Genesis 35

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).