Genesis 35:1-8

Evangelical Heritage Version

The Return to Bethel

35 God said to Jacob, “Get up and go to Bethel, and live there. Make an altar there for God, who appeared to you when you fled from the presence of Esau your brother.”

² Then Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Throw away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your clothing. ³ Let’s get up and go to Bethel. I will make an altar there for God, who answered me in the day when I was in trouble and who has been with me wherever I have traveled.”

⁴ They gave Jacob all the foreign gods that were in their possession and the rings that were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem.

⁵ They set out, and terror from God fell on the cities that were around them, so they did not pursue Jacob’s sons. ⁶ So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. ⁷ He built an altar there and named the place El Beth El,^[a] because God had been revealed to him there, when he fled from the presence of his brother.

⁸ Deborah, who was Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried under the oak below Bethel. So the place was named Allon Bacuth.^[b]