Chapter 35

Jacob Moves to Bethel

1 Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to aBethel and 1live there, and make an altar there to bGod, who appeared to you cwhen you fled 2from your brother Esau.”

2 So Jacob said to his ahousehold and to all who were with him, “Put away bthe foreign gods which are among you, and cpurify yourselves and change your garments;

3 and let us arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make aan altar there to God, bwho answered me in the day of my distress and chas been with me 1wherever I have gone.”

4 So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods which 1they had and the rings which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the 2oak which was near Shechem.

5 As they journeyed, there was 1aa great terror upon the cities which were around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.

6 So Jacob came to aLuz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him.

7 aHe built an altar there, and called the place 1El-bethel, because there God had revealed Himself to him when he fled 2from his brother.

8 Now aDeborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak; it was named 1Allon-bacuth.

Jacob Is Named Israel

9 Then God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram, and He ablessed him.

10 aGod said to him,

“Your name is Jacob;

1You shall no longer be called Jacob,

But Israel shall be your name.”

Thus He called 2him Israel.

11 God also said to him,

“I am 1aGod Almighty;

bBe fruitful and multiply;

A nation and a ccompany of nations shall 2come from you,

And dkings shall 2come forth from 3you.

12 “aThe land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac,

I will give it to you,

And I will give the land to your 1descendants after you.”

13 Then aGod went up from him in the place where He had spoken with him.

14 Jacob set up aa pillar in the place where He had spoken with him, a pillar of stone, and he poured out a drink offering on it; he also poured oil on it.

15 So Jacob named the place where God had spoken with him, 1aBethel.

16 Then they journeyed from Bethel; and when there was still some distance to go to aEphrath, Rachel began to give birth and she 1suffered severe labor.

17 When she was in severe labor the midwife said to her, “Do not fear, for now ayou have another son.”

18 It came about as her soul was departing (for she died), that she named him 1Ben-oni; but his father called him 2Benjamin.

19 So aRachel died and was buried on the way to bEphrath (that is, Bethlehem).

20 Jacob set up a pillar over her grave; that is the apillar of Rachel’s grave to this day.

21 Then Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the 1atower of 2Eder.

22 It came about while Israel was dwelling in that land, that aReuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it.

The Sons of Israel

Now there were twelve sons of Jacob—

23 athe sons of Leah: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, then Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Zebulun;

24 athe sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin;

25 and athe sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maid: Dan and Naphtali;

26 and athe sons of Zilpah, Leah’s maid: Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram.

27 Jacob came to his father Isaac at aMamre of bKiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned.

28 Now the days of Isaac were aone hundred and eighty years.

29 Isaac breathed his last and died and was agathered to his people, an bold man 1of ripe age; and chis sons Esau and Jacob buried him.