Genesis 28:1-9

Jacob Is Sent Away

1 So Isaac called Jacob and ¹blessed him and charged him, and said to him, "²You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.

2 "Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of ³Bethuel your mother's father; and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother's brother.

3 "May ⁴God Almighty ⁵bless you and ⁶make you fruitful and ⁷multiply you, that you may become a ⁸company of peoples.

4 "May He also give you the ⁹blessing of Abraham, to you and to your descendants with you, that you may ¹⁰possess the land of your ¹¹sojournings, which God gave to Abraham."

5 Then ¹²Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

6 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take to himself a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he charged him, saying, "¹³You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,"

7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan-aram.

8 So Esau saw that ¹⁴the daughters of Canaan displeased his father Isaac;

9 and Esau went to Ishmael, and married *, ¹⁵besides the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaioth.

Genesis 28:1-9 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.

Cross References

• 1. Genesis 27:33
• 2. Genesis 24:3, 4
• 3. Genesis 25:20
• 4. Genesis 17:1; Genesis 35:11; Genesis 48:3
• 5. Genesis 22:17
• 6. Genesis 17:6, 20
• 7. Genesis 17:2; Genesis 26:4, 24
• 8. Genesis 35:11; Genesis 48:4
• 9. Genesis 12:2; Genesis 22:17
• 10. Genesis 15:7, 8; Genesis 17:8
• 11. 1 Chronicles 29:15; Psalms 39:12
• 12. Genesis 27:43
• 13. Genesis 28:1
• 14. Genesis 24:3; Genesis 26:34, 35; Genesis 27:46
• 15. Genesis 26:34; Genesis 36:2

Footnotes

• [a]. Heb "El Shaddai"
• [b]. Lit "seed"
• [c]. Lit "in the eyes of his"
• [d]. Lit "took for his wife"