Genesis 35
35
Jacob Returns to Bethel
1Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, dwell there, and there make an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”
2#Ge 18:19; 31:19So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your clothes. 3#Ge 31:3; 31:42Let 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 has been with me wherever I have gone.” 4#Jos 24:25–26; Jdg 9:6So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their possession and all their earrings which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the oak which was near Shechem. 5#Ex 23:27As they traveled, the terror of God was on the cities that were around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.
6#Ge 28:19So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. 7#Ge 28:13; 35:1There he built an altar and called the place El Bethel, because God had appeared to him there when he fled from his brother.
8#Ge 24:59Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried beneath Bethel under the oak. So it was called Allon Bakuth.
9#Ge 12:7; 18:1God appeared to Jacob again when he came out of Paddan Aram and blessed him. 10#Ge 17:5; 17:15God said to him, “Your name is Jacob. Your name shall not be called Jacob any more, but Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel.
11#Ge 17:1; 17:16; Ex 6:3God said to him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations will come from you, and kings shall come forth from you. 12#Ge 12:7; 28:13The land that I gave Abraham and Isaac, I will give to you, and to your descendants after you I will give the land.” 13#Ge 17:22; 18:33Then God went up from him in the place where He had spoken with him.
14#Ge 28:18–19Jacob 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 he poured oil on it too. 15#Ge 28:19So Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.
The Deaths of Rachel and Isaac
1Ch 2:1–2
16#Mic 5:2; Ge 48:7They journeyed from Bethel, and when they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor, and she had a difficult labor. 17#Ge 30:24When she was in hard labor, the midwife said to her, “Do not fear. You will have this son also.” 18As her soul was departing (for she died), she called his name Ben-Oni, but his father called him Benjamin.
19#Mic 5:2; Ge 48:7; Ru 1:2Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. 20#1Sa 10:2Jacob set a pillar on her grave. It is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day.
21#Mic 4:8Israel journeyed and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder. 22#1Ch 5:1; Lev 18:8When Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard about it.
Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:
23#Ge 29:32–35; 30:18–20The sons of Leah were
Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn,
and Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Zebulun.
24#Ge 30:22–24The sons of Rachel were
Joseph and Benjamin.
25And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maidservant, were
Dan and Naphtali.
26And the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s maidservant, were
Gad and Asher.
These are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Paddan Aram.
27#Ge 13:18; 18:1Jacob came back to Isaac his father in Mamre of Kiriath Arba (which is Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned. 28#Ge 25:7Now the days of Isaac were one hundred and eighty years. 29#Ge 15:15; 49:33And Isaac breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, being old and full of days, and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
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Military Bible Association
Genesis 35
35
1God spoke to Jacob: “Go back to Bethel. Stay there and build an altar to the God who revealed himself to you when you were running for your life from your brother Esau.”
2-3Jacob told his family and all those who lived with him, “Throw out all the alien gods which you have, take a good bath and put on clean clothes, we’re going to Bethel. I’m going to build an altar there to the God who answered me when I was in trouble and has stuck with me everywhere I’ve gone since.”
4-5They turned over to Jacob all the alien gods they’d been holding on to, along with their lucky-charm earrings. Jacob buried them under the oak tree in Shechem. Then they set out. A paralyzing fear descended on all the surrounding villages so that they were unable to pursue the sons of Jacob.
6-7Jacob and his company arrived at Luz, that is, Bethel, in the land of Canaan. He built an altar there and named it El-Bethel (God-of-Bethel) because that’s where God revealed himself to him when he was running from his brother.
8And that’s when Rebekah’s nurse, Deborah, died. She was buried just below Bethel under the oak tree. It was named Allon-Bacuth (Weeping-Oak).
9-10God revealed himself once again to Jacob, after he had come back from Paddan Aram and blessed him: “Your name is Jacob (Heel); but that’s your name no longer. From now on your name is Israel (God-Wrestler).”
11-12God continued,
I am The Strong God.
Have children! Flourish!
A nation—a whole company of nations!—
will come from you.
Kings will come from your loins;
the land I gave Abraham and Isaac
I now give to you,
and pass it on to your descendants.
13And then God was gone, ascended from the place where he had spoken with him.
14-15Jacob set up a stone pillar on the spot where God had spoken with him. He poured a drink offering on it and anointed it with oil. Jacob dedicated the place where God had spoken with him, Bethel (God’s-House).
* * *
16-17They left Bethel. They were still quite a ways from Ephrath when Rachel went into labor—hard, hard labor. When her labor pains were at their worst, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid—you have another boy.”
18With her last breath, for she was now dying, she named him Ben-oni (Son-of-My-Pain), but his father named him Ben-jamin (Son-of-Good-Fortune).
19-20Rachel died and was buried on the road to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem. Jacob set up a pillar to mark her grave. It is still there today, “Rachel’s Grave Stone.”
* * *
21-22a Israel kept on his way and set up camp at Migdal Eder. While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went and slept with his father’s concubine, Bilhah. And Israel heard of what he did.
* * *
22b-26 There were twelve sons of Jacob.
The sons by Leah:
Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn
Simeon
Levi
Judah
Issachar
Zebulun.
The sons by Rachel:
Joseph
Benjamin.
The sons by Bilhah, Rachel’s maid:
Dan
Naphtali.
The sons by Zilpah, Leah’s maid:
Gad
Asher.
These were Jacob’s sons, born to him in Paddan Aram.
* * *
27-29Finally, Jacob made it back home to his father Isaac at Mamre in Kiriath Arba, present-day Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had lived. Isaac was now 180 years old. Isaac breathed his last and died—an old man full of years. He was buried with his family by his sons Esau and Jacob.
* * *
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.