This chapter continues telling about the conflict between adult twins Esau and Jacob. 

Their father Isaac, sends the younger one, Jacob, off to Paddan-aram to find a wife from Rebekah’s brother Laban’s family near Haran, the town named for Abraham’s brother. Isaac repeats God’s blessing to Abraham of offspring and nations to Jacob. Isaac specifically warns him to not marry into the people group they live near, the Canaanites. 

Older brother Esau, who already has two Canaanite wives and desires his father’s approval, immediately goes to Ishmael’s family’s territory and marries his cousin Mahalath. Ishmael was Esau’s half-uncle through Grandpa Abraham and Hagar, Grandma Sarah’s Egyptian slave. I am not sure a third wife will solve his problems. 

Meanwhile, Padam-aram is 450 miles east of Beersheba, so it is a very long trip for Jacob traveling across the desert by camel. When the sun sets in the wilderness, Jacob sleeps on the ground using a rock for his head. Jacob dreams of a ladder with angels going up and down from heaven. God speaks to Jacob, promising him offspring like the dust, to bring him back to his land, and his presence no matter where he goes.  

When Jacob wakes up, he put the stone he slept on a pillar, pours oil on it and calls the place Bethel, meaning house of God. Jacob promises God that if he provides him food, clothing and a peaceful return to his family’s home, Jacob will make the pillar into a temple for God and give ten percent, a tithe. 

It’s interesting to me that Jacob is sent to Haran because when Abraham was originally called away from there to go to Canaan, he was told to leave his kin, yet they keep going back. First, Abraham brought his nephew Lot, then they fetched Rebekah for Isaac, and now Jacob is going there specifically for a wife. It’s not going to be an easy task, and yet God promises to be with him.