Genesis 35:1–14

Jacob’s Fifth Encounter with God

¹Then God said to Jacob, “Go to Bethel and live there. Make an altar there. I am the God who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.” 

²So Jacob said to his family and those who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods which you have, wash yourselves until you are ritually clean,^aand change your clothes. ³Then let’s go to Bethel. I will make an altar there to God, who answered me when I was troubled and who has been with me wherever I’ve gone.” ⁴So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods that they had in their possession as well as the earrings that they had on. Jacob buried these things under the oak tree near Shechem. 

⁵As they moved on, God made the people of the cities that were all around them terrified so that no one pursued them. ⁶Jacob and all the people who were with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan. ⁷He built an altar there and called that place El Bethel ^[God of the House of God^[. That’s where God had revealed himself to Jacob when he was fleeing from his brother. ⁸Rebekah’s nurse Deborah died and was buried under the oak tree outside Bethel. So Jacob called it the Tree of Crying. 

Jacob’s Sixth Encounter with God—His Name Changed to Israel

⁹Then God appeared once more to Jacob after he came back from Paddan Aram, and he blessed him. ¹⁰God said to him, “Your name is Jacob. You will no longer be called Jacob, but your name will be Israel.” So he named him Israel. 

¹¹God also said to him, “I am God Almighty. Be fertile, and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from you. ¹²I will give you the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac. I will also give this land to your descendants.” ¹³Then God went up from him at the place where he had spoken with him. ¹⁴So Jacob set up a memorial, a stone marker, to mark the place where God had spoken with him. He poured a wine offering and olive oil on it.