Genesischapter 28

22 verses · ASV

This chapter sends 269 cross-references outward and receives 294 — heaviest partner: Genesis.

Chapter summary

Jacob's ladder. Isaac sends Jacob back to Mesopotamia with a repeated blessing and a command — do not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Alone at Luz he dreams: a ladder set up on the earth, its top reaching heaven, the angels of God ascending and descending, the LORD standing above it. The Abrahamic promise is repeated word for word. Jacob wakes: ‘surely the LORD is in this place, and I knew it not … this is the gate of heaven’. He sets up the stone as a pillar, pours oil on it, names the place Bethel, and vows. John 1:51 anchors in this ladder: the Son of Man is that staircase.

Drafted from Matthew Henry, Calvin, Gill, Clarke, JFB, and Barnes.

Context

Law · Moses — see the Genesis overview for the book's full setting.

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 God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a company 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 God gave unto Abraham.

5 And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Paddan-aram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, 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 obeyed 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 and Esau went unto Ishmael, and took, besides the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife.