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Genesis · Berean Standard Bible

Genesis 28 Berean Standard Bible

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  • Protestant
  • OT: Masoretic Hebrew
  • NT: Critical text
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  • 2022
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Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings

1 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. “Do not take a wife from the Canaanite women,” he commanded. 2 “Go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel, and take a wife from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. 3 May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, so that you may become a company of peoples. 4 And may He give the blessing of Abraham to you and your descendants, so that you may possess the land where you dwell as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.” 5 So Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau. 6 Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to take a wife there, commanding him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,” 7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and gone to Paddan-aram. 8 And seeing that his father Isaac disapproved of the Canaanite women, 9 Esau went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael, in addition to the wives he already had. 10 Meanwhile Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. 11 On reaching a certain place, he spent the night there because the sun had set. And taking one of the stones from that place, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 And Jacob had a dream about a ladder that rested on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven, and God’s angels were going up and down the ladder. 13 And there at the top the LORD was standing and saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you now lie. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and east and north and south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 Look, I am with you, and I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” 16 When Jacob woke up, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was unaware of it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven!” 18 Early the next morning, Jacob took the stone that he had placed under his head, and he set it up as a pillar. He poured oil on top of it, 19 and he called that place Bethel, though previously the city had been named Luz. 20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and watch over me on this journey, and if He will provide me with food to eat and clothes to wear, 21 so that I may return safely to my father’s house, then the LORD will be my God. 22 And this stone I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give You a tenth.”

People & places in this chapter

From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.

People

  • Jacob

    Father of the tribes

    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; Esau's wife

    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

  • Bethel

    Today: West Bank (central hills)

    Bethel ('house of God') is usually identified with Beitin, north of Jerusalem (location approximate). Jacob's ladder vision and Jeroboam's calf shrine are set here.

    Cited in the guide: Genesis 28:19; Genesis 12:8; 1 Kings 12:29

  • Haran

    Today: Southern Turkey (Upper Mesopotamia)

    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. 1 Genesis 24:3; Genesis 28:3–4; Genesis 27:46; Genesis 6:2; 2 Corinthians 6:14–16
  2. 2 Genesis 25:20; Hosea 12:12; Genesis 24:50; Genesis 22:20–23; Genesis 24:15–24
  3. 3 Genesis 48:3; Genesis 35:11; Genesis 17:1–6; Genesis 1:28; Genesis 22:17–18
  4. 4 Galatians 3:14; Genesis 12:7; Ephesians 1:3; Genesis 17:6–8; Genesis 12:1–3
  5. 6 Genesis 28:1; Genesis 27:33
  6. 7 Ephesians 6:3; Exodus 20:12; Proverbs 30:17; Leviticus 19:3; Genesis 27:43
  7. 8 Genesis 24:3; Genesis 26:34–35; Genesis 28:1; 1 Samuel 8:6
  8. 9 Genesis 36:3; Genesis 25:13–17; Genesis 26:34; Genesis 36:13; Genesis 36:18
  9. 10 Acts 7:2; Genesis 32:10; Genesis 11:31; Hosea 12:12
  10. 11 Genesis 28:18; Matthew 8:20; 2 Corinthians 1:5; Genesis 31:46
  11. 12 John 1:51; Genesis 32:1–2; Numbers 12:6; Job 33:15–16; Genesis 15:1
  12. 13 Genesis 13:15; Genesis 35:12; Genesis 48:3; Genesis 26:24; Genesis 35:1
  13. 14 Genesis 12:3; Genesis 18:18; Genesis 22:18; Genesis 26:4; Genesis 13:16
  14. 15 Joshua 1:5; Isaiah 41:10; Jeremiah 1:19; Deuteronomy 31:6; Genesis 26:24
  15. 16 Joshua 5:15; Job 9:11; Exodus 3:5; Exodus 15:11; Job 33:14
  16. 17 1 Timothy 3:15; Genesis 35:1–13; Ecclesiastes 5:1; Exodus 3:6; Genesis 28:22
  17. 18 Genesis 35:14; Genesis 31:13; Genesis 31:45; Leviticus 8:10–12; Genesis 35:20
  18. 19 Genesis 48:3; Hosea 12:4–5; Genesis 35:1; Hosea 4:15; Judges 1:22–26
  19. 20 1 Timothy 6:8; 2 Samuel 15:8; Genesis 31:13; John 1:16; Psalm 66:13
  20. 21 Deuteronomy 26:17; Judges 11:31; Exodus 15:2; 2 Samuel 15:8; 2 Samuel 19:24
  21. 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).

  1. Quotes verse 28:1–4 Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (Book XVI, Chapters 37–38)

    … 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)

  2. Quotes verse 28:20 John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew (Homily XXI)

    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)

  3. Quotes verse 28:16 Basil of Caesarea, On the Holy Spirit (Chapters XXV–XXVI)

    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)

  4. Quotes verse 28:11 Augustine of Hippo, Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament (Sermon LXXII)

    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)

  5. Quotes verse 28:12–18 Augustine of Hippo, Tractates on the Gospel of John (Chapter I — 32, 33)

    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)