Genesis 35

Tree of Life Version

Rededication at Beth-El

35 Then God said to Jacob, “Get up! Go up to Beth-El and stay there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”

² So Jacob said to his household and to everyone who was with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Cleanse yourselves and change your clothes. ³ Now let’s get up and go up to Beth-El so that I can make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and has been with me in the way that I have gone.”

⁴ So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods in their hand and the rings in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the oak tree near Shechem. ⁵ Then they journeyed, and the terror of God was on the cities that were around them, so they did not pursue Jacob’s sons. ⁶ Then Jacob arrived at Luz in the land of Canaan (that is Beth-El), he and all the people who were with him. ⁷ He built an altar there and called the place El-Beth-El because God had revealed Himself to him there when he fled from the presence of his brother.

⁸ Then Rebekah’s nurse Deborah died, and was buried below Beth-El, under the oak—so it was named Oak of Weeping.

⁹ God appeared to Jacob again, after he returned from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him. ¹⁰ God said to him:

¹³ Then God went up from him at the place where He had spoken with him. ¹⁴ Jacob set up a memorial stone in the place where He had spoken with him—a stone pillar—and he poured a drink offering on it and poured oil on it. ¹⁵ Jacob named the place where God spoke with him Beth-El.

Rachel’s Death in Childbirth

¹⁶ Then they traveled from Beth-El, and while they were still a distance from entering Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth, but her labor was difficult. ¹⁷ While she was struggling to give birth, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for this is also a son for you.” ¹⁸ Now as her soul was departing (for she died), she named him Ben-Oni, but his father named him Benjamin. ¹⁹ Then Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). ²⁰ Jacob set up a memorial stone over her grave. (It is the memorial stone over Rachel’s grave to this day.)

Israel Returns to Isaac

²¹ Then Israel journeyed on and set up his tent beyond the tower of Eder. ²² While Israel was living in that land, Reuben went and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it.

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

²⁷ Then Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre of Kiriat-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed.

²⁸ Now Isaac’s days were 180 years. ²⁹ Then Isaac breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his peoples, old and full of days. So his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.