Genesis 35

Return to Bethel

1God said to Jacob, “Get up! Go to Bethel and settle there.#Gn 28:19 Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”#Gn 27:43

2So Jacob said to his family and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you.#Gn 31:19; Jos 24:23; 1Sm 7:3 Purify yourselves and change your clothes.#Ex 19:10 3We must get up and go to Bethel. I will build an altar there to the God who answered me in my day of distress.#1Sm 7:9; 2Sm 24:25; Jb 12:4; Ps 20:1; 34:4 He has been with me everywhere I have gone.”#Gn 28:10–22

4Then they gave Jacob all their foreign gods and their earrings, and Jacob hid them under the oak near Shechem. 5When they set out, a terror from God came over the cities around them, and they did not pursue Jacob’s sons.#Ex 23:27 6So Jacob and all who were with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel#Gn 28:19; 48:3) in the land of Canaan. 7Jacob built an altar there and called the place El-bethel#35:7 = God of Bethel because it was there that God had revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

8Deborah, the one who had nursed and raised Rebekah,#35:8 Lit Deborah, Rebekah’s wet nurse; Gn 24:59#Gn 24:59 died and was buried under the oak south of Bethel. So Jacob named it Allon-bacuth.#35:8 = Oak of Weeping

9God appeared to Jacob again after he returned from Paddan-aram, and he blessed him. 10God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; you will no longer be named Jacob, but your name will be Israel.”#Gn 17:5; 32:28 So he named him Israel. 11God also said to him, “I am God Almighty.#Gn 17:1; 28:3; Ex 6:3 Be fruitful and multiply.#Gn 9:1,7 A nation, indeed an assembly of nations, will come from you,#Gn 48:4 and kings will descend from you.#35:11 Lit will come from your loins#Gn 17:6,16; 36:31 12I will give to you the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac.#Gn 12:7; 13:15; 26:3–4; 28:13; Ex 32:13 And I will give the land to your future descendants.” 13Then God withdrew#35:13 Lit went up#Gn 17:22; 18:33 from him at the place where he had spoken to him.

14Jacob set up a marker at the place where he had spoken to him — a stone marker. He poured a drink offering on it and poured oil on it.#Gn 28:18–19; 31:45 15Jacob named the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.

Rachel’s Death

16They set out from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth, and her labor was difficult. 17During her difficult labor, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for you have another son.”#Gn 30:24 18With her last breath — for she was dying — she named him Ben-oni,#35:18 = Son of My Sorrow but his father called him Benjamin.#35:18 = Son of the Right Hand 19So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem#Mc 5:2; Mt 2:18). 20Jacob set up a marker on her grave; it is the marker at Rachel’s grave still today.

Israel’s Sons

21Israel set out again and pitched his tent beyond the Tower of Eder.#35:21 Or beyond Migdal-eder 22While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it.#Gn 49:3–4

Jacob had twelve sons:#1Ch 2:1–2

23Leah’s sons were Reuben (Jacob’s firstborn),

Simeon, Levi, Judah,

Issachar, and Zebulun.

24Rachel’s sons were

Joseph and Benjamin.

25The sons of Rachel’s slave Bilhah

were Dan and Naphtali.

26The sons of Leah’s slave Zilpah

were Gad and Asher.

These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan-aram.

Isaac’s Death

27Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre#Gn 13:18; 18:1; 23:19 in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron#Jos 14:15), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed. 28Isaac lived 180 years. 29He took his last breath and died, and was gathered to his people,#Gn 25:8,17; 49:33; Nm 20:24,26; Dt 32:50 old and full of days. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

Learn More About Christian Standard Bible

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.

Learn More About Wycliffe's Bible with Modern Spelling