Jacob goes back to Bethel
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.’![](https://storage.googleapis.com/ibep-prod.appspot.com/mediaPackage/BSSA-1caad7b6f6d6241d-01/1.jpg?GoogleAccessId=firebase-adminsdk-5de4x%40ibep-prod.iam.gserviceaccount.com&Expires=1725939225&Signature=q0MtZ5R6sx4aIpqrAYTLnXmav4F25MyWLREp0kTvUoJ4ZTUJyQSUcANl7k5HZn1VN9T41Zl%2Bc6P8AVOxIzNfM2kzy8F1gPsvo5CPGo9uIkLSzLCN5cxMebafZdS7SJdLvDvyp1OscW2qcTDzb%2BNbCOTto0ONhFVH8j1vHHuAeTgM6nojanu0ZRLLEE0Z8Uw7Y3QFahYcDp5nk9C9EBTz9oR2V1qdwkrzpkIe1rSJCIQ47K8E45w6ZZ264ZfG1L4DWKErV3VBq30G5GRKj8L9QBrxAnyYvSpIneMLra6kI513DMMRI6WD98sBxRSLhvbRPrxbCZDlogQ9OBoBvECJug%3D%3D)
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’.
God blesses Jacob at Bethel
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.
Rachel has a 2nd son and she dies
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's sons
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.
Isaac dies
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.