Genesis 35:1-7

Jacob Returns to Bethel

1 Then God said to Jacob, “Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.”
2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes.
3 Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.”
4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem.
5 Then they set out, and the terror of God fell on the towns all around them so that no one pursued them.
6 Jacob and all the people with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan.
7 There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel,[a] because it was there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

Genesis 35:1-7 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.

Cross References 22

  • 1. S Genesis 12:8; Genesis 28:19
  • 2. S Genesis 4:26; Genesis 8:20
  • 3. ver 3
  • 4. S Genesis 12:7
  • 5. ver 7; Genesis 27:43
  • 6. Genesis 18:19; Joshua 24:15
  • 7. S Genesis 31:19; S Joshua 24:14
  • 8. Exodus 19:10,14; Numbers 8:7,21; Numbers 19:19
  • 9. ver 1
  • 10. S Genesis 32:7; S Judges 2:15
  • 11. S Genesis 26:3; Ge 28:15,20-22; Genesis 31:3,42
  • 12. S Genesis 24:22; Exodus 32:3; Exodus 35:22; Judges 8:24; Proverbs 25:12
  • 13. ver 8
  • 14. S Genesis 12:6; Joshua 24:25-26
  • 15. Exodus 15:16; Exodus 23:27; Deuteronomy 2:25; Joshua 2:9; 1 Samuel 7:10; 1 Samuel 13:7; 1 Samuel 14:15; 2 Chronicles 14:14; 2 Chronicles 17:10; 2 Chronicles 20:29; Psalms 9:20; Isaiah 19:17; Zechariah 14:13
  • 16. Psalms 105:14
  • 17. S Genesis 28:19; Genesis 48:3
  • 18. S Genesis 10:19
  • 19. S Genesis 8:20
  • 20. Genesis 28:19
  • 21. S Genesis 28:13
  • 22. S ver 1

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. "El Bethel" means "God of Bethel."
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