Genesis 35

35 ¹ Then our Father said to Jacob, "Get up, go to Bethel and settle there. Build an altar there to your Father, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau."

² So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your clothes." ³ Let us go up to Bethel, and I will build an altar there to our Father, who answered me in my time of distress and was with me wherever I went.

⁴ They gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that were in their hands, and their earrings, and Jacob hid them under the oak that was near Shechem. ⁵ Then they set out, and a terror from our Father fell over the surrounding cities, so no one pursued Jacob's sons. ⁶ So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan — he and all the people who were with him. ⁷ There he built an altar and called the place El-Bethel — "our Father of the house of our Father" — because there he had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother. ^a a v7 El-Bethel means "God of Bethel." Jacob named the altar in memory of our Father's appearance at this place when he first fled from Esau. ⁸ Now Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak; so it was named Allon-bacuth ("oak of weeping").

⁹ Our Father appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him.

¹⁰ Our Father said to him, "Your name is Jacob, but you shall no longer be called Jacob; your name shall be Israel." So he named him Israel. ¹¹ Our Father said to him, "I am El Shaddai — your Father Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body." ¹² The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I give to you; and to your offspring after you I will give the land.

¹³ Then our Father went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him. ¹⁴ Jacob set up a pillar in the place where our Father had spoken with him, a pillar of stone, and he poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it. ¹⁵ Jacob named the place where our Father had spoken with him: Bethel.

Rachel's Last Son

¹⁶ They journeyed from Bethel, and when they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor, and her labor was hard. ¹⁷ When she was in her hardest labor, the midwife said to her, "Do not fear, for you have another son."

¹⁸ As she breathed her last — for she was dying — she called his name Ben-oni ("son of my sorrow"); but his father called him Benjamin ("son of the right hand"). ^b b v18 Rachel's dying word named her son Ben-oni, "son of my sorrow." His father Jacob renamed him Benjamin, "son of the right hand" — turning grief into a name of strength and chosen place. ¹⁹ So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). ²⁰ Jacob set up a pillar over her grave; that is the pillar of Rachel's grave to this day.

²¹ Then Israel journeyed on and camped beyond Migdal-eder ("the tower of the flock"). ²² While Israel was dwelling in that land, Reuben went and was intimate with Bilhah his father's concubine, and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.

²³ The sons of Leah: Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, then Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. ²⁴ The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. ²⁵ The sons of Bilhah, Rachel's maid: Dan and Naphtali. ²⁶ The sons of Zilpah, Leah's maid: Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram.

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

²⁸ Isaac lived one hundred and eighty years. ²⁹ Isaac breathed his last and died, and he joined his ancestors, old and full of years. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.