28.1-22

Genesis

Isaac immediately responds to Rebekah's distress from the previous chapter by calling Jacob and telling him he will not do the same thing his brother Esau had done (take a wife from the daughters of Canaan). To reinforce this, he sends him away to marry his cousin, from the same place the faithful servant of Abraham had gone to retrieve his (Isaac's) bride. Esau's response seems to indicate that he had been unaware his actions marrying the daughters of Heth would be displeasing to Isaac and Rebekah, but marriages did not come without significant preparation and exchanges of wealth, so it is unlikely that they would not have had the opportunity to warn him previously of their disapproval. More likely, the gesture of marrying a daughter from Abraham's line (Ishmael) might have seemed conciliatory to Esau. After Jacob departs, on his way, he stops to rest. The dream he has during this stop is better known as the vision of Jacob's Ladder. Jacob's vow (v20) following this vision is also telling. The "if-then" context (vv20-21) seems to suggest that Jacob was still a long way from the faith in God that his father and grandfather hoped to pass to the generation that would carry the blessings of Yahweh to all future generations (v14).

CHAPTER 28

Jacob Is Sent to Laban

1 So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and commanded him and said to him, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.
2 “Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother.
3 “May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become an assembly of peoples.
4 “May He also give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your seed with you, that you may possess the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Abraham.”
5 Then 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 And Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take for himself a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,”
7 and that Jacob had listened to his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan-aram.
8 So Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan were displeasing in the sight of his father Isaac;
9 and Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife, besides the wives that he had.

Jacob’s Dream

10 Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran.
11 And he reached a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head and lay down in that place.
12 Then he had a dream, and behold, a ladder stood on the earth with its top touching heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
13 And behold, Yahweh stood above it and said, “I am Yahweh, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your seed.
14 “And your seed will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
15 “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go. And I will bring you back to this land; for I will not forsake you until I have done what I have promised you.”
16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I did not know it.”
17 And he was afraid and said, “How fearsome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
18 So Jacob rose early in the morning and took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top.
19 And he called the name of that place Bethel; however, previously the name of the city had been Luz.
20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey on which I am going, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear,
21 and I return to my father’s house in peace, then Yahweh will be my God.
22 “Now this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”