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.
2 Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel thy
mother's father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy
mother's brother.
3 And G-d Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and
multiply thee, that thou mayest be a congregation of peoples;
4 and give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy
seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land of thy sojournings, which G-d
gave unto Abraham.'
5 And Isaac sent away Jacob; and he went to Paddan-aram unto
Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's
mother.
6 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away
to Paddan-aram, 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 daughters of
Canaan';
7 and that Jacob hearkened to his father and his mother, and
was gone to Paddan-aram;
8 and Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac
his father;
9 so Esau went unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives that he
had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaioth, to
be his wife.
10 And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran.
11 And he lighted upon the place, and tarried there all
night, because the sun was set; and he took one of the stones of the place, and
put it under his head, and lay down in that place 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 G-d ascending and
descending on it.
13 And, behold, HaShem stood beside him, and said: 'I am
HaShem, the G-d of Abraham thy father, and the G-d of Isaac. The land whereon
thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed.
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.
15 And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee
whithersoever thou goest, and will bring thee back into this land; for I will
not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.'
16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said: 'Surely
HaShem is in this place; and I knew it not.'
17 And he was afraid, and said: 'How full of awe is this
place! this is none other than the house of G-d, and this is the gate of
heaven.'
18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone
that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon
the top of it.
19 And he called the name of that place Beth-el, but the name
of the city was Luz at the first.
20 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying: 'If G-d 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 back to my father's house in peace, then
shall HaShem be my G-d,
22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be
G-d's house; and of all that Thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth
unto Thee.'
Sources: Portions copyright © 1997 by Benyamin Pilant, All Rights Reserved
JPS Electronic Edition, based on the 1917 JPS translation, Copyright © 1998 by Larry Nelson, All Rights Reserved
Jewish
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