Genesis 35

Jacob’s Return to Bethel

35Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to ^aBethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, ^bwho appeared to you ^cwhen you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”

²And Jacob said to his ^dhousehold and to all who were with him, “Put away ^ethe foreign gods that are among you, ^fpurify yourselves, and change your garments. ³Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, ^gwho answered me in the day of my distress ^hand has been with me in the way which I have gone.” ⁴So they gave Jacob all the foreign ¹gods which were in their hands, and the ⁱearrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under ^jthe terebinth tree which was by Shechem.

⁵And they journeyed, and ^kthe terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. ⁶So Jacob came to ^lLuz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. ⁷And he ^mbuilt an altar there and called the place ²El Bethel, because ⁿthere God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.

⁸Now ^oDeborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the terebinth tree. So the name of it was called ³Allon Bachuth.

⁹Then ^pGod appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Padan Aram, and ^qblessed him. ¹⁰And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; ^ryour name shall not be called Jacob anymore, ^sbut Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel. ¹¹Also God said to him: ^t“I am God Almighty. ^uBe fruitful and multiply; ^va nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body. ¹²The ^wland which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land.” ¹³Then God ^xwent ⁴up from him in the place where He talked with him. ¹⁴So Jacob ^yset up a pillar in the place where He talked with him, a pillar of stone; and he poured a drink offering on it, and he poured oil on it. ¹⁵And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, ^zBethel.

Death of Rachel

¹⁶Then they journeyed from Bethel. And when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel labored in childbirth, and she had hard labor. ¹⁷Now it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said to her, “Do not fear; ^ayou will have this son also.” ¹⁸And so it was, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name ⁵Ben-Oni; but his father called him ⁶Benjamin. ¹⁹So ^bRachel died and was buried on the way to ^cEphrath (that is, Bethlehem). ²⁰And Jacob set a pillar on her grave, which is the pillar of Rachel’s grave ^dto this day.

²¹Then Israel journeyed and pitched his tent beyond ^ethe tower of Eder. ²²And it happened, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and ^flay with Bilhah his father’s concubine; and Israel heard about it.

Jacob’s Twelve Sons

Now the sons of Jacob were twelve: ²³the sons of Leah were ^gReuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun; ²⁴the sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin; ²⁵the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maidservant, were Dan and Naphtali; ²⁶and the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s maidservant, were Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Padan Aram.

Death of Isaac

²⁷Then Jacob came to his father Isaac at ^hMamre, or ⁱKirjath Arba ⁷(that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had dwelt. ²⁸Now the days of Isaac were one hundred and eighty years. ²⁹So Isaac breathed his last and died, and ^jwas ⁸gathered to his people, being old and full of days. And ^khis sons Esau and Jacob buried him.