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Jacob Searches for a Wife

¹ Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and commanded him, "You must not marry a Canaanite woman. ² Go to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, in Northwest Mesopotamia. Laban, your mother's brother, lives there. Marry one of his daughters. ³ May God Almighty bless you and give you many children, and may you become a group of many peoples. ⁴ May he give you and your descendants the blessing of Abraham so that you may own the land where you are now living as a stranger, the land God gave to Abraham." ⁵ So Isaac sent Jacob to Northwest Mesopotamia, to Laban the brother of Rebekah. Bethuel the Aramean was the father of Laban and Rebekah, and Rebekah was the mother of Jacob and Esau.

⁶ Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Northwest Mesopotamia to find a wife there. He also learned that Isaac had commanded Jacob not to marry a Canaanite woman ⁷ and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Northwest Mesopotamia. ⁸ So Esau saw that his father Isaac did not want his sons to marry Canaanite women. ⁹ Now Esau already had wives, but he went to Ishmael son of Abraham, and he married Mahalath, Ishmael's daughter. Mahalath was the sister of Nebaioth.

Jacob's Dream at Bethel

¹⁰ Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. ¹¹ When he came to a place, he spent the night there because the sun had set. He found a stone and laid his head on it to go to sleep. ¹² Jacob dreamed that there was a ladder resting on the earth and reaching up into heaven, and he saw angels of God going up and coming down the ladder. ¹³ Then Jacob saw the Lord standing above the ladder, and he said, "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your grandfather, and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are now sleeping. ¹⁴ Your descendants will be as many as the dust of the earth. They will spread west and east, north and south, and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. ¹⁵ I am with you and will protect you everywhere you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."

¹⁶ Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, but I did not know it." ¹⁷ He was afraid and said, "This place frightens me! It is surely the house of God and the gate of heaven."

¹⁸ Jacob rose early in the morning and took the stone he had slept on and set it up on its end. Then he poured olive oil on the top of it. ¹⁹ At first, the name of that city was Luz, but Jacob named it Bethel.^[a]

²⁰ Then Jacob made a promise. He said, "I want God to be with me and to protect me on this journey. I want him to give me food to eat and clothes to wear ²¹ so I will be able to return in peace to my father's house. If the Lord does these things, he will be my God. ²² This stone which I have set up on its end will be the house of God. And I will give God one-tenth of all he gives me."