Genesis 28

1 Then Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him, and charged him, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of the Canaanites. 2 Rise, and go at once to Mesopotamia, to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and take yourself a wife from there, from the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. 3 May my God bless you and increase you and multiply you, and you shall become gatherings of nations. 4 And may he give you the blessing of my father Abraham — to you, and to your seed after you — to inherit the land where you live as a stranger, the land God gave to Abraham.” 5 So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Mesopotamia, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau. 6 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Mesopotamia of Syria to take a wife from there — and that when he blessed him he charged him, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of the Canaanites” — 7 and that Jacob had listened to his father and his mother and gone to Mesopotamia of Syria. 8 And Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan were evil in the eyes of his father Isaac. 9 So Esau went to Ishmael, and took Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth, as a wife in addition to his other wives. [a]

10 And Jacob went out from the Well of the Oath and set out for Haran. 11 He came to a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place, put it at his head, and lay down to sleep there. 12 And he dreamed — and look: a ladder fixed on the earth, its top reaching to heaven, and the messengers of God were going up and coming down on it. [c] † 13 And the Lord stood upon it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham, and the God of Isaac. Do not be afraid. The land you are lying on — to you I will give it, and to your seed. 14 And your seed will be like the sand of the earth, and will spread out to the sea, and to the south, and to the north, and to the east. And in you and in your seed all the tribes of the earth will be blessed. 15 And look — I am with you, to keep you safe wherever you go on all your way, and I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done everything I have said to you.” 16 And Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “The Lord is in this place — and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid, and said, “How fearsome is this place! This is nothing other than the house of God — and this is the gate of heaven.” 18 And Jacob rose in the morning and took the stone he had put at his head, and set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on the top of it. 19 And Jacob called the name of that place the House of God; but the name of the city before was Ulam-luz. [b] 20 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, “If the Lord God will be with me and guard me on this journey I am making, and give me bread to eat and clothes to wear, 21 and bring me back safely to my father’s house — then the Lord shall be my God, 22 and this stone that I have set up as a pillar shall be for me a house of God. And of everything you give me, I will give a tenth back to you.”