Genesis 28:1-13 ▼

1 Later, Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, instructing him, |Don't marry a wife from the local Canaanite women.

2 Instead, get up, travel to Paddan-aram, and visit the household of Bethuel, your mother's father. Marry one of Laban's daughters, since he's your mother's brother.

3 May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful so that your descendants become a whole group of people.

4 May he give you and your descendants the blessings that he gave Abraham. May you possess the land where you have lived that God gave to Abraham.|

5 So Isaac sent Jacob off toward Paddan-aram to visit Bethuel's son Laban, the Aramean and brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

6 Esau noticed that after Isaac had blessed Jacob as he was sending him off to Paddan-aram to marry a wife from there, he had instructed Jacob, |Don't marry a Canaanite woman.|

7 After Jacob had obeyed his father and mother's instructions to set out for Paddan-aram,

8 Esau realized that Canaan women didn't please his father Isaac,

9 so he went to Abraham's son Ishmael and married Ishmael's daughter Mahalath, who was the sister of Nebaioth.

10 Meanwhile, Jacob had left Beer-sheba and was on his way to Haran.

11 He reached a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun was setting. He found a stone there, used it for a pillow, and slept there for the night,

12 when he had a dream! He saw a raised highway that had been built with its ending point on earth and its beginning point in heaven. God's angels were ascending and descending on it.

13 And there was the LORD, standing above it and telling Jacob, |I am the LORD God of your grandfather Abraham. I'm Isaac's God, too. I'm giving you and your descendants the ground on which you're sleeping.