Chapter 28

     So Yischaq sent for Ya’akov and blessed him.  He instructed him, saying, “You shall not take a wife from among the Kna’aniy women.  Up, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bthuw’el, your mother’s father, and take a wife there from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.  May El Shaddai bless you, make you fertile and numerous, so that you become an assembly of peoples, may He grant the blessing of Abraham to you and your offspring, that you may possess the land where you are sojourning, which Elohim assigned to Abraham.”

     Then Yischaq sent Ya’akov off, and he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban the son of Bthuw’el the Arammi, the brother of Rivqah, mother of Ya’akov and Esav.

     When Esav saw that Yischaq had blessed Ya’akov and sent him off to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there, charging him, as he blessed him, “You shall not take a wife from among the Kna’aniy women,” and that Ya’akov had obeyed his father and mother and gone to Paddan-aram, Esav realized that the Kna’aniy women displeased his father Yischaq.  So Esav went to Yishmael and took to wife, in addition to the wives he had, Machalath the daughter of Yishmael son of Abraham, sister of Nebayoth.

     Ya’akov left Beer shava, and set out for Charan.  He came upon a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had set.  Taking one of the stones of that place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place.

He had a dream; a stairway was set on the ground and its top reached to the sky, and angels of Elohim were going up and down on it.  And Yehovah was standing beside him and He said, “I am Yehovah, Elohim of your father Abraham and Elohim of Yischaq; the ground on which you are lying I will assign to you and to your offspring.  Your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south.  All the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you and your descendants.  Remember, I am with you:  I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land.  I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

     Ya’akov awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely Yehovah is present in this place, and I did not know it!”  Shaken, he said, “How awesome is this place!  This is none other than the abode of Elohim, and that is the gateway to heaven.”  Early in the morning, Ya’akov took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on the top of it.  He named that site Bayt el’; but previously the name of the city had been Luz.

     Ya’akov then made a vow, saying, “If Elohim remains with me, if He protects me on this journey that I am making, and gives me bread to eat and clothing to wear, and I return safe to my father’s house—Yehovah shall be my Elohim.  And this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, shall be Elohim’s abode; and of all that You give me, I will set aside a tithe for You.”

Pronunciation    Notes    Photo’s

THE WORD OF ELOHIM

GENESIS