Chapter 35
- Elohim said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the Elohim who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.
- So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments.
- Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the Elohim who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.
- So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem.
- And as they journeyed, a terror from Elohim fell upon the cities that were around them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.
- And Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel ), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him,
- and there he built an altar and called the place El-bethel, because there Elohim had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother.
- And Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried under an oak below Bethel. So he called its name Allon-bacuth.
- Elohim appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him.
- And Elohim said to him, Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name. So he called his name Israel.
- And Elohim said to him, I am El Shaddai : be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body.
- The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you.
- Then Elohim went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him.
- And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it.
- So Jacob called the name of the place where Elohim had spoken with him Bethel.
- Then they journeyed from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor, and she had hard labor.
- And when her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, Do not fear, for you have another son.
- And as her soul was departing (for she was dying ), she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin.
- So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem ),
- and Jacob set up a pillar over her tomb. It is the pillar of Rachel’s tomb, which is there to this day.
- Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder.
- While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine. And Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.
- The sons of Leah : Reuben ( Jacob’s firstborn ), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.
- The sons of Rachel : Joseph and Benjamin.
- The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s servant : Dan and Naphtali.
- The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s servant : Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram.
- And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron ), where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned.
- Now the days of Isaac were 180 years.
- And Isaac breathed his last, and he died and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.