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Genesis 28

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1 Then Isaac sent for Jacob, and blessing him, said, Do not take a wife from among the women of Canaan;

2 But go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and there get yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.

3 And may God, the Ruler of all, give you his blessing, giving you fruit and increase, so that you may become an army of peoples.

4 And may God give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your seed, so that the land of your wanderings, which God gave to Abraham, may be your heritage.

5 So Isaac sent Jacob away: and he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramaean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

6 So when Esau saw that Isaac had given Jacob his blessing, and sent him away to Paddan-aram to get a wife for himself there, blessing him and saying to him, Do not take a wife from among the women of Canaan;

7 And that Jacob had done as his father and mother said and had gone to Paddan-aram;

8 It was clear to Esau that his father had no love for the women of Canaan,

9 So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath, the daughter of Abraham's son Ishmael, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.

10 So Jacob went out from Beer-sheba to go to Haran.

11 And coming to a certain place, he made it his resting-place for the night, for the sun had gone down; and he took one of the stones which were there, and putting it under his head he went to sleep in that place.

12 And he had a dream, and in his dream he saw steps stretching from earth to heaven, and the angels of God were going up and down on them.

13 And he saw the Lord by his side, saying, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac: I will give to you and to your seed this land on which you are sleeping.

14 Your seed will be like the dust of the earth, covering all the land to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south: you and your seed will be a name of blessing to all the families of the earth.

15 And truly, I will be with you, and will keep you wherever you go, guiding you back again to this land; and I will not give you up till I have done what I have said to you.

16 And Jacob, awaking from his sleep, said, Truly, the Lord is in this place and I was not conscious of it.

17 And fear came on him, and he said, This is a holy place; this is nothing less than the house of God and the doorway of heaven.

18 And early in the morning Jacob took the stone which had been under his head, and put it up as a pillar and put oil on it.

19 And he gave that place the name of Beth-el, but before that time the town was named Luz.

20 Then Jacob took an oath, and said, If God will be with me, and keep me safe on my journey, and give me food and clothing to put on,

21 So that I come again to my father's house in peace, then I will take the Lord to be my God,

22 And this stone which I have put up for a pillar will be God's house: and of all you give me, I will give a tenth part to you.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #3732

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3732. And Jacob vowed a vow. That this signifies a state of Providence, is evident from the signification of “vowing a vow,” as being in the internal sense to will that the Lord shall provide, and therefore in the supreme sense, in which the Lord is treated of, a state of Providence. That in the internal sense “to vow a vow” signifies to will that the Lord shall provide, is from the fact that in vows there is the desire and affection that what is willed may come to pass; thus that the Lord shall provide. There is also implied somewhat of stipulation, and at the same time somewhat of obligation on the part of man, which he takes upon himself if he comes to possess the object of his wish; as here on the part of Jacob, that Jehovah should be to him for a God, and the stone which he set up for a pillar should be the house of God, and that he would tithe all that was given him, provided that Jehovah would keep him in the way, and would give him bread to eat and raiment to put on, and that he should return in peace to his father’s house. This shows that in those days vows were special compacts, especially as regards the acknowledging of God as being their God if He would provide for them what they desired, and as regards the repaying of Him by some gift if He would so provide.

[2] From all this it is very evident what was the quality of the fathers of the Jewish nation, as here that of Jacob, who as yet did not acknowledge Jehovah, and was still undetermined in his choice as to whether he should acknowledge Him or another for his God. It was a peculiarity of that nation, even from the time of their fathers, that everyone desired to have his own God, and that if anyone worshiped Jehovah, it was only that he worshiped some god called Jehovah, and who by this name was distinguished from the gods of other nations, so that their worship even in this respect was idolatrous; for the worship of a mere name, even of the name Jehovah, is nothing but idolatry (n. 1094). The case is the same with those who call themselves Christians and say they worship Christ, but do not live according to His precepts; such worship Him with idolatry, because they worship His name alone, since it is a false Christ whom they worship; concerning which false Christ see Matthew 24:23-24 (n. 3010).

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for the permission to use this translation.