Genesis 28
1 Then Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, —and commanded him and said to him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.
Then Isaac summoned Jacob, and gave him a blessing. He told him, “Do not marry a woman of the Canaan people-group.
2 Rise, go thy way to Padan-aram to the house of Bethuel, thy mother’s father, —and take thee from thence a wife, of the daughters of Laban, thy mother’s brother.
Instead, go right away to Paddan-Aram [in northwest Mesopotamia], to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Ask one of the daughters of your mother’s brother Laban to marry you.
3 And, GOD Almighty, bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, so shalt thou become a multitude of peoples.
I will pray that God Almighty will bless you, and enable you to [get married and] have many descendants, in order that they will become many people-groups.
4 And may he give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee, —that thou mayest possess the land of thy sojournings, which God gave to Abraham.
I also will pray that he will bless you and your descendants by enabling you to possess/seize the land in which you are now living as a foreigner, the land that God promised to give to [my father] Abraham and his descendants.”
5 So Isaac sent away Jacob, and he took his journey to Padan-aram, —unto Laban son of Bethuel, the Syrian, brother of Rebekah, mother of Jacob and Esau.
So Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-Aram, to live with Rebekah’s brother Laban, the son of Bethuel, who belonged to the Aram people-group.
6 And Esau beheld that Isaac, when he blessed Jacob, and sent him to Padan-aram, to take to himself from thence a wife, that in blessing him, he laid command upon him, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan;
Esau found out that his father Isaac had blessed Jacob and then sent him to Paddan-Aram. He also found out that when he blessed Isaac, he told him, “Do not marry a woman of the Canaan people-group,”
7 And that Jacob hearkened unto his father and unto his mother, —and took his journey to Padan-aram.
and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother, and had gone to Paddan-Aram.
8 So then Esau beheld that displeasing, were the daughters of Caanan, —in the eyes of Isaac his father:
Esau also realized that his father Isaac did not approve of women from the Canaan people-group.
9 Esau therefore went unto Ishmael, —and took Mahalath daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham sister of Nebaioth, to himself to wife, in addition to the wives that he had.
Because of that, Esau went to see his uncle Ishmael, and married Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael. Mahalath was the sister of Nabaioth and the granddaughter of Abraham.
10 So Jacob went forth from Beer-sheba, and journeyed towards Haran.
Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and started walking along the road to Haran.
11 And he lighted on a place, and tarried the night there, because the sun had gone in, —and he took of the stones of the place, and put for his pillow, and lay down in that place,
When he arrived at a certain place, he stopped there, because the sun had gone down. He took one of the stones there and put it under his head to use as a pillow. Then he lay down and slept there.
12 And he dreamed, and lo! a stairway, planted earthwards, with, its top, reaching towards the heavens, —and lo! messengers of God, ascending and descending thereon;
While he was sleeping, he had a dream, in which he [was surprised to] see a stairway. The bottom of the stairway was on the earth and the top was in the sky. Jacob also saw that God’s angels were going up and down the stairway.
13 and lo! Yahweh, standing by him, —and he said, I, am Yahweh, God of Abraham thy father and God of Isaac, —The land whereon, thou, art lying, to thee, will I give it and to thy seed;
And he [was surprised to] see Yahweh standing at the top of the stairway, saying “I am Yahweh God, whom your grandfather Abraham worshiped, and whom Isaac worships. I will give to you and to your descendants the land on which you are lying.
14 And thy seed shall become as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt break forth westward and eastward, and northward and southward, —And all the families of the ground shall be blessed in thee and in thy seed.
Your descendants will be as numerous as the particles of dirt that are on the earth, and their territory will be very large. It will extend in all directions, to the east and to the west, to the north and to the south. And people of all people-groups on earth will receive blessings because of [what happens to] you and to your descendants.
15 Lo! then, I, am with thee, so will I keep thee in every place whithersoever thou mayest go, and will bring thee back unto this soil, —For I will not forsake thee until I have done that of which I have spoken to thee.
I will help you and protect you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you; I will continue to do for you all that I have promised to do.”
16 And Jacob awoke from his sleep, and said. Surely, Yahweh was in this place, And I, knew it not.
[During the night], when Jacob woke up from sleeping, he thought, “Surely Yahweh is in this place, and until now I was not aware of it!”
17 And he feared and said, How fearful is this place! None other this, than the house of God! Nor this than the gate of the heavens
He was afraid, and he said, “This place is very awesome! This is surely the place where God lives, and this is the entrance to heaven!”
18 So Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone which he had put for his pillow, and put it for a pillar, —and poured out oil upon the top thereof;
In the morning Jacob got up and took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up on its end to show that the place was a holy place. He poured some olive oil on top of the stone [to dedicate it to God].
19 and called the name of that place—Beth-el, —nevertheless, Luz, was the name of the city, aforetime.
He named that place Bethel, [which means ‘house of God’.] Previously its name was Luz.
20 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, —If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way whereon, I, am going, and give me bread to eat and raiment to put on;
Jacob solemnly promised God, saying, “God, if you will help me and protect me while I am taking this journey, and if you give me enough food to eat and clothes to wear,
21 and I come back in prosperity unto the house of my father, Then will Yahweh prove to be my God, —
in order that I can later return safely to my father’s house, then you, Yahweh, will be the God that I will worship.
22 And, this stone which I have put for a pillar, shall be the house of God, —And, of all which thou shalt give me, a tenth, will I tithe unto thee.
This stone that I have set up will mark the place where people can worship you. And I will give back to you a tenth of everything that you give to me.”
