Genesis 35 Holman Christian Standard Bible

Return to Bethel

35 God said to Jacob, “Get up! Go to Bethel and settle there.^(A) Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”^(B)

²So Jacob said to his family and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you.^(C) Purify yourselves and change your clothes.^(D) 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.^(E) He has been with me everywhere I have gone.”^(F)

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.^(G) ⁶So Jacob and all who were with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel^(H)) in the land of Canaan. ⁷Jacob built an altar there and called the place God of Bethel^[a] 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,^[b]^(I) died and was buried under the oak south of Bethel. So Jacob named it Oak of Weeping.^[c]

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.^(J)

So He named him Israel. ¹¹God also said to him:

I am God Almighty.^(K)
Be fruitful and multiply.^(L)
A nation, indeed an assembly of nations,
will come from you,^(M)
and kings will descend from you.^[d]^(N)
¹²I will give to you the land
that I gave to Abraham and Isaac.^(O)
And I will give the land
to your future descendants.

¹³Then God withdrew^[e]^(P) 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 anointed it with oil.^(Q) 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.”^(R) ¹⁸With her last breath—for she was dying—she named him Ben-oni,^[f] but his father called him Benjamin.^[g] ¹⁹So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem^(S)). ²⁰Jacob set up a marker on her grave; it is the marker at Rachel’s grave to this day.

Israel’s Sons

²¹Israel set out again and pitched his tent beyond the Tower of Eder.^[h] ²²While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it.^(T)

Jacob had 12 sons:^(U)

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^(V) in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron^(W)), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed. ²⁸Isaac lived 180 years. ²⁹He took his last breath and died, and was gathered to his people,^(X) old and full of days. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.