Isaac gave instructions to Jacob

1Then Isaac summoned Jacob, and gave him a blessing. He told him, “Do not marry a woman of the Canaan people-group.

2Instead, go right away to Paddan-Aram in northwest Mesopotamia, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Ask one of the daughters of your mother’s brother Laban to marry you.

3I will pray that God Almighty will bless you, and enable you to get married and have many descendants, in order that they will become many people-groups.

4I also will pray that he will bless you and your descendants by enabling you to possess/seize the land in which you are now living as a foreigner, the land that God promised to give to my father Abraham and his descendants.”

5So Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-Aram, to live with Rebekah’s brother Laban, the son of Bethuel, who belonged to the Aram people-group.

Esau married Ishmael’s daughter

6Esau found out that his father Isaac had blessed Jacob and then sent him to Paddan-Aram. He also found out that when he blessed Isaac, he told him, “Do not marry a woman of the Canaan people-group,”

7and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother, and had gone to Paddan-Aram.

8Esau also realized that his father Isaac did not approve of women from the Canaan people-group.

9Because of that, Esau went to see his uncle Ishmael, and married Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael. Mahalath was the sister of Nabaioth and the granddaughter of Abraham.

God made a promise to Jacob in a dream

10Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and started walking along the road to Haran.

11When he arrived at a certain place, he stopped there, because the sun had gone down. He took one of the stones there and put it under his head to use as a pillow. Then he lay down and slept there.

12While he was sleeping, he had a dream, in which he was surprised to see a stairway. The bottom of the stairway was on the earth and the top was in the sky. Jacob also saw that God’s angels were going up and down the stairway.

13And he was surprised to see Yahweh standing at the top of the stairway, saying “I am Yahweh God, whom your grandfather Abraham worshiped, and whom Isaac worships. I will give to you and to your descendants the land on which you are lying.

14Your descendants will be as numerous as the particles of dirt that are on the earth, and their territory will be very large. It will extend in all directions, to the east and to the west, to the north and to the south. And people of all people-groups on earth will receive blessings because of what happens to you and to your descendants.

15I will help you and protect you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you; I will continue to do for you all that I have promised to do.”

16During the night, when Jacob woke up from sleeping, he thought, “Surely Yahweh is in this place, and until now I was not aware of it!”

17He was afraid, and he said, “This place is very awesome! This is surely the place where God lives, and this is the entrance to heaven!”

18In the morning Jacob got up and took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up on its end to show that the place was a holy place. He poured some olive oil on top of the stone to dedicate it to God.

19He named that place Bethel, which means ‘house of God’. Previously its name was Luz.

20Jacob solemnly promised God, saying, “God, if you will help me and protect me while I am taking this journey, and if you give me enough food to eat and clothes to wear,

21in order that I can later return safely to my father’s house, then you, Yahweh, will be the God that I will worship.

22This stone that I have set up will mark the place where people can worship you. And I will give back to you a tenth of everything that you give to me.”