1 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him: "Do not marry a Canaanite woman.2 Go at once to Paddan Aram, "to the house of your mother's father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.3 May God Almighty "bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples.4 May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham."5 Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.6 Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, "Do not marry a Canaanite woman,"7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram.8 Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac;9 so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had.10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran.11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.13 There above it "stood the LORD, and he said: "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. [^4]15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it."17 He was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven."18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it.19 He called that place Bethel, "though the city used to be called Luz.20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear21 so that I return safely to my father's household, then the LORD "will be my God22 and "this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth."

1 Vocavit itaque Isaac Jacob, et benedixit eum, prcepitque ei dicens : Noli accipere conjugem de genere Chanaan : 2 sed vade, et proficiscere in Mesopotamiam Syri, ad domum Bathuel patris matris tu, et accipe tibi inde uxorem de filiabus Laban avunculi tui. 3 Deus autem omnipotens benedicat tibi, et crescere te faciat, atque multiplicet, ut sis in turbas populorum. 4 Et det tibi benedictiones Abrah, et semini tuo post te : ut possideas terram peregrinationis tu, quam pollicitus est avo tuo. 5 Cumque dimisisset eum Isaac, profectus venit in Mesopotamiam Syri ad Laban filium Bathuel Syri, fratrem Rebecc matris su. 6 Videns autem Esau quod benedixisset pater suus Jacob, et misisset eum in Mesopotamiam Syri, ut inde uxorem duceret ; et quod post benedictionem prcepisset ei, dicens : Non accipies uxorem de filiabus Chanaan : 7 quodque obediens Jacob parentibus suis isset in Syriam : 8 probans quoque quod non libenter aspiceret filias Chanaan pater suus : 9 ivit ad Ismalem, et duxit uxorem absque iis, quas prius habebat, Maheleth filiam Ismal filii Abraham, sororem Nabaioth.10 Igitur egressus Jacob de Bersabee, pergebat Haran. 11 Cumque venisset ad quemdam locum, et vellet in eo requiescere post solis occubitum, tulit de lapidibus qui jacebant, et supponens capiti suo, dormivit in eodem loco. 12 Viditque in somnis scalam stantem super terram, et cacumen illius tangens clum : angelos quoque Dei ascendentes et descendentes per eam, 13 et Dominum innixum scal dicentem sibi : Ego sum Dominus Deus Abraham patris tui, et Deus Isaac : terram, in qua dormis, tibi dabo et semini tuo. 14 Eritque semen tuum quasi pulvis terr : dilataberis ad occidentem, et orientem, et septentrionem, et meridiem : et benedicentur in te et in semine tuo cunct tribus terr. 15 Et ero custos tuus quocumque perrexeris, et reducam te in terram hanc : nec dimittam nisi complevero universa qu dixi. 16 Cumque evigilasset Jacob de somno, ait : Vere Dominus est in loco isto, et ego nesciebam. 17 Pavensque, Quam terribilis est, inquit, locus iste ! non est hic aliud nisi domus Dei, et porta cli. 18 Surgens ergo Jacob mane, tulit lapidem quem supposuerat capiti suo, et erexit in titulum, fundens oleum desuper. 19 Appellavitque nomen urbis Bethel, qu prius Luza vocabatur. 20 Vovit etiam votum, dicens : Si fuerit Deus mecum, et custodierit me in via, per quam ego ambulo, et dederit mihi panem ad vescendum, et vestimentum ad induendum, 21 reversusque fuero prospere ad domum patris mei : erit mihi Dominus in Deum, 22 et lapis iste, quem erexi in titulum, vocabitur Domus Dei : cunctorumque qu dederis mihi, decimas offeram tibi.