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Genesis 35:1-3
New Catholic Bible
Genesis 35:1-3
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 35
Jacob Returns to Bethel.[a] 1 God said to Jacob, “Rise up, go to Bethel, and live there. Build an altar to the God who appeared to you when you fled from Esau, your brother, in that place.”
2 Jacob said to his family and to those who were with him, “Throw away the foreign gods that you have with you. Purify yourselves and change your clothes. 3 Let us arise and go to Bethel where I will build an altar to the God who delivered me at the time of my distress and who has been with me along the way that I have traveled.”
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- Genesis 35:1 The Patriarch seems to be fleeing a threat of reprisal by the Shechemites (v. 5). Possibly he is also making a pilgrimage to his origins. In any case, this return to Bethel takes on a religious meaning: it is there that the Lord revealed himself to Jacob and there that he renewed his promises. The Patriarch and his family cleanse themselves and give up their pagan practices to affirm their faith in the one God to whom they wish to render homage; the Lord brooks no rivals in human hearts. This constitutes a first stable establishment of the People of God in the Holy Land.
