Genesis 35

1God said to Jacob, “Get up, go up to Bethel, and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.”

2So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your clothes.

3Then let us get up and go up to Bethel, so that I can build an altar there to the God who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.”

4So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak near Shechem.

5Then they set out, and a terror from God fell on the cities around them, so that no one pursued the sons of Jacob.

6Jacob and all the people who were with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan.

7There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel, because it was there that God had revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

8Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel. So it was named Allon Bacuth.

9God appeared to Jacob again after he came back from Paddan Aram, and he blessed him.

10God said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel.” So he named him Israel.

11And God said to him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation, and a community of nations, will come from you, and kings will come from your own body.

12The land I gave to Abraham and to Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you.”

13Then God went up from him at the place where he had spoken with him.

14Jacob set up a pillar at the place where God had spoken with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it.

15Jacob named the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.

16Then they set out from Bethel. While they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor, and her labor was hard.

17When her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, “Do not be afraid, for you have another son.”

18As her life was slipping away—for she was dying—she named him Ben-Oni. But his father called him Benjamin.

19So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).

20Jacob set up a pillar over her grave; it is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day.

21Israel moved on and pitched his tent beyond Migdal Eder.

22While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went and slept with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard about it. Jacob had twelve sons.

23The sons of Leah: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, then Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.

24The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

25The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s servant: Dan and Naphtali.

26The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s servant: Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan Aram.

27Jacob came home to his father Isaac at Mamre, at Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had lived as foreigners.

28Isaac lived 180 years.

29Then Isaac breathed his last and died, and he was gathered to his people, old and full of years. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.