Genesis 28

28 ¹Then Isaac called Jacob, blessed him, and commanded him: "Take no wife from Canaan's daughters. ²Go to Paddan-aram, to Bethuel's house, your mother's father, and take a wife there from Laban's daughters, your mother's brother. ³May El Shaddai—your Father Almighty—bless you, make you fruitful, multiply you, so you become a company of peoples. ⁴May he give you and your offspring with you the blessing of Abraham, that you may inherit the land where you live as a foreigner, which our Father gave to Abraham."

⁵Isaac sent Jacob away; he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, brother of Rebekah, mother of Jacob and Esau.

⁶Esau discovered that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there, charging him as he blessed him, "Do not take a wife from Canaanite women," ⁷and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan-aram. ⁸So Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan were displeasing to his father Isaac. ⁹So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath, daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham and sister of Nebaioth, as a wife besides his other wives.

The Road to Haran

¹⁰Jacob left Beersheba and set out toward Haran. ¹¹He reached a place and stayed the night, for the sun set. He took one of the stones of the place, put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep. ¹²He dreamed: there was a stairway set up on the earth, its top reaching heaven, and there were angels of our Father ascending and descending on it. ^a a v12 Jesus identifies himself as this stairway — the connection between earth and heaven, the one through whom we come to our Father (John 1:51).

¹³And there above it stood our Father, who said, "I am your Father, the God of Abraham your father and of Isaac. I'll give you and your offspring the land you're lying on. ¹⁴Your offspring will be like the dust of the earth; you will spread west, east, north, and south. In you and in your offspring, all the families of the earth will be blessed. ¹⁵Know this: I'm with you. I'll guard you wherever you go and bring you back to this land. I won't leave you until I've done what I promised you."

¹⁶Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely our Father is in this place, and I didn't know!" ¹⁷He was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of our Father, and this is heaven's gate."

¹⁸Jacob got up early, took the stone he'd put under his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. ¹⁹He named that place Bethel, though Luz had been the city's previous name. ^b b v19 Bethel means "house of God"; the town was formerly called Luz. ²⁰Jacob vowed, "If God is with me and guards me on this journey I'm taking, gives me bread to eat and clothing to wear, ²¹and I return safely to my father's house, then our Father will be my Father, ²²and this stone I've set up as a pillar will be the house of our Father, and of all you give me, I will surely bring you a tenth."