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Then Isaac summoned Jacob and gave him a blessing. He told him this: “Do not marry a woman from the women of the Canaanite people.
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Instead, go right away to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Ask one of the daughters of your mother’s brother Laban to marry you.
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I will pray that God Almighty bless you, and enable you to have many descendants, in order that they will become many different people groups.
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I also will pray that he bless you and your descendants by enabling you to possess the land in which you are now living as a foreigner, the land that God promised to give to Abraham and his descendants.”
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So Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan Aram to live with Rebekah’s brother Laban son of Bethuel, who belonged to the people group of the Arameans.
Esau Marries Mahalath
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Esau found out that his father Isaac had blessed Jacob and then sent him to Paddan Aram. He also found out that when his father blessed Jacob, he told him, “Do not marry a woman from the Canaanite people,”
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and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother, and had gone to Paddan Aram.
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Esau also realized that his father Isaac did not approve of women from the Canaan people.
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Because of that, Esau went to see his relative Ishmael and married Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael. Mahalath was the sister of Nabaioth and the granddaughter of Abraham.
Jacob’s Ladder
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Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and started to go toward Haran.
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When he arrived at a certain place, he stopped there because the sun had gone down. He took one of the stones there and put it under his head to use as a pillow. Then he lay down and slept there.
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While he was sleeping, he had a dream in which he saw a stairway. The bottom of the stairway was on the earth and the top was in the sky. Jacob also saw that God’s angels were going up and down the stairway.
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Then he saw Yahweh standing at the top of the stairway, saying “I am Yahweh God, whom your grandfather Abraham worshiped and whom Isaac worships. I will give to you and to your descendants the land on which you are lying.
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Your descendants will be as numerous as the particles of dust that are on the earth, and their territory will be very large. It will extend in all directions, to the east and to the west, to the north and to the south. I will bless all the clans and people groups on earth through you and your descendants.
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I will help you and protect you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you; I will do for you all that I have promised to do.”
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During the night, when Jacob woke up from sleeping, he thought, “Surely Yahweh is in this place, and until now I was not aware of it!”
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He was afraid, and he said, “This place is terrifying! This is surely the place where God lives, and this is the entrance to heaven!”
The Stone of Bethel
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The next morning Jacob got up, took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up on its end to mark the place where God had appeared to him. He poured some olive oil on top of the stone to set it apart for God.
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He named that place Bethel, which means “house of God.” Previously its name was Luz.
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Jacob solemnly promised God, saying, “If you will help me and protect me while I am taking this journey, and if you give me enough food to eat and clothes to wear,
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in order that I can later return safely to my father’s house, then you, Yahweh, will be the God that I will worship.
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This stone that I have set up will mark the place where you appeared to me. And I will give back to you a tenth of everything that you give to me.”
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