Genesis 35:1–14

Jacob in Bethel

35God said to Jacob, “Go to the city of Bethel and live there. Make an altar to the God who appeared to you there when you were running away from your brother Esau.”

²So Jacob said to his family and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods you have, and make yourselves clean, and change your clothes. ³We will leave here and go to Bethel. There I will build an altar to God, who has helped me during my time of trouble. He has been with me everywhere I have gone.” ⁴So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had, and the earrings they were wearing, and he hid them under the great tree near the town of Shechem. ⁵Then Jacob and his sons left there. But God caused the people in the nearby cities to be afraid, so they did not follow them. ⁶And Jacob and all the people who were with him went to Luz, which is now called Bethel, in the land of Canaan. ⁷There Jacob built an altar and named the place Bethel, after God, because God had appeared to him there when he was running from his brother.

⁸Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak tree at Bethel, so they named that place Oak of Crying.

Jacob’s New Name

⁹When Jacob came back from Northwest Mesopotamia, God appeared to him again and blessed him. ¹⁰God said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but you will not be called Jacob any longer. Your new name will be Israel.” So he called him Israel. ¹¹God said to him, “I am God Almighty. Have many children and grow in number as a nation. You will be the ancestor of many nations and kings. ¹²The same land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you and your descendants.” ¹³Then God left him. ¹⁴Jacob set up a stone on edge in that place where God had talked to him, and he poured a drink offering and olive oil on it to make it special for God.