The Holy Bible – Knox Translation
The Book of Genesis
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Chapter 28
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1
So Isaac summoned Jacob to him, and gave him his blessing, and laid this charge upon him: It is not for thee to marry a woman of Chanaanite stock;
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rather bestir thyself, and make thy way to Mesopotamia of the Syrians; there dwelt thy mother’s father, Bathuel, there thou mayest wed one of the daughters of thy uncle Laban.
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God Almighty bless thee, and make thy posterity thrive and increase, so that a multitude of nations may spring from thee.
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May he grant to thee, and to thy race after thee, the blessing which he promised to thy grandfather Abraham; possession of the land in which thou dwellest now as a stranger.
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Jacob took leave of him, and set out on his journey to Mesopotamia of the Syrians, to the home of his uncle Laban, son of Bathuel, the Syrian.
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An ill day for Esau; here was Jacob sent with his father’s blessing to find himself a wife in Syria; forbidden, as he would win that blessing, to marry a Chanaanite;
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here was Jacob gone all the way to Mesopotamia in obedience to his parents’ whim!
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These women of Chanaan, Esau thought, are little to my father’s liking;
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so he betook himself to Ismael,✻ and married a third wife, Maheleth, daughter to Abraham’s son Ismael, and sister to Nabaioth.
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Meanwhile Jacob had left Bersabee, and was on his way to Haran.
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There was a place he reached as nightfall overtook him, so that he must lie down and rest; so he took one of the stones that lay around him, to make a pillow of it, and went to sleep.
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He dreamed that he saw a ladder standing on the earth, with its top reaching up into heaven; a stairway for the angels of God to go up and come down.
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Over this ladder the Lord himself leaned down, and spoke to Jacob, I am the Lord, he said, the God of thy father Abraham, the God of Isaac; this ground on which thou liest sleeping is my gift to thee and to thy posterity.
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Thy race shall be countless as the dust of the earth; to west and east, to north and south thou shalt overflow thy frontiers, till all the families on earth find a blessing in thee, and in this race of thine.
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I myself will watch over thee wherever thou goest, and bring thee back to this land again; before I have done with thee, all my promises to thee shall be fulfilled.
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When he awoke from his dream, Jacob said to himself, Why, this is the Lord’s dwelling-place, and I slept here unaware of it!
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And he shuddered; What a fearsome place is this! said he. This can be nothing other than the house of God; this is the gate of Heaven.
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So it was that, when he rose in the morning, Jacob took the stone which had been his pillow, and set it up there as a monument, and poured oil upon it;
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and he called the place Bethel, the House of God, that was called Luza till then.
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And there he took a vow; If God will be with me, he said, and watch over me on this journey of mine, and give me bread to eat and clothes to cover my back,
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till at last I return safe to my father’s house, then the Lord shall be my God.
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This stone, too, which I have set up as a monument, shall be called the House of God. And of all the gifts thou sendest me, a tenth part shall be the offering I make thee.
