Genesis 35

CHAPTER 35

Jacob Returns to Bethel (35:1–15)

1 As Jacob had feared, he and his family faced great danger from the neighboring Canaanite tribes as a result of the plundering of the Shechemites. So God told Jacob to move south to Bethel, the place where Jacob had first come to know God.

2–8 Because Jacob realized that Bethel was a holy place, he instructed his family members to get rid of any household gods and religious objects, such as earrings, that they might have gotten from their pagan neighbors. Jacob associated Bethel with the presence of God (Genesis 28:16), and he knew that the members of his household needed to purify themselves before going there (verse 2). The clothes of his murderous sons were figuratively stained with blood and needed to be washed. But the washing of clothes is not the same as true inner washing: what Jacob’s family needed were not clean clothes but clean hearts.

As Jacob and his family journeyed to Bethel, God protected them by causing fear to come upon the neighboring people so that no one would dare attack them. God was still fulfilling the promise He made to Jacob at Bethel twenty years earlier: “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go” (Genesis 28:15).

When Jacob arrived at Bethel, he built an altar for the purpose of worshiping God, and he renamed the place El Bethel¹¹⁴ (verse 7).

9–13 God appeared again to Jacob at Bethel, and confirmed that He had indeed given Jacob a new name, Israel(Genesis 32:28). He then reconfirmed the covenant promises He had given to Jacob earlier—the same promises He had given to Abraham and Isaac before him (Genesis 17:1–8,15–16; 28:3–4,13–14). In repeating these promises God was reaffirming the original mandate He had given mankind (Genesis 1:18; 9:7), which now would continue to be fulfilled through Jacob and his offspring. God had chosen Jacob and his family to carry out His purposes on earth; He had made a covenant with them and He had given them covenant promises, which would be theirs as long as they obeyed His covenant commands.

After reaffirming His promises to Jacob, God went up from him, leaving Jacob there alone (verse 13).

14–15 After God had left, Jacob set up a stone pillar as a memorial to this most recent encounter with God, and he consecrated the pillar by pouring on it oil and a drink offering—a liquid offering poured out as a sacrifice to God (see Genesis 28:18). Thus Jacob fulfilled part of his earlier vow to God, when he had said: “This pillar will be God’s house” (Genesis 28:22). And Jacob called the place of this new pillar Bethel—the “house of God” (verse 15).

The Deaths of Rachel and Isaac (35:16–29)

16–20 Some time later, Jacob’s family moved on from Bethel; on the way Rachel began giving birth to her second son, the child she had asked God for (Genesis 30:24). The child survived and was named Benjamin (verse 18); but Rachel, Jacob’s beloved wife, died in childbirth. Jacob buried her and set up a pillar over her tomb; this tomb would remain a well-known landmark for many centuries (1 Samuel10:2).

21–22 Here brief mention is made of a very great sin on the part of Jacob’s eldest son Reuben: he had sexual intercourse with Bilhah, his father’s concubine and mother of two of his brothers. Such an incestuous act deserved the death penalty according to later Jewish law (Leviticus 20:11). Perhaps Reuben was prematurely claiming his inheritance as firstborn son, which included the right to his father’s concubines. If so, his act had the opposite effect; it resulted in a rebuke from his father and the loss of his legal status as firstborn (Genesis 49:3–4). Now that Jacob’s three oldest sons had committed grievous crimes, preeminence among the sons would pass to Judah,¹¹⁵ from whom Israel’s royal line—and ultimately Israel’s Messiah—would descend.

23–29 The chapter concludes with a list of Jacob’s sons and a brief description of Isaac’s death. Isaac was buried in the family tomb that Abraham had purchased from the Hittites (Genesis 23:17–20; 25:8–10).