Jacob’s Departure

28 So Isaac summoned Jacob, blessed him, and commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite girl. ² Go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father. Marry one of the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. ³ May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you^(A) so that you become an assembly of peoples.^{(B) 4} May God give you and your offspring the blessing of Abraham^(C) so that you may possess the land where you live as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.”^{(D) 5} So Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

⁶ Esau noticed that Isaac blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to get a wife there. When he blessed him, Isaac commanded Jacob, “Do not marry a Canaanite girl.” ⁷ And Jacob listened to his father and mother and went to Paddan-aram. ⁸ Esau realized that his father Isaac disapproved of the Canaanite women,^{(E) 9} so Esau went to Ishmael and married, in addition to his other wives, Mahalath daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son. She was the sister of Nebaioth.

Jacob at Bethel

¹⁰ Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. ¹¹ He reached a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set. He took one of the stones from the place, put it there at his head, and lay down in that place. ¹² And he dreamed:^(F) A stairway was set on the ground with its top reaching the sky, and God’s angels were going up and down on it.^{(G) 13} The Lord was standing there beside him,^[a] saying, “I am the Lord,^(H) the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your offspring the land on which you are lying. ¹⁴ Your offspring will be like the dust of the earth,^(I) and you will spread out toward the west, the east, the north, and the south. All the peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.^{(J) 15} Look, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land,^(K) for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

¹⁶ When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”^{(L) 17} He was afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven.”

¹⁸ Early in the morning Jacob took the stone that was near his head and set it up as a marker. He poured oil on top of it ¹⁹ and named the place Bethel,^[b] though previously the city was named Luz.^{(M) 20} Then Jacob made a vow:^(N) “If God will be with me and watch over me during this journey I’m making, if he provides me with food to eat and clothing to wear, ²¹ and if I return safely to my father’s family,^(O) then the Lord will be my God.^{(P) 22} This stone that I have set up as a marker will be God’s house, and I will give to you a tenth of all that you give me.”^(Q)

An Illustration from Marriage

7 Since I am speaking to those who know the law, brothers and sisters,^(A) don’t you know that the law rules over someone as long as he lives? ² For example, a married woman is legally bound to her husband while he lives.^(B) But if her husband dies, she is released from the law regarding the husband. ³ So then, if she is married to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. Then, if she is married to another man, she is not an adulteress.

⁴ Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death^(C) in relation to the law^(D) through the body of Christ^(E) so that you may belong to another. You belong to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. ⁵ For when we were in the flesh,^(F) the sinful passions aroused through the law were working in us^[a](G) to bear fruit for death. ⁶ But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit^(H) and not in the old letter of the law.

Sin’s Use of the Law

⁷ What should we say then?^(I) Is the law sin? Absolutely not!^(J) But I would not have known sin if it were not for the law.^(K) For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet.^{[b](L) 8} And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment,^(M) produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead.^{(N) 9} Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life again ¹⁰ and I died. The commandment that was meant for life^(O) resulted in death for me. ¹¹ For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me,^(P) and through it killed me. ¹² So then, the law is holy,^(Q) and the commandment is holy and just and good. ¹³ Therefore, did what is good become death to me? Absolutely not!^(R) But sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.

The Problem of Sin in Us

¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual,^(S) but I am of the flesh,^[c] sold^(T) as a slave under sin.^{(U) 15} For I do not understand what I am doing,^(V) because I do not practice what I want to do,^(W) but I do what I hate. ¹⁶ Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. ¹⁷ So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh.^(X) For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me. ²¹ So I discover this law:^[d](Y) When I want to do what is good,^[e] evil is present with me. ²² For in my inner self^[f] I delight in God’s law,^{(Z) 23} but I see a different law in the parts of my body,^[g](AA) waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?^{(AB) 25} Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!^(AC) So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.

Exhortations to Godliness

¹⁹ Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus^(A)— ²⁰ he has inaugurated^[a] for us a new and living way through the curtain (that is, through his flesh^(B))— ²¹ and since we have a great high priest over the house of God,^{(C) 22} let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water.^{(D) 23} Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful.^{(E) 24} And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, ²⁵ not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other,^(F) and all the more as you see the day approaching.