Jacob Leaves Home

1 And the words of Esau, her elder son, were told to Rebekah in a dream, and Rebekah sent and called Jacob her younger son, 2 and said to him: 'Look, Esau your brother will take vengeance on you so as to kill you. 3 Now, therefore, my son, obey my voice, and get up and flee to Laban, my brother, to Haran, and stay with him a few days until your brother's anger turns away, and he removes his anger from you, and forgets all that you have done; then I will send and bring you back from there.' 4 And Jacob said: 'I am not afraid; if he wishes to kill me, I will kill him.' 5 But she said to him: 'Do not let me be deprived of both my sons on one day.' 6 And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother: 'Look, you know that my father has become old, and does not see because his eyesight is weak, and if I leave him he will think it wrong, because I leave him and go away from you, and my father will be angry, and will curse me. I will not go; when he sends me, then only I will go.' 7 And Rebekah said to Jacob: 'I will go in and speak to him, and he will send you away.' 8 And Rebekah went in and said to Isaac: 'I loathe my life because of the two daughters of Heth, whom Esau has taken as wives; and if Jacob takes a wife from among the daughters of the land such as these, what reason would I have to go on living, for the daughters of Canaan are evil.' 9 And Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and instructed him and said to him: 10 'Do not marry a woman from among any of the daughters of Canaan; get up and go to Mesopotamia, to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and marry a woman there from among the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. 11 And may God Almighty bless you and increase and multiply you so that you may become a company of nations, and give you the blessings of my father Abraham, to you and to your descendants after you, so that you may inherit the land where you live as foreigners and all the land which God gave to Abraham: go, my son, in peace.' 12 And Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Mesopotamia, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's mother. 13 And after Jacob had set out to go to Mesopotamia, Rebekah grieved for her son, and she wept. 14 And Isaac said to Rebekah: 'My sister, do not weep on account of Jacob, my son; for he goes in peace, and in peace he will return. 15 The Most High God will preserve him from all evil, and will be with him; for He will not abandon him all his days; 16 For I know that his ways will be prospered in all things wherever he goes, until he returns in peace to us, and we see him in peace. 17 Do not fear on his account, my sister, for he is on the upright path and he is a perfect man: and he is faithful and will not perish. Do not weep.' 18 And Isaac comforted Rebekah on account of her son Jacob, and blessed him.

The Revelation at Bethel

19 And Jacob went from the Well of the Oath to go to Haran on the first year of the second week in the forty-fourth jubilee, and he came to Luz on the mountains, that is, Bethel, on the new moon of the first month of this week, [2115] and he came to the place at evening and turned from the way to the west of the road that night: and he slept there; for the sun had set. 20 And he took one of the stones of that place and laid it at his head under the tree, and he was journeying alone, and he slept. 21 And he dreamed that night, and he saw a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven, and the angels of the Lord were going up and down on it: and the Lord stood upon it.⁠a 22 And he spoke to Jacob and said: 'I am the Lord God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac; the land on which you are sleeping, I will give it to you, and to your descendants after you. 23 And your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth, and you shall increase to the west and to the east, to the north and the south, and in you and in your descendants all the families of the nations shall be blessed. 24 And look, I will be with you, and will keep you wherever you go, and I will bring you back into this land in peace; for I will not leave you until I do everything that I told you of.' 25 And Jacob awoke from his sleep, and said, 'Truly this place is the house of the Lord, and I did not know it.' And he was afraid and said: 'This place, which is none other than the house of God, is awe-inspiring, and this is the gate of heaven.'⁠b 26 And Jacob got up early in the morning, and took the stone which he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar for a sign, and he poured oil upon the top of it. And he named that place Bethel; but the name of the place was Luz at first. 27 And Jacob made a vow to the Lord, saying: 'If the Lord will be with me, and will keep me on the journey I am taking, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I return to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone which I have set up as a pillar for a sign in this place, shall be the Lord's house, and of all that You give me, I shall give the tenth to You, my God.'