Genesis 35: Verse-by-Verse Commentary (with Videos)

¹Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”

²So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your garments.

³Then let us arise and go to Bethel. I will build an altar there to God, who answered me in my day of distress. He has been with me wherever I have gone.”

⁴So they gave Jacob all their foreign gods and all their earrings, and Jacob buried them under the oak near Shechem.

⁵As they set out, a terror from God fell over the surrounding cities, so that they did not pursue Jacob’s sons.

⁶So Jacob and everyone with him arrived in Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan.

⁷There Jacob built an altar, and he called that place El-bethel, because it was there that God had revealed Himself to Jacob as he fled from his brother.

⁸Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel. So Jacob named it Allon-bacuth.

⁹After Jacob had returned from Paddan-aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him.

¹⁰And God said to him, “Though your name is Jacob, you will no longer be called Jacob. Instead, your name will be Israel.” So God named him Israel.

¹¹And God told him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation—even a company of nations—shall come from you, and kings shall descend from you.

¹²The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.”

¹³Then God went up from the place where He had spoken with him.

¹⁴So Jacob set up a pillar in the place where God had spoken with him—a stone marker—and he poured out a drink offering on it and anointed it with oil.

¹⁵Jacob called the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.

¹⁶Later, they set out from Bethel, and while they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth, and her labor was difficult.

¹⁷During her severe labor, the midwife said to her, “Do not be afraid, for you are having another son.”

¹⁸And with her last breath—for she was dying—she named him Ben-oni. But his father called him Benjamin.

¹⁹So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).

²⁰Jacob set up a pillar on her grave; it marks Rachel’s tomb to this day.

²¹Israel again set out and pitched his tent beyond the Tower of Eder.

²²While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it. Jacob had twelve sons:

²³The sons of Leah were Reuben the firstborn of Jacob, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.

²⁴The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin.

²⁵The sons of Rachel’s maidservant Bilhah were Dan and Naphtali.

²⁶And the sons of Leah’s maidservant Zilpah were Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan-aram.

²⁷Jacob returned to his father Isaac at Mamre, near Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed.

²⁸And Isaac lived 180 years.

²⁹Then he breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, old and full of years. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.