Genesis
Chapter 28
PATRIARCHAL CYCLE: JACOB
Jacob the Pilgrim
Isaac summoned Jacob and blessed him and commanded him: “Do not marry a Canaanite woman.
Go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and choose a wife for yourself from the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.
May God Almighty bless you and make you increase to become a group of nations.
May he grant you and your descendants the blessings of Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you live now, which the Lord gave to Abraham.
Isaac sent Jacob away and he went to Paddan-aram to Laban, the son of Bethuel, the Aramean, brother of Rebekah.
Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to choose a wife for himself, and in blessing him had commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman.”
And in obedience to his father and mother, Jacob had gone to Paddan-aram.
Therefore, Esau under-stood how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac.
Consequently, he went to Ishmael and chose a wife for himself in addition to those he already had—Mahalath, daughter of Ishmael, son of Abraham and sister of Nebaioth.
Jacob at Bethel
Jacob left Beer-sheba and set out for Haran.
When he reached a certain place, the sun had set, and he spent the night there. He took one of the stones that were there and, using it as a pillow, he lay down to sleep.
While Jacob was sleeping, he dreamed of a ladder that stood on the earth, its top reaching to heaven, with angels of God ascending and descending.
And the Lord was standing near him and said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father, Abraham, and the God of Isaac. I give you and your descendants the land on which you sleep.
Your descendants will be as numerous as the specks of dust on the earth, and you will spread out to the west and the east, to the north and the south. Through you and your descendants, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
See, I am with you, and I will keep you safe wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land and will not leave you until I have fulfilled what I promised.”
Jacob woke from his dream and said: “Truly the Lord was in this place and I was not aware of it.”
He was afraid and said: “How full of awe is this place! It is nothing less than a house of God; it is the Gate to Heaven!”
Then Jacob rose early, took the stone he had placed under his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it.
He named that place Bethel, although it was previously called Luz.
Then Jacob made a vow: “If the Lord will be with me and keep me safe during this journey I am making, if he gives me bread to eat and clothes to wear,
and if I return in peace to my father’s house, then the Lord will be my God.
This stone I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me, I will give back a tenth.
Commentaries
Jacob the Pilgrim.
Verses 3f encompass the blessing anticipated in 27:27. Verses 5-9 seem to overlook the entirety of chapter 27. Esau appears not to grasp his father’s preferences or, perhaps, the rules and limitations imposed by his family: not to marry Canaanite women. The literary connection linking the Edomites to the Ishmaelites is that Esau marries Mahalath, daughter of Ishmael, son of Abraham (9). The variety of viewpoints in these initial verses reflects the differing traditions and eras that have influenced the evaluation of the patriarchs and the historical experiences of the people. For example, in 27:42f, Rebecca advises her son Jacob to flee to Haran to his parents’ house to escape Esau’s vengeance. Meanwhile, in 28:2, it is Isaac who sends his son to his maternal relatives to marry there. This emphasis on avoiding marriages with non-Israelite women may reflect the exilic and postexilic era, during which the concern for strict observance of the Law became almost an obsession, leading to a complete rejection of anyone who was not a descendant of the Jewish nation.
Jacob at Bethel.
God appears to Jacob in dreams, a common means of communication with God in the Bible. The divine apparition, or theophany, aims to affirm the divine promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The writers of Genesis have a distinct interest in establishing this theophany specifically here, at Bethel, a highly significant site for the northern kingdom, just as Beersheba, Shechem, and Hebron are in the Abrahamic cycle, and therefore for the southern kingdom.