Genesis 35-36
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 35
Jacob Returns to Bethel.[a] 1 God said to Jacob, “Rise up, go to Bethel, and live there. Build an altar to the God who appeared to you when you fled from Esau, your brother, in that place.”
2 Jacob said to his family and to those who were with him, “Throw away the foreign gods that you have with you. Purify yourselves and change your clothes. 3 Let us arise and go to Bethel where I will build an altar to the God who delivered me at the time of my distress and who has been with me along the way that I have traveled.” 4 They gave Jacob all the foreign gods in their possession and the earrings they had in their ears. Jacob left them under the oak near Shechem. 5 They then journeyed on, and a great terror came upon the people who lived in that area, so they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.
6 Jacob and all the people who were with him arrived in Luz, that is, Bethel, which is in the land of Canaan. 7 Here he built an altar and called the place El-Bethel, because God had revealed himself there, when he had fled from his brother.
8 Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, died there, and she was buried below Bethel, beneath an oak. This is why that place is called the Weeping Oak.
9 God appeared another time to Jacob, when he returned from Paddan-aram, and he blessed him. 10 God said to him,
“Your name is Jacob.
You shall no longer be called Jacob,
but Israel shall be your name.”
Thus, he was called Israel.
11 God said to him,
“I am God Almighty.
Be fruitful and become numerous.
People and assemblies of people shall come from you.
Kings shall come forth from your loins.
12 The country that I have given to Abraham and Isaac
I will give to you;
and to your descendants after you
I will give this land.”
13 Then God departed from him, in the place where he had spoken to him.
14 Jacob erected a pillar where God had spoken to him, a stone pillar upon which he poured a libation of oil. 15 Jacob called the place where God had spoken to him Bethel.
16 Jacob Endures Painful Times.[b] They then departed from Bethel. They were a short distance outside of Ephrath when Rachel went into labor and she suffered great distress. 17 When her pains were most severe, the midwife said to her, “Do not fear, for it is another son!” 18 With her last breath, for she was dying, she called him Ben-oni,[c] the son of my sorrow, but his father called him Benjamin.
19 Rachel died and was buried on the road to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem. 20 Jacob erected a pillar on the tomb. That monument to Rachel can be seen to this day.
21 Israel moved on and pitched his tent on the other side of Migdal-eder. 22 While Israel lived in that country, Reuben slept with Bilhah, the concubine of his father, and Israel came to know about it.
The Twelve Sons of Jacob.[d] Jacob had twelve sons.
23 The sons of Leah:
Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn,
Simeon, Levi, Judah,
Issachar and Zebulun.
24 The sons of Rachel:
Joseph and Benjamin.
25 The sons of Bilhah, the slave of Rachel:
Dan and Naphtali.
26 The sons of Zilpah, the slave of Leah:
Gad and Asher.
These were the sons of Jacob who were born in Paddan-aram.
27 Death of Isaac.[e] Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, at Kiriath-arba, that is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned. 28 Isaac lived for one hundred and eighty years. 29 Isaac then breathed his last. He died and was reunited with his people at a ripe old age. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
Chapter 36
List of the Clans Established in Edom.[f] 1 These are the descendants of Esau, that is, of Edom.
2 Esau married women from the daughters of the Canaanites: Adah, the daughter of Elon the Hittite, Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah, who was the son of Zibeon the Hivite, 3 and Basemath, the daughter of Ishmael and the sister of Nebaioth.
4 Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, and Basemath bore Reuel. 5 Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. These were the sons of Esau who were born in the land of Canaan.
6 Esau took his wives and sons and daughters and all the people who were in his household, his flocks and all his animals and all his possessions that he acquired in the land of Canaan, and he went into the land of Seir, far from his brother Jacob. 7 Their possessions, in fact, were too extensive for them to live together, and the land in which they were living could not sustain the grazing of all their animals. 8 Esau thus dwelt in the mountains of Seir. Now Esau is Edom.
9 These are the descendants of Esau, the father of the Edomites, in the mountains of Seir.
10 These are the names of the sons of Esau:
Eliphaz, the son of Adah who was the wife of Esau, and Reuel, the son of Basemath who was the wife of Esau.
11 The sons of Eliphaz:
Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz.
12 Eliphaz, the son of Esau, had a concubine named Timna, who bore Amalek to Eliphaz. These were the sons of Ada, the wife of Esau.
13 These are the sons of Reuel:
Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These were the sons of Basemath, the wife of Esau.
14 These are the sons of Oholibamah, the wife of Esau, the daughter of Anah, who was the son of Zibeon, whom she bore to Esau:
Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.
15 These are the leaders of the clans of Esau’s descendants:
The sons of Eliphaz, the firstborn of Esau:
Teman, Omar, Zepho, and Kenaz, 16 Korah, Gatam, and Amalek, all of them leaders of their clans. These were the leaders of the clans of Eliphaz in the land of Edom; they were the sons of Adah.
17 These are the sons of Reuel, Esau’s son:
Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah, all of them leaders of their clans. These were the leaders of the clans of Reuel in the land of Edom; they were the sons of Basemath, Esau’s wife.
18 These are the sons of Oholibamah, Esau’s wife:
Jeush, Jalam, and Korah, all of them leaders of their clans. These were the leaders of the clans borne to Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah and Esau’s wife.
19 Such are the sons of Esau, that is Edom, and such are the leaders of the clans.
20 These are the sons of Seir the Hittite who were living in the land:
Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, 21 Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. These were the leaders of the clans of the Horites, the sons of Seir in the land of Edom.
22 The sons of Lotan:
Hori and Hemam. Lotan’s sister was Timna.
23 The sons of Shobal:
Alvan, Mahanath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.
24 The sons of Zibeon:
Aiah and Anah. This is the Anah who found the hot springs in the desert when he was tending the donkeys of his father Zibeon.
25 The children of Anah:
Dishon and Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah.
26 The sons of Dishon:
Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Cheran.
27 The sons of Ezer:
Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan.
28 The sons of Dishan:
Uz and Aran.
29 These are the leaders of the clans of the Horites:
Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, 30 Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. These were all chiefs of the clans of the Horites, each according to their clans in the land of Seir.
31 These are the kings who ruled in the land of Edom before the kings of Israel ruled over them:
32 Bela, the son of Beor, reigned in Edom, and his city was called Dinhabah.
33 Bela died and his son Jobab, the son of Zerah of Bozrah, reigned in his place.
34 Jobab died and Husham of the land of the Temanites reigned in his place.
35 Husham died and Hadad, the son of Bedad, who defeated the Midianites in the steppe of Moab, reigned in his place. His city was called Avith.
36 Hadad died and Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his place.
37 Samlah died and Shaul of Rehoboth by the River ruled in his place.
38 Shaul died and Baal-hanan, the son of Achbor, reigned in his place.
39 Baal-hanan, son of Achbor, died and Hadar reigned in his place. His city was called Pau. His wife’s name was Mehetabel. She was the daughter of Matred from Mezahab.
40 These are the names of the leaders of Esau according to their clans, their lands, and their names:
Timna, Alvah, Jetheth, 41 Oholiba-mah, Elah, Pinon, 42 Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar, 43 Magdiel and Iram. These were the leaders of Edom according to their dwelling places in the lands that they occupied.
This was Esau, the father of the Edomites.
Footnotes
- Genesis 35:1 The Patriarch seems to be fleeing a threat of reprisal by the Shechemites (v. 5). Possibly he is also making a pilgrimage to his origins. In any case, this return to Bethel takes on a religious meaning: it is there that the Lord revealed himself to Jacob and there that he renewed his promises. The Patriarch and his family cleanse themselves and give up their pagan practices to affirm their faith in the one God to whom they wish to render homage; the Lord brooks no rivals in human hearts. This constitutes a first stable establishment of the People of God in the Holy Land.
- Genesis 35:16 Rachel, Jacob’s preferred wife, dies while giving birth to a son; later, he learns that his eldest son Reuben has committed a grave outrage against him. Thus, Jacob continues to expiate his sin.
- Genesis 35:18 Ben-oni means “Son of my sorrow.” Jacob changes it to Benjamin, “Son of the right hand,” that is, of good omen. This time, the popular etymology agrees with the scientific. But originally the name “son of the right hand” seems to have been inspired by geography: the right hand is the south, because the Semites oriented themselves by looking eastward to where the sun rises; therefore “Benjamin” means “son of the south.”
- Genesis 35:22 Jacob’s twelve sons represent all the chosen people born of Abraham now established in the Holy Land. This list will be found frequently in the Bible.
- Genesis 35:27 The aged and taciturn Isaac seemed close to death when he blessed Jacob to the detriment of Esau (ch. 27). Here the Priestly tradition reports his death later and seems to know nothing about the rivalry between the two brothers.
- Genesis 36:1 The author has grouped together—without attempting to harmonize them in any way—teachings of diverse origins concerning the Edomites, that is, the line of Esau (v. 9ff) and the clans of the region of Seir that it occupied (v. 20ff). Deuteronomy affirms that the descendants of Esau replaced the indigenous peoples (Deut 2:12); rather both peoples seem to have been joined together: Esau marries a Horite (36:20) and one of his sons takes a concubine (vv. 12, 22). The Priestly tradition gave other names to the women of Esau (Gen 26:34; 28:9; see 36:1-5); it does this to explain in a different way the separation of Jacob and his brother (36:7; see Gen 33:12-17). But all these divergences are of little importance: it is solely a question of situating a fraternal people with respect to the people of Israel whom God has set apart for the salvation of humankind.
