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Genesis 28 |
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| 28:1
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. |
"Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan."
Isaac tells Jacob not to marry a Canaanite.
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| 28:2
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. |
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| 28:3
And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee,
that thou mayest be a multitude of people; |
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| 28:4
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. |
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| 28:5
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. |
"Laban, son of Bethuel"
Who was Laban's father?
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| 28:6
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; |
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| 28:7
And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to
Padanaram; |
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| 28:8
And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father; |
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| 28:9
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. |
Esau, who already had two wives (26:34), "takes" another.
Is polygamy OK?
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| 28:10
And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. |
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| 28:11
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. |
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| 28:12
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's Dream
(Jusepe de
Ribera, 1639)
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| 28:13
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; |
"To thee will I give it, and to thy seed."
God repeats the same (land/progeny) promise
that he previously made to Abraham (13:15,
15:18, 17:8). Once again, the
promise wasn't kept. The descendents of Jacob (the Jews) are not particularly
numerous, have seldom possessed much of the land in question, and the nations on
earth haven't been blessed by them.
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| 28:14
And 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.
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| 28:15
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. |
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| 28:16
And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this
place; and I knew it not. |
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| 28:17
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. |
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| 28:18
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. |
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| 28:19
And he called the name
of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the
first. |
"He called the name of that place Bethel."
Jacob names Bethel for the first time, before
meeting Rachel. Later in 35:15, just before Rachel dies, he
names Bethel again. (And it was called Bethel long before it was named Bethel in 12:8 and
13:3.)
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| 28:20
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,
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| 28:21
So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the LORD be
my God: |
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| 28:22
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. |
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Jacob's Dream