Jacob Moves to Bethel

35 Later, God told Jacob, “Get up, move to Bethel, and live there. Build an altar to the God who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.”

² Jacob announced to his household and to everyone with him, “Throw away the foreign gods that you’ve kept among you, purify yourselves, and change your clothes. ³ Then let’s get up and go to Bethel, where I’ll build an altar to the God who answered me when I was in distress and who was with me on the road, wherever I went.”

⁴ So they handed over to Jacob all their foreign gods on which they had been depending,^[a] along with the rings that they were wearing on their ears. Jacob buried them under the oak that grew near Shechem. ⁵ As they set out on their journey, because the people who lived in the^[b] cities around them feared God, they did not pursue Jacob’s sons.

⁶ Eventually, Jacob and everyone with him arrived at Luz (also called Beth-el) in the territory of Canaan. ⁷ He built an altar there to God and named the place El Beth-el, because God had revealed himself there when he was fleeing from his brother. ⁸ Rebekah’s nurse Deborah died and was buried there, under the oak tree that was below Beth-el. That’s why the place was named Allon-bacuth.^[c]