Genesis 28
Big idea: Jacob leaves home a thief, a liar, and a fugitive, with nothing but the clothes he is wearing — and God meets him on the first night. Isaac sends him off, this time openly, with the blessing of Abraham spoken over him. Then, alone in open country with a stone for a pillow, Jacob dreams of a stairway crowded with angels going up and down, and Yahweh standing above it. What God says contains not one word about Jacob's behaviour: the land, the offspring, the blessing for all families of the earth, and — the promise Jacob will live on — behold, I am with you, and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back. He wakes terrified: Yahweh was in this place and I didn't know it.
Chapter 28 sends Jacob out with a vow to come back to Bethel if God keeps him. Chapter 29 drops him at a well in Haran, where the deceiver is about to meet a better deceiver — and the twenty years of keeping begin.
28:1–9 — Sent away with Abraham's blessing
Isaac calls Jacob, blesses him openly this time, and commands him not to marry a Canaanite but to go to Paddan Aram and take a wife from Laban's house. He pronounces the blessing of Abraham over him — fruitfulness, a company of peoples, and the land God gave Abraham. Esau, seeing all this, works out that Canaanite wives displease his father and marries a daughter of Ishmael, adding her to the wives he already has.
1 Isaac called Jacob, blessed him, and commanded him, “You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. 2 Arise, go to Paddan Aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father. Take a wife from there from the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. 3 May God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, that you may be a company of peoples, 4 and give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you, that you may inherit the land where you travel, which God gave to Abraham.” 5 Isaac sent Jacob away. He went to Paddan Aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob’s and Esau’s mother. 6 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan Aram, to take him a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a command, saying, “You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan;” 7 and that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Paddan Aram. 8 Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan didn’t please Isaac, his father. 9 So Esau went to Ishmael, and took, in addition to the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife.
28:10–15 — The stairway, and I am with you
Jacob leaves Beersheba for Haran and stops for the night because the sun has set, taking a stone for a pillow. He dreams: a stairway set on the earth with its top reaching to the sky, angels of God going up and down on it, and Yahweh standing above it. God identifies himself as the God of Abraham and Isaac and gives Jacob the covenant directly — this land, offspring as the dust of the earth, all families of the earth blessed in him — and then the personal promise: I am with you, will keep you wherever you go, will bring you back, and will not leave you until I have done what I promised.
10 Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. 11 He came to a certain place, and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. He took one of the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep. 12 He dreamed and saw a stairway set upon the earth, and its top reached to heaven. Behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 Behold, Yahweh stood above it, and said, “I am Yahweh, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. I will give the land you lie on to you and to your offspring. 14 Your offspring will be as the dust of the earth, and you will spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. In you and in your offspring, all the families of the earth will be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you, and will keep you, wherever you go, and will bring you again into this land. For I will not leave you until I have done that which I have spoken of to you.”
28:16–22 — Surely Yahweh is in this place
Jacob wakes and says what the chapter is about: surely Yahweh is in this place, and I didn't know it. Afraid, he calls it the house of God and the gate of heaven, sets his stone pillow up as a pillar, pours oil on it, and renames the place Bethel. Then he makes a vow — if God will be with me, keep me, feed and clothe me, and bring me back in peace, then Yahweh will be my God, this stone will be God's house, and I will give a tenth of all he gives me.
16 Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said, “Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I didn’t know it.” 17 He was afraid, and said, “How awesome this place is! This is none other than God’s house, and this is the gate of heaven.” 18 Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on its top. 19 He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first. 20 Jacob vowed a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and clothing to put on, 21 so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, and Yahweh will be my God, 22 then this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, will be God’s house. Of all that you will give me I will surely give a tenth to you.”
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).