| |
New Living Translation |   | |
 |
| |
| | Gen 28:1 | So Isaac called for Jacob, blessed him, and said, "Do not marry any of these Canaanite women.
| |
| | Gen 28:2 | Instead, go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of your grandfather Bethuel, and marry one of your uncle Laban's daughters.
| |
| | Gen 28:3 | May God Almighty bless you and give you many children. And may your descendants become a great assembly of nations!
| |
| | Gen 28:4 | May God pass on to you and your descendants the blessings he promised to Abraham. May you own this land where we now are foreigners, for God gave it to Abraham."
| |
| | Gen 28:5 | So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to stay with his uncle Laban, his mother's brother, the son of Bethuel the Aramean.
| |
| | Gen 28:6 | Esau heard that his father had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to find a wife, and that he had warned Jacob not to marry a Canaanite woman.
| |
| | Gen 28:7 | He also knew that Jacob had obeyed his parents and gone to Paddan-aram.
| |
| | Gen 28:8 | It was now very clear to Esau that his father despised the local Canaanite women.
| |
| | Gen 28:9 | So he visited his uncle Ishmael's family and married one of Ishmael's daughters, in addition to the wives he already had. His new wife's name was Mahalath. She was the sister of Nebaioth and the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son.
| |
| | Gen 28:10 | Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran.
| |
| | Gen 28:11 | At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone for a pillow and lay down to sleep.
| |
| | Gen 28:12 | As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from earth to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down on it.
| |
| | Gen 28:13 | At the top of the stairway stood the LORD, and he said, "I am the LORD, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I will give it to you and your descendants.
| |
| | Gen 28:14 | Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will cover the land from east to west and from north to south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants.
| |
| | Gen 28:15 | What's more, I will be with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. I will someday bring you safely back to this land. I will be with you constantly until I have finished giving you everything I have promised."
| |
| | Gen 28:16 | Then Jacob woke up and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I wasn't even aware of it."
| |
| | Gen 28:17 | He was afraid and said, "What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God--the gateway to heaven!"
| |
| | Gen 28:18 | The next morning he got up very early. He took the stone he had used as a pillow and set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it.
| |
| | Gen 28:19 | He named the place Bethel--"house of God"--though the name of the nearby village was Luz.
| |
| | Gen 28:20 | Then Jacob made this vow: "If God will be with me and protect me on this journey and give me food and clothing,
| |
| | Gen 28:21 | and if he will bring me back safely to my father, then I will make the LORD my God.
| |
| | Gen 28:22 | This memorial pillar will become a place for worshiping God, and I will give God a tenth of everything he gives me."
| |
