1 And Isaac calls to Jacob, and blesses him, and commands him, and says to him, “You must not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan; 2 rise, go to Padan-Aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel, and take for yourself a wife from there, from the daughters of your mother’s brother Laban; 3 and God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and you have become an assembly of peoples; 4 and He gives to you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your seed with you, to cause you to possess the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Abraham.” 5 And Isaac sends Jacob away, and he goes to Padan-Aram, to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, brother of Rebekah, mother of Jacob and Esau. 6 And Esau sees that Isaac has blessed Jacob, and has sent him to Padan-Aram to take to himself from there a wife—in his blessing him that he lays a charge on him, saying, You must not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan— 7 that Jacob listens to his father and to his mother, and goes to Padan-Aram— 8 and Esau sees that the daughters of Canaan are evil in the eyes of his father Isaac, 9 and Esau goes to Ishmael, and takes Mahalath, daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, sister of Nebajoth, to his wives, to himself, for a wife. 10 And Jacob goes out from Beer-Sheba, and goes toward Haran, 11 and he touches at a [certain] place, and lodges there, for the sun has gone in, and he takes of the stones of the place, and makes [them] his pillows, and lies down in that place. 12 And he dreams, and behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and its head is touching the heavens; and behold, messengers of God are going up and coming down by it; 13 and behold, YHWH is standing on it, and He says, “I [am] YHWH, God of your father Abraham, and God of Isaac; the land on which you are lying, to you I give it, and to your seed; 14 and your seed has been as the dust of the land, and you have broken forth westward, and eastward, and northward, and southward, and all families of the ground have been blessed in you and in your seed. 15 And behold, I [am] with you, and have kept you wherever you go, and have caused you to return to this ground; for I do not leave you until I have surely done that which I have spoken to you.” 16 And Jacob awakens out of his sleep and says, “Surely YHWH is in this place, and I did not know”; 17 and he fears and says, “How fearful [is] this place; this is nothing but a house of God, and this a gate of the heavens.” 18 And Jacob rises early in the morning, and takes the stone which he has made his pillows, and makes it a standing pillar, and pours oil on its top, 19 and he calls the name of that place Bethel, [house of God,] and yet, Luz [is] the name of the city at the first. 20 And Jacob vows a vow, saying, “Seeing God is with me, and has kept me in this way which I am going, and has given to me bread to eat, and a garment to put on— 21 when I have turned back in peace to the house of my father, and YHWH has become my God, 22 then this stone which I have made a standing pillar is a house of God, and all that You give to me—tithing I tithe to You.”
Genesis · Literal Standard Version
Genesis 28 Literal Standard Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
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
Bethel
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
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)