---
title: "Genesis 28 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/genesis/28/
description: "Jacob's journey to Mesopotamia: his vision and vow. Genesis 28 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Genesis 28

Genesis 28 is chapter 28 of 50 in the Book of Genesis. Here are all 22 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> Jacob's journey to Mesopotamia: his vision and vow.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Genesis 28 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. And so Isaac called for Jacob, and he blessed him, and he instructed him, saying: “Do not be willing to accept a mate from the family of Canaan.
2. But go, and journey to Mesopotamia of Syria, to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and there accept for yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban, your maternal uncle.
3. And may God almighty bless you, and may he cause you to increase and also to multiply, so that you may be influential among the people.
4. And may he give the blessings of Abraham to you, and to your offspring after you, so that you may possess the land of your sojourning, which he promised to your grandfather.”
5. And when Isaac had dismissed him, setting out, he went to Mesopotamia of Syria, to Laban, the son of Bethuel, the Syrian, the brother to Rebekah, his mother.
6. But Esau, seeing that his father had blessed Jacob and had sent him into Mesopotamia of Syria, to take a wife from there, and that, after the blessing, he had instructed him, saying: ‘You shall not accept a wife from the daughters of Canaan,’
7. and that Jacob, obeying his parents, had gone into Syria,
8. having evidence also that his father did not look with favor upon the daughters of Canaan,
9. he went to Ishmael, and he took as a wife, beside those he had before, Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth.
10. Meanwhile Jacob, having departed from Beersheba, continued on to Haran.
11. And when he had arrived at a certain place, where he would rest after the setting of the sun, he took some of the stones that lay there, and placing them under his head, he slept in the same place.
12. And he saw in his sleep: a ladder standing upon the earth, with its top touching heaven, also, the Angels of God ascending and descending by it,
13. and the Lord, leaning upon the ladder, saying to him: “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. The land, in which you sleep, I will give to you and to your offspring.
14. And your offspring will be like the dust of the earth. You will spread abroad to the West, and to the East, and to the North, and to the Meridian. And in you and in your offspring, all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed.
15. And I will be your guardian wherever you will journey, and I will bring you back into this land. Neither will I dismiss you, until I have accomplished all that I have said.”
16. And when Jacob had awakened from sleep, he said, “Truly, the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”
17. And being terrified, he said: “How terrible this place is! This is nothing other than the house of God and the gateway of heaven.”
18. Therefore, Jacob, arising in the morning, took the stone which he had placed under his head, and he set it up as monument, pouring oil over it.
19. And he called the name of the city, ‘Bethel,’ which before was called Luz.
20. And then he made a vow, saying: “If God will be with me, and will guard me along the way by which I walk, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear,
21. and if I will return prosperously to my father’s house, then the Lord will be my God,
22. and this stone, which I have set up as a monument, will be called ‘the House of God.’ And from all the things that you will give to me, I will offer tithes to you.”

## Genesis 28 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Vocavit itaque Isaac Jacob, et benedixit eum, præcepitque ei dicens: Noli accipere conjugem de genere Chanaan:
2. sed vade, et proficiscere in Mesopotamiam Syriæ, ad domum Bathuel patris matris tuæ, et accipe tibi inde uxorem de filiabus Laban avunculi tui.
3. Deus autem omnipotens benedicat tibi, et crescere te faciat, atque multiplicet, ut sis in turbas populorum.
4. Et det tibi benedictiones Abrahæ, et semini tuo post te: ut possideas terram peregrinationis tuæ, quam pollicitus est avo tuo.
5. Cumque dimisisset eum Isaac, profectus venit in Mesopotamiam Syriæ ad Laban filium Bathuel Syri, fratrem Rebeccæ matris suæ.
6. Videns autem Esau quod benedixisset pater suus Jacob, et misisset eum in Mesopotamiam Syriæ, ut inde uxorem duceret; et quod post benedictionem præcepisset ei, dicens: Non accipies uxorem de filiabus Chanaan:
7. quodque obediens Jacob parentibus suis isset in Syriam:
8. probans quoque quod non libenter aspiceret filias Chanaan pater suus:
9. ivit ad Ismaëlem, et duxit uxorem absque iis, quas prius habebat, Maheleth filiam Ismaël filii Abraham, sororem Nabaioth.
10. Igitur egressus Jacob de Bersabee, pergebat Haran.
11. Cumque venisset ad quemdam locum, et vellet in eo requiescere post solis occubitum, tulit de lapidibus qui jacebant, et supponens capiti suo, dormivit in eodem loco.
12. Viditque in somnis scalam stantem super terram, et cacumen illius tangens cælum: angelos quoque Dei ascendentes et descendentes per eam,
13. et Dominum innixum scalæ dicentem sibi: Ego sum Dominus Deus Abraham patris tui, et Deus Isaac: terram, in qua dormis, tibi dabo et semini tuo.
14. Eritque semen tuum quasi pulvis terræ: dilataberis ad occidentem, et orientem, et septentrionem, et meridiem: et benedicentur in te et in semine tuo cunctæ tribus terræ.
15. Et ero custos tuus quocumque perrexeris, et reducam te in terram hanc: nec dimittam nisi complevero universa quæ dixi.
16. Cumque evigilasset Jacob de somno, ait: Vere Dominus est in loco isto, et ego nesciebam.
17. Pavensque, Quam terribilis est, inquit, locus iste! non est hic aliud nisi domus Dei, et porta cæli.
18. Surgens ergo Jacob mane, tulit lapidem quem supposuerat capiti suo, et erexit in titulum, fundens oleum desuper.
19. Appellavitque nomen urbis Bethel, quæ prius Luza vocabatur.
20. Vovit etiam votum, dicens: Si fuerit Deus mecum, et custodierit me in via, per quam ego ambulo, et dederit mihi panem ad vescendum, et vestimentum ad induendum,
21. reversusque fuero prospere ad domum patris mei: erit mihi Dominus in Deum,
22. et lapis iste, quem erexi in titulum, vocabitur Domus Dei: cunctorumque quæ dederis mihi, decimas offeram tibi.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- cf. CCC ¶ 2573: In the Old Testament ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 19: “Bethel” … This name signifies the house of God.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Mon, Jul 5, 2027 (computed): Monday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time — First Reading, Genesis 28:10-22a

Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).