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Jacob Is Sent Away

¹ So Isaac called Jacob and ^(C1)blessed him and charged him, and said to him, "^(C2)You shall not marry one of the women of Canaan.² "^(F1)Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of ^(C1)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 ^(F1)(C1)God Almighty ^(C2)bless you and ^(C3)make you fruitful and ^(C4)multiply you, so that you may become a ^(C5)great company of peoples.⁴ "May He also give the ^(C1)blessing of Abraham to you and your descendants with you, that you may ^(C2)inherit the promised land of your ^(C3)sojournings, which He gave to Abraham."⁵ Then ^(C1)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, "^(C1)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 ^(C1)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, ^(C1)in addition to the wives he already had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaioth Ishmael's firstborn son.

Jacob's Dream

¹⁰ Now Jacob left ^(C1)Beersheba never to see his mother again and traveled toward ^(C2)Haran.¹¹ And he came to a certain ^(C1)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 (C1)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 ^(C2)the angels of God ascending and descending on it going to and from heaven. ^(VR1)13 And behold, ^(C1)the LORD stood above and around him and said, "I am the LORD, ^(C2)the God of Abraham your father's father and the God of Isaac; I will give ^(C3)to you and to ^(C4)your descendants the land of promise on which you are lying.¹⁴ "Your descendants shall be as countless as ^(C1)the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad ^(C2)to the west and the east and the north and the south; and all the families (nations) of the earth shall be blessed ^(C3)through you and your ^(F1)descendants. ^(VR1)15 "Behold, ^(C1)I am with you and ^(C2)will keep careful watch over you and guard you wherever you may go, and ^(C3)I will bring you back to this promised land; for ^(C4)I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."¹⁶ Then Jacob ^(C1)awoke from his sleep and he said, "^(C2)Without any doubt the LORD is in this place, and I did not realize it."¹⁷ So he was afraid and said, "^(C1)How fearful and awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gateway to heaven."

¹⁸ So Jacob got up early in the morning, and took ^(C1)the stone he had put under his head and he set it up as a pillar that is, a monument to the vision in his dream, and he poured olive oil on the top of it to ^(F1)consecrate it.¹⁹ He named that place ^(C1)Bethel (the house of God); the previous name of that city was ^(C2)Luz (Almond Tree).²⁰ Then Jacob ^(C1)made a vow (promise), saying, "^(C2)If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me ^(C3)food to eat and clothing to wear,²¹ and if He grants that ^(C1)I return to my father's house in safety, ^(C2)then the LORD will be my God.²² "This stone which I have set up as a pillar (monument, memorial) ^(C1)will be God's house a sacred place to me, and ^(C2)of everything that You give me I will give the tenth to You as an offering to signify my gratitude and dependence on You." ^(VR1)