0 SAB Genesis 28

Genesis

CHAPTER 28

Isaac's instruction to his son Jacob: Don't marry a Canaanite.
28:1-5

1 And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.

Isaac called Jacob, blessed him, and said to him,

Don't marry a Canaanite. [1]

2 Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughers of Laban thy mother's brother.

Go marry one of your uncle Laban's daughters.

3 And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people;

God will bless you, make you fruitful, and multiply you, so you'll be a multitude of people.

4 And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.

And God will give you and your seed the blessing of Abraham, so you'll inherit the land that God gave to Abraham.

5 And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padanaram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.

Isaac sent Jacob to visit his uncle Laban (the son of Bethuel). [2]

Esau collects a third wife.
28:6-9

6 When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padanaram, to take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughers of Canaan;

7 And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padanaram;

8 And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father;

When Esau heard that his brother Jacob was obeying his parents by marrying his cousin, he decided to marry a local Canaanite girl -- just to piss off his xenophobic parents.

9 Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.

Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, became one of Esau's wives. [3]

Jacob dreams on a pillow of stones.
28:10-17

10 And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.

11 And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.

On his journey to visit his uncle Laban, Jacob stopped for the night at a certain place.

He gathered some stones for his pillows, and went to sleep.

12 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

Jacob dreamed that night about a ladder set up on earth but reaching to heaven, with angels ascending and descending on it.

13 And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;

14And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

15 And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.

And God himself stood above it, and said,

I am Abraham and Isaac's God.

I'm going to give you and your seed the land that you are lying upon.

Your seed will be like the dust of the earth. [4]

You'll spread abroad, to the east, west, north, and south.

Everyone on earth will be blessed in your seed.

I'm with you and won't leave you until all this has been done.

16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.

17 And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

When Jacob woke up he was afraid, and said,

God is in this place, and I didn't know it.

How dreadful is this place! This is the house of God and the gate of heaven.

18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.

The next morning, Jacob took his stone pillow, set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on top of it.

19And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.

Jacob named the place where he dreamed "Bethel" -- for the first time, before meeting Rachel. [5]

20 And 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 raiment to put on,

21 So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God:

22 And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.

Jacob made a vow to God, saying,

If God will be with me, feed me, clothe me, and help me return home in peace, then God will be my God.

The stone that I set up as a pillar is God's house.

And I'll give to God a tenth of all that he gives to me.

VegetableEMPEROR2 weeks ago

Jacob's ladder dream seems a bit understated, given what God did to the Tower of Babel just a handful of chapters prior. It's believed that there's a connection between what men tried to create as a pathway to Heaven (the Tower) and what Jacob witnessed in his dream (the ladder or stairway that angels use to link Heaven and Earth). God is essentially revealing himself to Jacob and saying that "works" are not the way to Heaven, but a covenant with God is.

This is important because throughout the Bible, there are contradictions concerning salvation and how to actually get into Heaven. Is it by works? It it through faith? Apparently, it depends on whose assessment you read. Pastors today still struggle with this question because they have no idea which passages in the Bible to trust and which to ignore.

As Esau may say, "It figures."

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