Add parallel Print Page Options

Jacob Goes Up to Bethel

35 Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to (A)Bethel and [a]live there, and make an altar there to (B)God, who appeared to you (C)when you fled [b]from your brother Esau.” So Jacob said to his (D)household and to all who were with him, “Put away (E)the foreign gods which are among you and (F)cleanse yourselves and change your garments; and let us arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make (G)an altar there to God, (H)who answered me in the day of my distress and (I)has been with me [c]wherever I have gone.” So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods which [d]they had and the rings which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the [e]oak which was near Shechem.

Then they journeyed on, and there was [f](J)a terror from God upon the cities which were around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. So Jacob came to (K)Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. (L)And he built an altar there and called the place [g]El-bethel, because there God had revealed Himself to him when he fled [h]from his brother. Then (M)Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak; it was named [i]Allon-bacuth.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Genesis 35:1 Lit dwell
  2. Genesis 35:1 Lit from the face of
  3. Genesis 35:3 Lit in the way which
  4. Genesis 35:4 Lit were in their hand
  5. Genesis 35:4 Or terebinth
  6. Genesis 35:5 Or a terror of God
  7. Genesis 35:7 The God of Bethel
  8. Genesis 35:7 Lit from the face of
  9. Genesis 35:8 Lit oak of weeping

Return to Bethel

35 God said to Jacob, “Get up! Go to Bethel and settle there.(A) Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”(B)

So Jacob said to his family and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you.(C) Purify yourselves and change your clothes.(D) We must get up and go to Bethel. I will build an altar there to the God who answered me in my day of distress.(E) He has been with me everywhere I have gone.”(F)

Then they gave Jacob all their foreign gods and their earrings, and Jacob hid them under the oak near Shechem. When they set out, a terror from God came over the cities around them, and they did not pursue Jacob’s sons.(G) So Jacob and all who were with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel(H)) in the land of Canaan. Jacob built an altar there and called the place El-bethel[a] because it was there that God had revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

Deborah, the one who had nursed and raised Rebekah,[b](I) died and was buried under the oak south of Bethel. So Jacob named it Allon-bacuth.[c]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 35:7 = God of Bethel
  2. 35:8 Lit Deborah, Rebekah’s wet nurse; Gn 24:59
  3. 35:8 = Oak of Weeping