1 Vocavit itaque Isaac Jacob, et benedixit eum, præcepitque ei dicens: Noli accipere conjugem de genere Chanaan: 2 sed vade, et proficiscere in Mesopotamiam Syriæ, ad domum Bathuel patris matris tuæ, et accipe tibi inde uxorem de filiabus Laban avunculi tui. 3 Deus autem omnipotens benedicat tibi, et crescere te faciat, atque multiplicet, ut sis in turbas populorum. 4 Et det tibi benedictiones Abrahæ, et semini tuo post te: ut possideas terram peregrinationis tuæ, quam pollicitus est avo tuo. 5 Cumque dimisisset eum Isaac, profectus venit in Mesopotamiam Syriæ ad Laban filium Bathuel Syri, fratrem Rebeccæ matris suæ. 6 Videns autem Esau quod benedixisset pater suus Jacob, et misisset eum in Mesopotamiam Syriæ, ut inde uxorem duceret; et quod post benedictionem præcepisset ei, dicens: Non accipies uxorem de filiabus Chanaan: 7 quodque obediens Jacob parentibus suis isset in Syriam: 8 probans quoque quod non libenter aspiceret filias Chanaan pater suus: 9 ivit ad Ismaëlem, et duxit uxorem absque iis, quas prius habebat, Maheleth filiam Ismaël filii Abraham, sororem Nabaioth. 10 Igitur egressus Jacob de Bersabee, pergebat Haran. 11 Cumque venisset ad quemdam locum, et vellet in eo requiescere post solis occubitum, tulit de lapidibus qui jacebant, et supponens capiti suo, dormivit in eodem loco. 12 Viditque in somnis scalam stantem super terram, et cacumen illius tangens cælum: angelos quoque Dei ascendentes et descendentes per eam, 13 et Dominum innixum scalæ dicentem sibi: Ego sum Dominus Deus Abraham patris tui, et Deus Isaac: terram, in qua dormis, tibi dabo et semini tuo. 14 Eritque semen tuum quasi pulvis terræ: dilataberis ad occidentem, et orientem, et septentrionem, et meridiem: et benedicentur in te et in semine tuo cunctæ tribus terræ. 15 Et ero custos tuus quocumque perrexeris, et reducam te in terram hanc: nec dimittam nisi complevero universa quæ dixi. 16 Cumque evigilasset Jacob de somno, ait: Vere Dominus est in loco isto, et ego nesciebam. 17 Pavensque, Quam terribilis est, inquit, locus iste ! non est hic aliud nisi domus Dei, et porta cæli. 18 Surgens ergo Jacob mane, tulit lapidem quem supposuerat capiti suo, et erexit in titulum, fundens oleum desuper. 19 Appellavitque nomen urbis Bethel, quæ prius Luza vocabatur. 20 Vovit etiam votum, dicens: Si fuerit Deus mecum, et custodierit me in via, per quam ego ambulo, et dederit mihi panem ad vescendum, et vestimentum ad induendum, 21 reversusque fuero prospere ad domum patris mei: erit mihi Dominus in Deum, 22 et lapis iste, quem erexi in titulum, vocabitur Domus Dei: cunctorumque quæ dederis mihi, decimas offeram tibi.
Genesis 28 Clementine Vulgate
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)