Jacob at Bethel
35
📚And God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and live there, and make there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of your brother Esau”.2 📚Then Jacob said to his household, and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your clothes,
3 📚and let us arise and go up to Bethel. And there I will make an altar to God 📖, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way that I went”. 4 📚And they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods which they had, and all the earrings 📖 which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the oak which was near Shechem. 5 📚And they journeyed, and the terror of God 📖 was on the cities that were around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.
6 📚So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people with him. 7 📚And there he built an altar, and called the place El Bethel, because there God had appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.
35:7 See Gen 28:11-22. Jacob fulfills his vow. And he had taken another step forward in spiritual understanding and devotion to God. In chapter 28 it seems he was more occupied in his thoughts with the place Bethel. Here he is more occupied with the God who had come to him at Bethel. El-Bethel means “the God of Bethel”.⚜
8 📚But Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under an oak. Its name was called Allon Bachuth 📖. 9 📚And God appeared to Jacob again after he came out of Padan-Aram, and blessed him. 10 📚And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob. Your name will not be called Jacob any longer, but Israel will be your name”. And he called his name Israel.
11 📚And God said to him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and increase in number. A people and a group of peoples will come from you, and kings will come from your body. 12 📚And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, I will give to you. And I will give the land to your descendants after you”.
35:11-12 “God Almighty” – in Hebrew El-Shaddai (see Gen 17:1). Concerning the promise here see Gen 17:3-8. The covenant God made with Abraham was confirmed to Jacob.⚜
13 📚And God went up from him in the place where he had talked with him.
14 📚And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had talked with him, a pillar of stone. And he poured a drink offering on it, and he poured oil on it 📖. 15 📚And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Bethel.
35:15 Bethel means “house of God”.⚜
Death of Rachel and Isaac
16 📚And they journeyed from Bethel, and, with still a short distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and had severe labour pains. 17 📚And it came about, when she was having severe labour pains, that the midwife said to her, “Do not be afraid. You will have this son also”. 18 📚And it happened that as her soul was leaving her body (for she died) that she called his name Ben-oni, but his father called him Benjamin.
35:16-18 Ben-oni means “Son of my sorrow” or “Son of my trouble”. Benjamin means “Son of the right hand”.⚜
19 📚And Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. 20 📚And Jacob set up a pillar on her grave. To this day that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave.
21 📚And Israel journeyed on, and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Edar. 22 📚And when Israel was living in that region, it so happened that Reuben went and lay with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it. Now there were twelve sons of Jacob.
35:22 See Gen 49:3-4. Because of this sin, though he was the firstborn, he was passed over and his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph (Gen 9:3-4; 1 Chron 5:1; Num 32:23).⚜
23 📚The sons of Leah were Jacob’s firstborn Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.
24 📚The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin.
25 📚And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maidservant, were Dan and Naphtali.
26 📚And the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s maidservant, were Gad and Asher.
These are the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Padan-Aram.
27 📚And Jacob came to Mamre to his father Isaac, to the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac stayed for a time. 28 📚And Isaac’s time on earth was a hundred and eighty years. 29 📚And Isaac expired. He died and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
35:29 This was 43 years after the event of Gen 27:4.⚜