Genesis 35:3

3 We're going to move on and go up to Beit-El. There I will build an altar to God, who answered me when I was in such distress and stayed with me wherever I went."

Genesis 35:3 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 35:3

And let us arise and go up to Bethel
Thus prepared and purged, their tents clear of idols, their bodies washed with pure water, and their garments new, neat, and clean; all symbolical of inward purity, and of freedom from idolatry and evil works, as became those who go to the house of God, and are his worshippers, see ( Hebrews 10:22 ) .

I will make there an altar unto God;
as he has directed, and sacrifice to him, and worship him, and give the tenth unto him, and so make it a Bethel, an house of God indeed, as he had vowed, ( Genesis 28:22 ) ;

who answered me in the day of my distress;
on account of his brother Esau, from whose wrath he fled:

and was with me in the way which I went;
from his father's house to Padanaram; in which journey he was alone and destitute, and exposed to many difficulties and dangers, but God was with him, and preserved him, and directed and brought him to Laban's house in safety.

Genesis 35:3 In-Context

1 God said to Ya'akov, "Get up, go up to Beit-El and live there, and make there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled 'Esav your brother."

2 Then Ya'akov said to his household and all the others with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods that you have with you, purify yourselves, and put on fresh clothes.

3 We're going to move on and go up to Beit-El. There I will build an altar to God, who answered me when I was in such distress and stayed with me wherever I went."

4 They gave Ya'akov all the foreign gods in their possession and the earrings they were wearing, and Ya'akov buried them under the pistachio tree near Sh'khem.

5 While they were traveling, a terror from God fell upon the cities around them, so that none of them pursued the sons of Ya'akov.