Before Jacob left, Isaac called for him, blessed him, and gave him these instructions: “I forbid you to marry any Canaanite woman. Leave at once for the land of your grandfather Bethuel in Paddan-Aram and find one of the young women there to marry, one of your uncle Laban’s daughters. May the God who is always more than enough bless you abundantly. May he make you fruitful and multiply your descendants until you become many tribes! May he impart to you and your seed the blessing of Abraham so that you may possess the land where you now live as a foreigner—the land God gave to Abraham.”
Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way to Paddan-Aram, the land of his grandfather Bethuel the Aramean, to the home of Laban, Bethuel’s son and the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.
Esau had learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him away to Paddan-Aram to find a wife there, and that while blessing him, Isaac had instructed him, “Don’t marry a Canaanite woman.” Furthermore, Esau found out that Jacob had obeyed his parents and fled to Paddan-Aram. Esau, knowing that his father Isaac disapproved of Canaanite women, went to Ishmael’s clan and chose a woman named Mahalath to be one of his wives. She was the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, and sister of Nebaioth.
Jacob left Beersheba and journeyed toward Haran. He encountered a certain place at sunset and camped there for the night. He took a stone from there, made it his pillow, and lay down to sleep. He had a dream of a stairway securely fixed on the earth and reaching into heaven. And there were messengers of God ascending and descending on the stairway. And YAHWEH stood beside him and said to him, “I am YAHWEH, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. You are lying on the very ground that I will give to you and your descendants. They will become as numerous as the specks of dust on the earth, and they will extend their territory in all directions. Through you and your descendants, I will bless the whole world. Never forget—I am always with you and will protect you wherever you go. And one day I will bring you back to this land, for I will neither leave you nor fail to fulfill every word I have promised you.”
When Jacob awoke from his dream, he was overcome with awe and said, “YAHWEH is here! He is in this place and I didn’t realize it!” Terrified and overwhelmed, he said, “How awesome is this place! I have stumbled right into the House of God! This place is a portal, the very gate of heaven!”
Early in the morning, Jacob took the stone he had under his head, set it up as a pillar and anointed it by pouring oil over the top of it. He named that place Bethel; though the city was once called Luz.
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