Isaac forbids Jacob to marry a Canaanite and promises him the blessings of the Abrahamic covenant if he will marry in the everlasting covenant.
Genesis 28:1–5
1 And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.
2 Arise, go to Padan-aram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother’s father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother’s brother.
3 And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people;
4 And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.
5 And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padan-aram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob’s and Esau’s mother.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie said:
“When ‘Esau was forty years old, . . . he took to wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite: Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah’ (Genesis 26:34–35).
“That is to say, Esau married out of the Church; Esau did not marry in the everlasting covenant revealed to Abraham; Esau chose to live after the manner of the world, rather than to keep the standards of righteousness which the Lord had given them. In the light of all this, the account says:
“‘And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?’ (Genesis 27:46).
“In effect she is saying, ‘If Jacob marries out of the Church as Esau has done, what good is there left for me in life?’ And having been encouraged and impelled to step forward and assume his responsibility, this is what Isaac did:
“‘And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan’ [which means, ‘Thou shalt not marry out of the Church’].
“‘Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother’s father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother’s brother.’
“And then Isaac gave Jacob, in effect, a patriarchal blessing which promised him the blessings of Abraham, his father:
“‘And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people;
“‘And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee’ (Genesis 28:1–4).”
(“Our Sisters from the Beginning,” Ensign, Jan. 1979, 62.)
