Genesis 35:1-8

Expanded Bible

Jacob in Bethel

35 God said to Jacob, “·Go [^LRise up and go up] to the city of Bethel [12:8] and live there. Make an altar to the God who appeared to you there when you were ·running away [fleeing] from your brother Esau [28:1–22].”

² So Jacob said to his ·family [household] and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods you have, and ·make yourselves clean [purify yourselves], and change your clothes. ³ We will ·leave here and go [^Lrise up and go up] to Bethel. There I will build an altar to God, who ·has helped [^Lanswered] me ·during my time of trouble [^Lin the day of my distress]. He has been with me [^Can indication of a covenant relationship] everywhere I have gone.” ⁴ So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods ·they had [in their possession; ^Lin their hands], and the earrings ·they were wearing [^Lon their ears], and he hid them under the ·great tree [^Loak; or terebinth; 12:6] near the town of Shechem. ⁵ Then Jacob and his sons left there. But ·God caused the people in the nearby cities to be afraid [^Lthe terror of God was on the surrounding cities], so they did not ·follow [pursue] them. ⁶ And Jacob and all the people who were with him went to Luz, which is now called Bethel, in the land of Canaan. ⁷ There Jacob built an altar and named the place ·Bethel, after God [El-Bethel; or “God of Bethel”], because God had appeared to him there when he was ·running [fleeing] from his brother.

⁸ Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak tree at Bethel, so they named that place ·Oak of Crying [^LAllon-bacuth].