Genesis 35

₁God said to Jacob: ‘You must go back. You must go to Bethel and live there and you must build an altar for Me. I am the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.’

₂Jacob said to his family and everyone who was with him: ‘Throw away all the idols that people of other nations pray to. Purify yourselves and put on clean clothes. ₃We must go to Bethel so that I can build an altar for God who has listened to my prayers and helped me when I have had big problems. He was with me wherever I went.’

₄They gave Jacob all the idols that they had of other nations' gods and all their ear-rings. Jacob buried them all under the tree at Shechem.

₅When Jacob and his people went away, God made the people from the towns around them afraid of Jacob and his sons and they did not follow_and_chase them.

₆Jacob and his people came to Luz, a town in Canaan. The other name for Luz was Bethel. ₇Jacob built an altar there and he named the place El-Bethel, because God had appeared to him there when he fled from his brother Esau.

₈When Rebekah was a baby, she had drunk milk from a woman whose name was Deborah. Deborah died at Bethel and they buried her under a tree near Bethel. They named the tree the ‘Crying Tree’.

₉When Jacob came back from Paddan-Aram, God appeared to him again and He blessed Jacob. ₁₀God said to him: ‘Your name is Jacob, but they will no longer say you are Jacob. Your name will be Israel.’ That is how God gave him the name of Israel. ₁₁God also told him: ‘I am God Almighty. You must be fertile and have many descendants. A nation will come from you, many nations, and you will be the forefather of kings. ₁₂I will also give you this land. This is the land that I promised Abraham and Isaac. I will give it to you and to your descendants after you.’

₁₃Then God went away from Jacob. ₁₄Jacob put up a monument at the place where God had talked to him. He poured out a drink-offering and olive oil over the stone. ₁₅Jacob named the place Bethel, the place where God had talked to him.

₁₆Jacob and his people moved from Bethel to Ephrath. They were far from Ephrath when Rachel had a child. She had a lot of pain when the baby was born. ₁₇The midwife said: ‘Do not be afraid. You have another son.’

₁₈Rachel was dying but before she died, she named her son Ben-Oni. But his father Jacob named him Benjamin.

₁₉Rachel died and they buried her next to the road to Ephrath. The other name of Ephrath is Bethlehem. ₂₀Jacob put up a memorial on her grave. It is the same memorial that is on Rachel's tomb today.

₂₁Jacob went on and he put up his tents on the other side of the town of Migdal-Eder. ₂₂While Jacob lived in that land, his son Reuben had sex with his father's concubine, Bilhah, and someone told Jacob about it.

Jacob had 12 sons. ₂₃Leah's sons were Reuben, who was the oldest, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun. ₂₄Rachel's sons were Joseph and Benjamin. ₂₅Rachel's servant girl Bilhah's sons were Dan and Naphtali. ₂₆Leah's servant girl Zilpah's sons were Gad and Asher. These were Jacob's sons who were born in Paddan-Aram.

₂₇Jacob came home to his father Isaac in Mamre, near Kiriath-Arba. The other name for Kiriath-Arba was Hebron where Abraham and Isaac were strangers.

₂₈Isaac lived for 180 years ₂₉before he died. He was very old and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.