1Then God said to Jacob, “Go up to Bethel and live there. Build an altar there to honor me. That’s where I appeared to you when you were running away from your brother Esau.”

2So Jacob spoke to his family and to everyone with him. He said, “Get rid of the statues of false gods you have with you. Make yourselves pure by washing and changing your clothes. 3Come, let’s go up to Bethel. There I’ll build an altar to honor God. He answered me when I was in trouble. He’s been with me everywhere I’ve gone.” 4So they gave Jacob all the statues of false gods they had. They also gave him their earrings. Jacob buried those things under the oak tree at Shechem. 5Then Jacob and everyone with him started out. The terror of God fell on the towns all around them. So no one chased them.

6Jacob and all the people with him came to Luz. Luz is also called Bethel. It’s in the land of Canaan. 7Jacob built an altar at Luz. He named the place El Bethel. There God made himself known to Jacob when he was running away from his brother.

8Rebekah’s attendant Deborah died. They buried her body under the oak tree outside Bethel. So it was called Allon Bakuth.

9After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again. And God blessed him. 10God said to him, “Your name is Jacob. But you will not be called Jacob anymore. Your name will be Israel.” So he named him Israel.

11God said to him, “I am the Mighty God. Have children so that there will be many of you. You will become the father of a nation and a community of nations. Your later family will include kings. 12I am giving you the land I gave to Abraham and Isaac. I will also give it to your children after you.” 13Then God left him at the place where he had talked with him.

14Jacob set up a sacred stone at the place where God had talked with him. He poured out a drink offering on it. He also poured olive oil on it. 15Jacob named the place Bethel. That’s where God had talked with him.

Rachel and Isaac Die

16They moved on from Bethel. Ephrath wasn’t very far away when Rachel began to have a baby. She was having a very hard time of it. 17The woman who helped her saw that she was having problems. So she said to Rachel, “Don’t be afraid. You have another son.” 18But Rachel was dying. As she took her last breath, she named her son Ben-Oni. But his father named him Benjamin.

19So Rachel died. She was buried beside the road to Ephrath. Ephrath was also called Bethlehem. 20Jacob set up a stone marker over her tomb. To this day, the stone marks the place where Rachel was buried.

21Israel moved on again. He set up his tent beyond Migdal Eder. 22While Israel was living in that area, Reuben went in and slept with Bilhah. She was the concubine of Reuben’s father. And Israel heard about it.

Here are the 12 sons Jacob had.

23Leah was the mother of

Reuben, Jacob’s oldest son.

Her other sons were Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun.

24The sons of Rachel were

Joseph and Benjamin.

25The sons of Rachel’s female servant Bilhah were

Dan and Naphtali.

26The sons of Leah’s female servant Zilpah were

Gad and Asher.

These were Jacob’s sons. They were born in Paddan Aram.

27Jacob came home to his father Isaac in Mamre. Mamre is near Kiriath Arba, where Abraham and Isaac had stayed. The place is also called Hebron. 28Isaac lived 180 years. 29Then he took his last breath and died. He was very old when he joined the members of his family who had already died. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version®, NIrV®

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Genesis 35

CHAPTER 35

1In the meantime the Lord spake to Jacob, Rise thou, and go up to Bethel, and dwell there; and make thou an altar to the Lord, that appeared to thee when thou fleddest Esau, thy brother.

2Soothly Jacob said, when all his house was called together, Cast ye away alien gods, that be in the midst of you, and be ye cleansed, and change ye your clothes;

3rise ye, and go we up into Bethel, that we make there an altar to the Lord, which heard me in the day of my tribulation, and was fellow of my way.

4Therefore they gave to Jacob all the alien gods which they had, and [the] earrings, that were in their ears; and Jacob delved them under a terebinth tree, which is behind the city of Shechem.

5And when they went forth, dread assailed all men by compass of the city, and they were not hardy to pursue them going away.

6Therefore Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, by the sire-name Bethel, he and all his people with him.

7And he builded there an altar to the Lord, and called the name of that place The house of God, for God appeared there to him, when he fled his brother.

8Deborah, the nurse of Rebecca, died in the same time, and she was buried at the root[s] of Bethel, under an oak, and the name of the place was called The Oak of Weeping.

9Forsooth God appeared again to Jacob, after that he turned again from Mesopotamia of Syria, and came into Bethel, and blessed him,

10and said, Thou shalt no more be called Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name. And God called him Israel,

11and said to him, I am God Almighty; increase thou, and be thou multiplied, folks and peoples of nations shall be of thee, kings shall go out of thy loins;

12and I shall give to thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac.

13And God departed from him.

14Forsooth Jacob raised a title, or a memorial, of stones, in the place wherein God spake to him, and he sacrificed thereon flowing sacrifices, and shedded out oil,

15and he called the name of that place Bethel.

16Soothly Jacob went out from thence, and he came in the beginning of summer to the land that leadeth to Ephratah; in which land when Rachel travailed in child bearing,

17she began to be in peril for the hardness of childbearing; and the mid-wife said to her, Do not thou dread, for thou shalt have also this son.

18Forsooth while the soul passed from her for sorrow, and death nighed then, she called the name of her son Benoni, that is, the son of my sorrow; forsooth his father called him Benjamin, that is, the son of the right side.

19Therefore Rachel died, and was buried in the way that leadeth to Ephratah, that is Bethlehem.

20And Jacob builded a memorial upon the sepulchre of her; this is the memorial of the burial of Rachel unto this present day.

21Jacob went from thence, and setted a tabernacle over the tower of the flock.

22And while he dwelled in that country, Reuben went, and slept with Bilhah, the secondary wife of his father, which thing was not hid from him. Forsooth the sons of Jacob were twelve;

23the sons of Leah were, the first begotten Reuben, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun;

24the sons of Rachel were Joseph, and Benjamin;

25the sons of Bilhah, the handmaid of Rachel, were Dan, and Naphtali;

26and the sons of Zilpah, [the] handmaid of Leah, were Gad, and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob, that were born to him in Mesopotamia of Syria.

27Also Jacob came to Isaac, his father, into Mamre, the city of Arbah, this is Hebron, in which Mamre Abraham and Isaac was a pilgrim.

28And the days of Isaac were filled an hundred and fourscore of years;

29and he was wasted in age, and died, and he was put to his people, and was eld [or old], and full of days; and Esau and Jacob his sons buried him.

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Genesis 35

Genesis 35