Genesis 28

Jacob’s Departure

¹So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. “Do not take a wife from the Canaanite women,” he commanded. ²“Go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel, and take a wife from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. ³May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, so that you may become a company of peoples. ⁴And may He give the blessing of Abraham to you and your descendants, so that you may possess the land where you dwell as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.”

⁵So Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.

Esau Marries Mahalath

⁶Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to take a wife there, commanding him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,” ⁷and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and gone to Paddan-aram.

⁸And seeing that his father Isaac disapproved of the Canaanite women, ⁹Esau went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael, in addition to the wives he already had.

Jacob’s Ladder

¹⁰Meanwhile Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. ¹¹On reaching a certain place, he spent the night there because the sun had set. And taking one of the stones from that place, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.

¹²And Jacob had a dream about a ladder that rested on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven, and God’s angels were going up and down the ladder. ¹³And there at the top Yahweh was standing and saying, “I am Yahweh, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you now lie. ¹⁴Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and east and north and south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. ¹⁵Look, I am with you, and I will watch over 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 have promised you.”

• GEN 28:12[FORESHADOW]Jacob's ladder prefigures Christ as the bridge between heaven and earth → JN 1:51
• GEN 28:12[ALLUDED TO]The New Testament refers to this → JN 1:51
• GEN 28:14[PROPHECY]The Messiah would descend from Jacob → LK 3:34
• GEN 28:15[PROPHECY]God promised to bring Jacob back to the land → GEN 33:18; GEN 35:6

¹⁶When Jacob woke up, he said, “Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I was unaware of it.” ¹⁷And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven!”

• GEN 28:16[MIRACLE]Jacob wakes and says this is the gate of heaven

The Stone of Bethel

¹⁸Early the next morning, Jacob took the stone that he had placed under his head, and he set it up as a pillar. He poured oil on top of it, ¹⁹and he called that place Bethel, though previously the city had been named Luz.

²⁰Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and watch over me on this journey, and if He will provide me with food to eat and clothes to wear, ²¹so that I may return safely to my father’s house, then Yahweh will be my God. ²²And this stone I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give You a tenth.”