3655. The subject in the previous sections of Matthew 24 has been the first and second states of the perversion of the Church. The first state exists when people cease to know any longer what good is or what truth is, and instead argue with one another about these, as a result of which falsities arise, see 3354. And the second state exists when they treat good and truth with contempt and also reject them, and so when belief in the Lord breathes its last, which things take place step by step as charity ceases to exist, see 3487, 3488. Here the third state is now dealt with, which exists when good and truth in the Church are made desolate.

1. And Isaac called to Jacob, and blessed him, and commanded him, and said to him, You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.

2. Rise up, go to Paddan Aram, to the home of Bethuel your mother's father, and take for yourself from there a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother's brother.

3. And God Shaddai will bless you, and make you fruitful and multiply you; and you will be an assembly of peoples.

4. And He will give you the blessing of Abraham, you and your seed with you, to inherit the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Abraham.

5. And Isaac sent Jacob away; and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob and Esau's mother.

   And Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him away to Paddan Aram to take a wife for himself from there, and in blessing him had commanded him, saying, You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan;

7. And that Jacob had listened to his father and to his mother, and had gone to Paddan Aram.

8. And Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan were evil in the eyes of Isaac his father.

9. And Esau went to Ishmael, and took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaioth, as a wife (mulier) in addition to the wives (femina) he had.

10. And Jacob went out from Beersheba and went to Haran.

11. And he came upon a place, and spent the night there because the sun had gone down. And he took one of the stones of the place and placed it as his headrest, and lay down in that place.

12. And he dreamed, and behold, a stairway set up on the earth, and its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God going up and coming down on it.

13. And behold, Jehovah was standing above it, and He said, I am Jehovah, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac; the land on which you are lying I will give to you and to your seed.

14. And your seed will be as the dust of the earth, and you will break forth towards the sea, and towards the east, and towards the north, and towards the south; and in you will all the families of the ground be blessed - and in your seed.

15. And behold, I am with you, and will guard you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this ground; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken about to you.

16. And Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, Surely Jehovah is in this place and I did not know it.

17. And he was afraid and said, How awesome is this place! This is nothing other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

18. And in the morning Jacob rose up early, and took the stone which he had placed as his headrest, and placed it as a pillar and poured oil on the top of it.

19. And he called the name of that place Bethel, though Luz was the name of the city previously.

20. And Jacob made a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and guard me on this road on which I am walking, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear,

21. And I come back in peace to my father's house, then Jehovah will be my God.

    22 And this stone which I have placed as a pillar will be God's house; and of all that You give me I will surely give You a tenth.

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