Genesis 35:1–14

RETURN TO BETHEL

35God said to Jacob, “Get up! Go to Bethel and settle there.^h Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”ⁱ

²So Jacob said to his family and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you.^j Purify yourselves and change your clothes.^{k 3}We must get up and go to Bethel. I will build an altar there to the God who answered me in my day of distress.^l He has been with me everywhere I have gone.”^m

⁴Then they gave Jacob all their foreign gods and their earrings, and Jacob hid them under the oak near Shechem. ⁵When they set out, a terror from God came over the cities around them, and they did not pursue Jacob’s sons.^{n 6}So Jacob and all who were with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel^o) in the land of Canaan. ⁷Jacob built an altar there and called the place El-bethel^A because it was there that God had revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

⁸Deborah, the one who had nursed and raised Rebekah,^p died and was buried under the oak south of Bethel. So Jacob named it Allon-bacuth.^C

⁹God appeared to Jacob again after he returned from Paddan-aram, and he blessed him. ¹⁰God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; you will no longer be named Jacob, but your name will be Israel.”^q So he named him Israel. ¹¹God also said to him, “I am God Almighty.^r Be fruitful and multiply.^s A nation, indeed an assembly of nations, will come from you,^t and kings will descend from you.^{Du 12}I will give to you the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac.^v And I will give the land to your future descendants.” ¹³Then God withdrew^Ew from him at the place where he had spoken to him.

¹⁴Jacob set up a marker at the place where he had spoken to him—a stone marker. He poured a drink offering on it and poured oil on it.^x