Genesis Chapter 35
Jacob Returns to Bethel
1 God told Jacob,
“Go up to Bethel and live and build an altar to me. I’m the One that appeared to you when you were running from Esau.”
2 Jacob told his household and everybody with him,
“Put away your foreign gods, purify yourselves, and change clothes. 3 Let’s go to Bethel. I’m going to build an altar to God there, who answered me in my distress and was with me wherever I’ve gone.”
4 They gave Jacob their foreign gods and earrings, and he buried them under a terebinth tree near Shechem.
5 As they moved along, a deep dread hovered over the towns around them, and they didn’t pursue Jacob’s sons. 6 So Jacob and his people were able to reach Luz (Bethel) in Canaan. 7 He built an altar, and called the place El-Bethel, because “God” revealed himself to him there when he was running from his brother. 8 Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and Jacob buried her below Bethel under the oak named Allonbacuth [Oak of Weeping].
Gen 35:1-8
9 God appeared to Jacob again after he came from Paddan-aram and blessed him.
10 “You’re Jacob,
but you won’t be called Jacob anymore.
Your name will be Israel.
11 I’m God Almighty [El-Shaddai].
Have children and multiply.
A group of nations will come from you;
kings will descend from you.
12 I’ll give you and your descendants
the land I promised Abraham and Isaac.”
13 God ascended from him, 14 and Jacob set up a stone marker “where God” had spoken to him. He poured out a liquid offering on it, poured olive oil on it, 15 and named the place Bethel. Gen 35:9-15
The Deaths of Rachel and Isaac
16 They moved on from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath (Bethlehem), Rachel started to have contractions and suffered hard labor. 17 The midwife said, “Don’t be afraid; you have another son.” 18 As her life was draining away, she named him Benoni; but his father called him Benjamin. 19 Rachel died and was buried along the road to Ephrath. 20 Jacob set up a marker over her grave that’s still there. 21 Jacob kept traveling and pitched his tent beyond the Tower of Eder. 22 While he was living there, Reuben went and slept with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel found out about it.
Gen 35:16-22
23 by Leah: Reuben, his firstborn, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun;
24 by Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin;
25 by Bilhah, Rachel’s maid: Dan and Naphtali; and
26 by Zilpah, Leah’s maid: Gad and Asher.
His 12 sons were born in Paddan-aram.
27 Jacob went to see his father Isaac at Mamre near Kiriath-arba (Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had lived temporarily. 28 Isaac lived 180 years, 29 breathed his last, and passed on to his people. He’d lived to a ripe age, and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
Gen 35:22b-29