Jacob Moves to Bethel

35 Later, God told Jacob, “Get up, move to Bethel, and live there. Build an altar to the God who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.”

² Jacob announced to his household and to everyone with him, “Throw away the foreign gods that you’ve kept among you, purify yourselves, and change your clothes. ³ Then let’s get up and go to Bethel, where I’ll build an altar to the God who answered me when I was in distress and who was with me on the road, wherever I went.”

⁴ So they handed over to Jacob all their foreign gods on which they had been depending,^[a] along with the rings that they were wearing on their ears. Jacob buried them under the oak that grew near Shechem. ⁵ As they set out on their journey, because the people who lived in the^[b] cities around them feared God, they did not pursue Jacob’s sons.

⁶ Eventually, Jacob and everyone with him arrived at Luz (also called Beth-el) in the territory of Canaan. ⁷ He built an altar there to God and named the place El Beth-el, because God had revealed himself there when he was fleeing from his brother. ⁸ Rebekah’s nurse Deborah died and was buried there, under the oak tree that was below Beth-el. That’s why the place was named Allon-bacuth.^[c]

God Appears Again to Jacob

⁹ God appeared again to Jacob after he had arrived from Paddan-aram^[d] and blessed him. ¹⁰ Then God told him,

So God called his name Israel ¹¹ and also told him,

¹³ After this, God ascended from the place where he had been speaking to him. ¹⁴ Jacob erected a pillar of stone at that very place where God had spoken to him. He poured a drink offering over it, anointed it with oil, ¹⁵ and named the place where God had spoken to him Beth-el.

Rachel Dies in Childbirth

¹⁶ Later, they set out from Beth-el. While still a long way^[e] from Ephrathah, Rachel started to have trouble giving birth. ¹⁷ While she was suffering due to her difficult labor, the midwife told her, “Don’t fear! You’re going to have another son.”

¹⁸ Just before she died,^[f] Rachel called her son’s^[g] name Ben-oni,^[h] but his father Jacob^[i] named him Benjamin.^{[j] 19} So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrathah, also known as Bethlehem. ²⁰ Jacob erected a pillar over her grave, and that pillar stands over Rachel’s grave to this day.

Jacob Settles Near Migdal Eder

²¹ Jacob continued his travels, and eventually pitched his tent facing Migdal Eder. ²² But while Israel lived in that land, Reuben went inside his father’s tent^[k] and had sexual relations with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it. Now Jacob had twelve sons. ²³ Leah’s sons were Reuben (Jacob’s first-born), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. ²⁴ Rachel’s sons were Joseph and Benjamin. ²⁵ Rachel’s servant Bilhah’s sons were Dan and Naphtali. ²⁶ Leah’s servant Zilpah’s sons were Gad and Asher. These were Jacob’s sons who were born to him while he lived in Paddan-aram.^[l]

The Death of Isaac

²⁷ So Jacob reached his father Isaac at Mamre, in Kiriath-arba (also known as Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had lived. ²⁸ Isaac had lived a total of 180 years ²⁹ when he died and joined his ancestors at a ripe old age. Then his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.