Genesis 35

God Blesses and Renames Jacob

¹God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”²So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments.³Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.”⁴So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem.

⁵And as they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.⁶And Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him,⁷and there he built an altar and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother.⁸And Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died, and she was buried under an oak below Bethel. So he called its name Allon-bacuth.

⁹God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him.¹⁰And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” So he called his name Israel.¹¹And God said to him, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body.¹²The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you.”¹³Then God went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him.¹⁴And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it.¹⁵So Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.

The Deaths of Rachel and Isaac

¹⁶Then they journeyed from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor, and she had hard labor.¹⁷And when her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, “Do not fear, for you have another son.”¹⁸And as her soul was departing (for she was dying), she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin.¹⁹So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem),²⁰and Jacob set up a pillar over her tomb. It is the pillar of Rachel's tomb, which is there to this day.²¹Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder.

²²While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine. And Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve. ²³The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob's firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.²⁴The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.²⁵The sons of Bilhah, Rachel's servant: Dan and Naphtali.²⁶The sons of Zilpah, Leah's servant: Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram.

²⁷And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned.²⁸Now the days of Isaac were 180 years.²⁹And Isaac breathed his last, and he died and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.