esau, unreflective as usual, realizes too late he also should marry within the family but, significantly, marries from Abraham’s rejected line. At this point in the story, Jacob (and his mother) have taken the blessing for themselves. Their actions have put Jacob in a precarious position: he must flee the land because of his brother’s murderous intent and find a wife in a far country. One might ask how God’s blessing can be given to such an unworthy schemer. There is a biblical pattern of preferring the younger brother or sister over the older—Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, Rachel over Leah, Joseph over his older brothers, Ephraim over Manasseh (Gn 48:14), David over his older brothers.
- 28:10–22 As Jacob is leaving the land on his way to an uncertain future in Paddan-aram, God appears to him at a sacred place that Jacob had visited only to take a night’s rest. Jacob’s unawareness of the holiness of the place underscores the graciousness of the gift. On his return to Canaan, he will again encounter a divine visitor in the form of the mysterious attacker (32:23–33) and, after his return and reconciliation with Esau, he will again go to Bethel (35:1–15).
- 28:11 Place: the Hebrew word is often used specifically of a sacred site. The ambiguous word “place” is used here, for the text emphasizes that Jacob has no idea the place he has come upon is sacred; only when he wakes up does he realize it is sacred. The place was Bethel (v. 19), a sacred site as early as the time of Abraham (12:8).
- 28:12 Stairway: in Hebrew, sullam, traditionally but inaccurately translated as “ladder.” The corresponding verb, salal, means “to heap up” something, such as dirt for a highway or a ramp. The imagery in Jacob’s dream may be derived from the Babylonian ziggurat or temple tower, “with its top in the sky” (11:4), and with brick steps leading up to a small temple at the top.
- 28:18 Sacred pillar: in Hebrew, masseba, a stone which might vary in shape and size, set upright and usually intended for some religious purpose. The custom of erecting such sacred pillars in Palestine went back to its pre-Israelite period; but since their polytheistic associations were often retained, later Israelite religion forbade their erection (Lv 26:1; Dt 16:22) and ordered the destruction of those that were associated with other religions (Ex 34:13; Dt 12:3).
- 28:19 Bethel: i.e., “house of God”; the reference is to the house of God in v. 17.
- 28:20 This vow: knowing well that Esau’s murderous wrath stands between him and the possession of the land promised him, Jacob makes his vow very precise. He vows to make the God who appeared to him his own if the God guides him safely to Paddan-aram and back to this land.
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