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Genesis 28:8-10
New Catholic Bible
Genesis 28:8-10
New Catholic Bible
8 Esau then understood that Isaac disapproved of the daughters of Canaan. 9 He therefore went to Ishmael and, besides the wives he already had, he took as wife Mahalath, the daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael and the sister of Nebaioth.
10 Jacob’s Dream at Bethel.[a] Jacob left from Beer-sheba and traveled toward Haran.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Genesis 28:10 God does not delay in giving the refugee signs of his goodwill toward him, and the Mesopotamian period of Jacob’s life is set between two important theophanies (the second is in 32:25-31). Upon him is to be built the ladder that he saw in a vision and that unites earth with heaven. The Mesopotamian temple towers were monuments of this kind; by means of them human beings expressed their dream of making the divinity come down to them. Jacob honors the place of the unexpected vision; it will become a sanctuary visited by people until it begins to rival the official sanctuary in Jerusalem (1 Ki 12:26-32; etc.). Jesus Christ, a descendant of Jacob, will tell his first apostles that the heavens will open and that the ladder of the vision is becoming a reality in his person (Jn 1:51). Our liturgy makes the patriarch’s exclamation (Gen 28:17) its own when it celebrates the dedication of a church, which is the sign of the Christian community that prolongs the presence of the Savior on earth.
