Genesis 35:3-13

3 Then let's rise and go up to Bethel so that I can build an altar there to the God who answered me when I was in trouble and who has been with me wherever I've gone."
4 So they gave Jacob all of the foreign gods they had, as well as the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the terebinth at Shechem.
5 When they set out, God made all of the surrounding cities fearful so that they didn't pursue Jacob's sons.
6 Jacob and all of the people with him arrived in Luz, otherwise known as Bethel, in the land of Canaan.
7 He built an altar there and named the place El-bethel, because God had revealed himself to him there when he ran away from his brother.
8 Rebekah's nurse Deborah died and was buried at Bethel under the oak, and Jacob named it Allon-bacuth.
9 God appeared to Jacob again, while he was on his way back from Paddan-aram, and blessed him.
10 God said to him, "Your name is Jacob, but your name will be Jacob no longer. No, your name will be Israel." And he named him Israel.
11 God said to him, "I am El Shaddai. Be fertile and multiply. A nation, even a large group of nations, will come from you; kings will descend from your own children.
12 The land I gave to Abraham and to Isaac, I give to you; and I will give the land to your descendants after you."
13 Then God ascended, leaving him alone in the place where he spoke to him.

Genesis 35:3-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 35

This chapter gives an account of Jacob's going to Bethel, and building an altar there by the order and direction of God, Ge 35:1-7, where Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died and was buried, Ge 35:8, and where God appeared to Jacob, confirmed the new name of Israel he had given him, and renewed to him the promises of the multiplication of his seed, and of their inheriting the land of Canaan, Ge 35:9-13; all which is gratefully acknowledged by Jacob, who erected a pillar in the place, and called it Bethel, in memory of God's gracious appearance to him there, Ge 35:14,15; from hence he journeyed towards his father's house, and on the way Rachel his wife fell in travail, and bore him a son, and died, and was buried near Ephrath, Ge 35:16-21; near this place Reuben committed incest with Bilhah, Ge 35:22, and the names of the twelve sons of Jacob are given, Ge 35:23-26; and the chapter is closed with an account of Jacob's arrival at his father's house, of the death of Isaac, and of his burial at the direction of his two sons, Ge 35:27-29.

Footnotes 3

  • [a]. Or God of Bethel
  • [b]. Or oak of weeping
  • [c]. Or God Almighty or God of the Mountain
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