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.
Isaac sent away Jacob; and he went to Padan-aram. Stanley ('Lectures on Jewish Church') pronounces this journey into Mesopotamia to be 'a retrograde movement in the history of the Church'-a return to the country whence Abraham was called. It was only a temporary sojourn, however, not a permanent settlement; and it was directed by the superintending providence of God, who provided, as in the analogous case of Isaac, that the blood of the chosen family should be kept pure and uncontaminated by admixture with any of the Canaanite tribes.