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Genesis 28

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Part of Isaac and Jacob📖 Genesis introduction

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1Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and charged him, and said to him: “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. ✦ 2Arise, go to Padan Aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and take yourself a wife from there of the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother. ✦ 3“May God Almighty bless you, And make you fruitful and multiply you, That you may be an assembly of peoples; ✦ 4And give you the blessing of Abraham, To you and your descendants with you, That you may inherit the land In which you are a stranger, Which God gave to Abraham.” ✦ 5So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Padan Aram, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau. 6Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan Aram to take himself a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,” ✦ 7and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Padan Aram. ✦ 8Also Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan did not please his father Isaac. ✦ 9So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had. ✦ 10Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. ✦ 11So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. ✦ 12Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ✦ 13And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. ✦ 14Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. ✦ 15Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” ✦ 16Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” ✦ 17And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!” ✦ 18Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. ✦ 19And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously. ✦ 20Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, ✦ 21so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. ✦ 22And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.” ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Where this chapter connects

Gen 35 ·16Gen 28 ·10Gen 26 ·8Gen 24 ·8Gen 31 ·7Gen 48 ·6Gen 32 ·6Gen 12 ·6

Christ at the center

From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.

How Genesis 28 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

  • ★ Start hereDocumentaryExpedition BibleJoel Kramer · Free · evangelical

    On-location biblical archaeology from a credentialed archaeologist (M.A., excavated in Israel) — the best free place to start on "did it really happen?"

  • ★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical

    A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

  • ★ Start hereVideoOverview: Genesis 1–11BibleProject · 9 min · Free

    The single best free starting point for Genesis 1–11 — clear, visual, and faithful to the literary design.

  • VideoSpoken GospelSpoken Gospel · Free · evangelical

    Short, gospel-centered videos and spoken-word poems showing how each passage points to Jesus — especially strong on the Old Testament.

  • ReferenceBook of Genesis — Visual GuideBibleProject · Free

    A free structured guide to the whole book — outline, themes, and links to each video.

  • DocumentaryIs Genesis History?Del Tackett · Free · evangelical

    A young-earth-creationist case for a literal Genesis, free on YouTube. (YEC is one view held by faithful Christians; others read Genesis differently — see the genre guide on how to read it.)

Pastoral

  • SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical

    Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Seminary

  • ★ Start hereCommentaryGenesis (Word Biblical Commentary)Gordon J. Wenham · Paid · evangelical

    For decades the gold-standard commentary on Genesis — technical but rich. (See the ranked list for alternatives like Hamilton, NICOT.)

  • BookThe Pentateuch as NarrativeJohn H. Sailhamer · ~560 pp · Library · evangelical

    A literary-theological reading that makes Genesis's design visible.

Commentaries & study tools

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