Genesis 28King James Version
Jacob flees toward Haran. He stops for the night, lays his head on a stone, and dreams of a ladder set up on the earth, its top reaching to heaven, with angels of God ascending and descending on it. The Lord stands above it and renews the covenant. Jacob wakes and says, 'Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not.' He names the place Bethel, the house of God.
Isaac sends Jacob to Paddan-aram to find a wife from Rebekah's family, formally blessing him with Abraham's blessing. Esau, seeing his Canaanite wives displease his parents, takes another wife from Ishmael's family. Jacob leaves and camps at a place he calls Luz. He dreams of a ladder reaching heaven with angels ascending and descending, and God standing at the top, renewing the covenant. Jacob wakes and is afraid. He sets up a stone pillar, pours oil on it, names the place Bethel, and makes a conditional vow.
A fugitive who has just stolen a blessing and is fleeing for his life encounters God in an open field at night and discovers the promise follows him wherever he goes.
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." Jesus in John 1 uses this image to describe himself: the place where heaven and earth connect.
Luz is in the central highlands of Canaan, about 20 kilometers north of Jerusalem, later a northern Israelite cult site that Jeroboam will use to put golden calves. The place has a history. Jacob's stone pillar is the first act of worship in his own name. The oil he pours on it is an anointing, the same root as Messiah. He does not know yet what he is setting up.
Jacob, alone for the first time and frightened; God, who appears without prerequisite; Isaac, who blesses formally at the chapter's start; Esau, making a new marriage that misses the point.
Bethel becomes one of the most sacred sites in Israel's history. The dream of the ladder or stairway is one of scripture's most visually powerful passages. Jacob's vow at the end is theologically interesting: it is conditional. 'If God does this, then God will be my God.' Even at a moment of divine encounter, Jacob is negotiating.
For when you are running away from what you did, and you fall asleep in an empty field, and something happens in the night that you cannot explain. The chapter says: God was in this place, and I knew it not.
1And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.
2Arise, go to Padanaram, 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.
3And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people;
4And 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.
5And 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.
6When 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 daughters of Canaan;
7And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padanaram;
8And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father;
9Then 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.
10And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.
11And 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.
12And 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.
13And, 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.
15And, 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.
16And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.
17And 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.
18And 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.
19And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.
20And 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,
21So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God:
22And 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.