Genesis 28:1-10

1 So Yitz'chak called Ya'akov, and, after blessing him, charged him: "You are not to choose a wife from the Hitti women.

2 Go now to the home of B'tu'el your mother's father, and choose a wife there from the daughters of Lavan your mother's brother.

3 May El Shaddai bless you, make you fruitful and increase your descendants, until they become a whole assembly of peoples.

4 And may he give you the blessing which he gave Avraham, you and your descendants with you, so that you will possess the land you will travel through, the land God gave to Avraham."

5 So Yitz'chak sent Ya'akov away; and he went to Paddan-Aram, to Lavan, son of B'tu'el the Arami, the brother of Rivkah Ya'akov's and 'Esav's mother.

6 Now 'Esav saw that Yitz'chak had blessed Ya'akov and sent him away to Paddan-Aram to choose a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he charged him, "You are not to choose a Kena'ani woman as your wife,"

7 and that Ya'akov had listened to his father and mother and gone to Paddan-Aram.

8 'Esav also saw that the Kena'ani women did not please Yitz'chak his father.

9 So 'Esav went to Yishma'el and took, in addition to the wives he already had, Machalat the daughter of Yishma'el Avraham's son, the sister of N'vayot, to be his wife.

10 Ya'akov went out from Be'er-Sheva and traveled toward Haran.

Genesis 28:1-10 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 28

In this chapter an account is given of the charge Isaac gave to Jacob not to marry a Canaanitess, but to go to Padanaram, and take a wife from his mother's family, and of his blessing him before he sent him away, Ge 28:1-5; of the notice that Esau took of this blessing and charge, which led him to take a wife of the family of Ishmael, Ge 28:6-9; of the dream of the ladder, which Jacob had in his way to Haran, Ge 28:10-12; of the blessing which God conferred upon him there, Ge 28:13-15; of the awfulness of the place upon his awaking, and of his erecting a pillar in it, and giving a name to it, Ge 28:16-19; and of the vow he made to God, should he be supplied with the necessaries of life, and be kept in safety by him, Ge 28:20-22.