Genesis 35

Jacob Returns to Bethel

³⁵God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and settle there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”^{* 2}So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, and purify yourselves, and change your clothes;^{* 3}then come, let us go up to Bethel, that I may make an altar there to the God who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.”^{* 4}So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had and the rings that were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the oak that was near Shechem.^*

⁵As they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities all around them, so that no one pursued them.^{* 6}Jacob came to Luz, that is, Bethel, which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him,^{* 7}and there he built an altar and called the place El-bethel,^v because it was there that God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother.^{* 8}And Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried under an oak below Bethel. So it was called Allon-bacuth.^w*

⁹God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram, and he blessed him.^{* 10}God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; no longer shall you be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” So he was called Israel.^{* 11}God said to him, “I am God Almighty:^x be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall spring from you.^{* 12}The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you.”^{* 13}Then God went up from him at the place where he had spoken with him.^{* 14}Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone, and he poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it.^{* 15}So Jacob called the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.^*

The Birth of Benjamin and the Death of Rachel

¹⁶Then they journeyed from Bethel, and when they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel was in childbirth, and she had hard labor. ¹⁷When she was in her hard labor, the midwife said to her, “Do not be afraid, for now you have another son.”^{* 18}As her soul was departing, for she was dying, she named him Ben-oni,^y but his father called him Benjamin.^{z 19}And Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem,^{* 20}and Jacob set up a pillar at her grave; it is the pillar of Rachel’s tomb, which is there to this day.^{* 21}Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder.

²²While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it.

Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.^{* 23}The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob’s firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. ²⁴The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. ²⁵The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maid: Dan and Naphtali. ²⁶The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s maid: Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram.

The Death of Isaac

²⁷Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had resided as aliens.^{* 28}Now the days of Isaac were one hundred eighty years. ²⁹And Isaac breathed his last; he died and was gathered to his people, old and full of days, and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.^*