In this chapter an account is given of the charge Isaac gave to Jacob not to marry a Canaanitess, but to go to Padanaram, and take a wife from his mother's family, and of his blessing him before he sent him away, Ge 28:1; of the notice that Esau took of this blessing and charge, which led him to take a wife of the family of Ishmael, Ge 28:6; of the dream of the ladder, which Jacob had in his way to Haran, Ge 28:10; of the blessing which God conferred upon him there, Ge 28:13; of the awfulness of the place upon his awaking, and of his erecting a pillar in it, and giving a name to it, Ge 28:16; and of the vow he made to God, should he be supplied with the necessaries of life, and be kept in safety by him, Ge 28:20.
Ver. 1. And Isaac called Jacob,.... Or therefore , because of what Rebekah had said to him, related in the latter part of the preceding chapter, he sent for Jacob to come to him from his tent or apartment where he was, or from the field where he was keeping the flocks; thus paying a great regard to what his wife Rebekah had suggested to him, and which appeared to him very right and reasonable:and blessed him; he did not send for him to chide and reprove him for his fraudulent dealings with him to get the blessing from his brother, much less to revoke it, but to confirm it; which was necessary to prevent doubts that might arise in the mind of Jacob about it, and to strengthen him against the temptations of Satan; since he was about to be sent away from his father's house solitary and destitute, to go into another country, where he was to be for awhile in a state of servitude; all which might seem to contradict the blessing and promises he had received, and would be a trial of his faith in them, as well as a chastisement on him for the fraudulent manner in which he obtained them:and charged him, and said unto him, thou shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan; it was time that he was married; for he was now, as the Jewish writers say, seventy seven, years of age, which exactly agrees with what Polyhistor , an Heathen writer, relates from Demetrius, that Jacob was seventy seven years of age when he came to Haran, and also his father Isaac was then one hundred and thirty seven years old; and so it is calculated by the best chronologers, and as he must be, since he was born when his father was sixty years of age, See Gill on "Ge 27:1"; and being now declared the heir of the promised land, it was proper he should marry, but not with any of the Canaanites, who were to be dispossessed of the land of Canaan, and therefore their seed, and Abraham's, to whom it was given, must not be mixed.
Isaac takes the same care, and gives the same charge concerning the marriage of his son Jacob, on whom the entail of the land was settled, as his father Abraham did concerning his, Ge 24:3. arqyw "itaque", V.
L. Schmidt, Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "igitur", Drusius. Pirke Eliezer, c. 35. Vid. Seder Olam Rabba, c. 2. p. 4. Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 21. p.