Genesis 28:1-13 ▼

1 So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him, and said to him, “You shall not marry one of the women of Canaan.

2 Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and take from there as a wife for yourself one of 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 [great] company of peoples.

4 May He also give the blessing of Abraham to you and your descendants with you, that you may inherit the [promised] land of your sojournings, which He gave to Abraham.”

5 Then 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 Now Esau noticed that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to take a wife for himself from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a prohibition, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,”

7 and that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan-aram.

8 So Esau realized that [his two wives] the daughters of Canaan displeased Isaac his father;

9 and [to appease his parents] Esau went to [the family of] Ishmael and took as his wife, in addition to the wives he [already] had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth [Ishmael’s firstborn son].

10 Now Jacob left Beersheba [never to see his mother again] and traveled toward Haran.

11 And he came to a certain place and stayed overnight there because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down there [to sleep].

12 He dreamed that there was a ladder (stairway) placed on the earth, and the top of it reached [out of sight] toward heaven; and [he saw] the angels of God ascending and descending on it [going to and from heaven].

13 And behold, the LORD stood above and around him and said, “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your [father’s] father and the God of Isaac; I will give to you and to your descendants the land [of promise] on which you are lying.