CHAPTER 35
Then 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.”
So 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.
Then let us arise
and go
to
Bethel.
I will build
an altar
there
to the God
who answered
me in my day
of distress.
He has been
with me
wherever
I have gone.”
So they gave
Jacob
all
their
foreign
gods
and all their earrings,
and Jacob
buried
them under
the oak
near
Shechem.
As they set out,
a terror
from God
fell
over
the surrounding
cities,
so that they did not
pursue
Jacob’s
sons.
There
Jacob built
an altar,
and he called
that place
El-bethel,
because
it was there
that God
had revealed Himself
to him
as he fled
from
his brother.
Now Deborah,
Rebekah’s
nurse,
died
and was buried
under
the oak
below
Bethel.
So Jacob named
it
Allon-bachuth.
And God
said
to him,
“Your name
is Jacob;
you will no
longer
be called
Jacob,
but
your name
will be
Israel.”
So God named
him Israel.
And 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.
The land
that
I gave
to Abraham
and Isaac
I will give
to you,
and I will give
this land
to your descendants
after you.”
So Jacob
set up
a pillar
in the place
where
God had spoken
to him—
a stone
marker—
and he poured out
a drink offering
on it
and anointed it
with oil.
Later, they set out
from
Bethel,
and while they were
still
some distance
from Ephrath,
Rachel
began to give birth,
and her labor
was difficult.
During
her severe
labor,
the midwife
said
to her,
“Do not
be afraid,
for
you
are having
another
son.”
And
with her last breath—
for
she was dying—
she named
him Ben-oni.
But his father
called
him
Benjamin.
While
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:
And 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.
Jacob
returned
to
his father
Isaac
at Mamre,
near Kiriath-arba
(that is,
Hebron),
where
Abraham
and Isaac
had dwelt.
Then 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.