1 And Isaac having called for Jacob, blessed him, and charged him, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of the Canaanites. 2 Rise and depart quickly into Mesopotamia, to the house of Bethuel the father of thy mother, and take to thyself thence a wife of the daughters of Laban thy mother’s brother. 3 And may my God bless thee, and increase thee, and multiply thee, and thou shalt become gatherings of nations. 4 And may he give thee the blessing of my father Abraham, even to thee and to thy seed after thee, to inherit the land of thy sojourning, which God gave to Abraham. 5 So Isaac sent away Jacob, and he went into Mesopotamia to Laban the son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah the mother of Jacob and Esau. 6 And Esau saw that Isaac blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Mesopotamia of Syria as he blessed him, to take to himself a wife thence, and [that] he charged him, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of the Canaanites; 7 and [that] Jacob hearkened to his father and his mother, and went to Mesopotamia of Syria. 8 And Esau also having seen that the daughters of Canaan were evil before his father Isaac, 9 Esau went to Ishmael, and took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, the sister of Nebaioth, a wife in addition to his [other] wives. 10 And Jacob went forth from the well of the oath, and departed into Haran. 11 And came to a certain place and slept there, for the sun had gone down; and he took [one] of the stones of the place, and put it at his head, and lay down to sleep in that place, 12 and dreamed, and behold a ladder fixed on the earth, whose top reached to heaven, and the angels of God ascended and descended on it. 13 And the Lord stood upon it, and said, I am the God of thy father Abraham, and the God of Isaac; fear not, the land on which thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. 14 And thy seed shall be as the sand of the earth; and it shall spread abroad to the sea, and the south, and the north, and to the east; and in thee and in thy seed shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed. 15 And behold I am with thee to preserve thee continually in all the way wherein thou shalt go; and I will bring thee back to this land; for I will not desert thee, until I have done all that I have said to thee. 16 And Jacob awoke out of his sleep, and said, The Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. 17 And he was afraid, and said, How fearful is this place! this is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. 18 And Jacob rose up in the morning, and took the stone he [had] laid there by his head, and he set it up [as] a pillar, and poured oil on the top of it. 19 And he called the name of that place, the House of God; and the name of the city before was Ulam-luz. 20 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If the Lord God will be with me, and guard me throughout on this journey, on which I am going, and give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, 21 and bring me back in safety to the house of my father, then shall the Lord be for a God to me. 22 And this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be to me a house of God; and of all whatsoever thou shalt give me, I will tithe a tenth for thee.
Genesis · Updated Brenton English Septuagint
Genesis 28 Updated Brenton English Septuagint
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Notes on this text (1)
- Same Septuagint text as Brenton, with modernised spelling.
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Jacob
He wrestled with God through the night and rose as Israel, father of twelve tribes.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 25–35; 46–49
Mahalath
Ishmael's daughter and the sister of Nebaioth, whom Esau married in addition to his other wives; Genesis 36:3 gives her name as Basemath and says she bore Reuel.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 28:8–9; Genesis 36:3; Genesis 36:10
Places
Haran
A caravan city in Upper Mesopotamia and the family's waypoint between Ur and Canaan. Abraham departed from here for Canaan; Jacob later sojourned with Laban nearby.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 11:31; Genesis 12:4; Genesis 28:10
Cross references (21)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Genesis 24:3; Genesis 28:3–4; Genesis 27:46; Genesis 6:2; 2 Corinthians 6:14–16
- 2 Genesis 25:20; Hosea 12:12; Genesis 24:50; Genesis 22:20–23; Genesis 24:15–24
- 3 Genesis 48:3; Genesis 35:11; Genesis 17:1–6; Genesis 1:28; Genesis 22:17–18
- 4 Galatians 3:14; Genesis 12:7; Ephesians 1:3; Genesis 17:6–8; Genesis 12:1–3
- 6 Genesis 28:1; Genesis 27:33
- 7 Ephesians 6:3; Exodus 20:12; Proverbs 30:17; Leviticus 19:3; Genesis 27:43
- 8 Genesis 24:3; Genesis 26:34–35; Genesis 28:1; 1 Samuel 8:6
- 9 Genesis 36:3; Genesis 25:13–17; Genesis 26:34; Genesis 36:13; Genesis 36:18
- 10 Acts 7:2; Genesis 32:10; Genesis 11:31; Hosea 12:12
- 11 Genesis 28:18; Matthew 8:20; 2 Corinthians 1:5; Genesis 31:46
- 12 John 1:51; Genesis 32:1–2; Numbers 12:6; Job 33:15–16; Genesis 15:1
- 13 Genesis 13:15; Genesis 35:12; Genesis 48:3; Genesis 26:24; Genesis 35:1
- 14 Genesis 12:3; Genesis 18:18; Genesis 22:18; Genesis 26:4; Genesis 13:16
- 15 Joshua 1:5; Isaiah 41:10; Jeremiah 1:19; Deuteronomy 31:6; Genesis 26:24
- 16 Joshua 5:15; Job 9:11; Exodus 3:5; Exodus 15:11; Job 33:14
- 17 1 Timothy 3:15; Genesis 35:1–13; Ecclesiastes 5:1; Exodus 3:6; Genesis 28:22
- 18 Genesis 35:14; Genesis 31:13; Genesis 31:45; Leviticus 8:10–12; Genesis 35:20
- 19 Genesis 48:3; Hosea 12:4–5; Genesis 35:1; Hosea 4:15; Judges 1:22–26
- 20 1 Timothy 6:8; 2 Samuel 15:8; Genesis 31:13; John 1:16; Psalm 66:13
- 21 Deuteronomy 26:17; Judges 11:31; Exodus 15:2; 2 Samuel 15:8; 2 Samuel 19:24
- 22 Genesis 35:7; Genesis 14:20; Deuteronomy 14:22–23; Leviticus 27:30–33; Genesis 35:1
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… thee, and increase thee, and multiply thee; and thou shalt be an assembly of peoples; and give to thee the blessing of Abraham thy father, and to thy seed after thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou dwellest, which God gave unto Abraham." Now we understand here that the seed of Jacob is separated from Isaac's other seed …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
Dost thou not hear him praying and saying, "If the Lord give me bread to eat and raiment to put on?" which was not the part of one taking thought, but of one seeking all of God.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
From the Lord himself in the words "The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." This place Jacob saw and said "The Lord is in this place." It follows that the Spirit is verily the place of the saints and the saint is the proper place for the Spirit, offering himself as he does for the …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 8 (1895)
I mean in Genesis. When Jacob slept at a certain place, he put a stone at his head; and in his sleep he saw a ladder reaching from earth even unto heaven; and the Lord was resting upon it; and Angels were ascending and descending by it.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 6 (1888)
Jacob saw a ladder in a dream; and on a ladder he saw angels ascending and descending: and he anointed the stone which he had placed at his head. You have heard that the Messias is Christ; you have heard that Christ is the Anointed.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 7 (1888)