Jacob left Beersheba for Haran. At sunset he stopped for the night, took one of the stones from that place as a headrest, and lay down alone on the ground. During the night he dreamed.
A stairway stood on the earth with its top reaching heaven, and God’s angels went up and down upon it. God stood above it and identified himself as the God of Abraham and Isaac. He promised the ground beneath Jacob to him and his descendants.
Jacob’s descendants would become like the dust and spread in every direction. All families of the earth would receive blessing through him and his offspring. God promised to remain with Jacob, guard him wherever he went, and bring him back to this land. God would not leave him before fulfilling the promise.
Jacob awoke and said that God was in that place though he had not known it. Afraid, he called it the house of God and the gate of heaven. Early in the morning he set up his headstone as a pillar and poured oil on it. The town had been called Luz, but Jacob renamed it Bethel.
Jacob vowed that if God remained with him, guarded his journey, provided food and clothing, and returned him safely to his father’s house, God would be his God. The stone would become God’s house, and Jacob promised a tenth of everything God gave him.