Genesis 35  Complete Jewish Bible

35 God said to Ya‘akov, “Get up, go up to Beit-El and live there, and make there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled ‘Esav your brother.” ² Then Ya‘akov said to his household and all the others with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that you have with you, purify yourselves, and put on fresh clothes. ³ We’re going to move on and go up to Beit-El. There I will build an altar to God, who answered me when I was in such distress and stayed with me wherever I went.” ⁴ They gave Ya‘akov all the foreign gods in their possession and the earrings they were wearing, and Ya‘akov buried them under the pistachio tree near Sh’khem. ⁵ While they were traveling, a terror from God fell upon the cities around them, so that none of them pursued the sons of Ya‘akov.

⁶ Ya‘akov and all the people with him arrived at Luz (that is, Beit-El) in the land of Kena‘an. ⁷ He built there an altar and called the place El-Beit-El [God of Beit-El], because it was there that God was revealed to him, at the time when he was fleeing from his brother.

⁸ Then D’vorah, Rivkah’s nurse, died. She was buried below Beit-El under the oak, which was given the name Alon-Bakhut [oak of weeping].

⁹ After Ya‘akov arrived from Paddan-Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him. ¹⁰ God said to him, “Your name is Ya‘akov, but you will be called Ya‘akov no longer; your name will be Isra’el.” Thus he named him Isra’el. ¹¹ God further said to him, “I am El Shaddai. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation, indeed a group of nations, will come from you; kings will be descended from you. (A: vi) ¹² Moreover, the land which I gave to Avraham and Yitz’chak I will give to you, and I will give the land to your descendants after you.” ¹³ Then God went up from him there where he had spoken with him. (S: vi) ¹⁴ Ya‘akov set up a standing-stone in the place where he had spoken with him, a stone pillar. Then he poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it. ¹⁵ Ya‘akov called the place where God spoke with him Beit-El.

¹⁶ Then they traveled on from Beit-El, and while there was still some distance to go before arriving in Efrat, Rachel went into labor, and she had great difficulty with it. ¹⁷ While she was undergoing this hard labor, the midwife said to her, “Don’t worry, this is also a son for you.” ¹⁸ But she died in childbirth. As she was dying she named her son Ben-Oni [son of my grief], but his father called him Binyamin [son of the right hand, son of the south]. ¹⁹ So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Efrat (that is, Beit-Lechem). ²⁰ Ya‘akov set up a standing-stone on her grave; it is the standing-stone of Rachel’s grave to this day.

²¹ Isra’el continued his travels and pitched his tent on the other side of Migdal-‘Eder. ²² It was while Isra’el was living in that land that Re’uven went and slept with Bilhah his father’s concubine, and Isra’el heard about it.

Ya‘akov had twelve sons. ²³ The sons of Le’ah were Re’uven Ya‘akov’s firstborn, Shim‘on, Levi, Y’hudah, Yissakhar and Z’vulun. ²⁴ The sons of Rachel were Yosef and Binyamin. ²⁵ The sons of Bilhah Rachel’s slave-girl were Dan and Naftali. ²⁶ And the sons of Zilpah Le’ah’s slave-girl were Gad and Asher. These were Ya‘akov’s sons, born to him in Paddan-Aram.

²⁷ Ya‘akov came home to his father Yitz’chak at Mamre, near Kiryat-Arba (also known as Hevron), where Avraham and Yitz’chak had lived as foreigners. ²⁸ Yitz’chak lived to be 180 years old. ²⁹ Then he breathed his last, died and was gathered to his people, an old man full of years; and his sons ‘Esav and Ya‘akov buried him.