Genesis 35:11-21

11 God continued, I am The Strong God. Have children! Flourish! A nation - a whole company of nations! - will come from you. Kings will come from your loins;

12 the land I gave Abraham and Isaac I now give to you, and pass it on to your descendants.

13 And then God was gone, ascended from the place where he had spoken with him.

14 Jacob set up a stone pillar on the spot where God had spoken with him. He poured a drink offering on it and anointed it with oil.

15 Jacob dedicated the place where God had spoken with him, Bethel (God's-House).

16 They left Bethel. They were still quite a ways from Ephrath when Rachel went into labor - hard, hard labor.

17 When her labor pains were at their worst, the midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid - you have another boy."

18 With her last breath, for she was now dying, she named him Ben-oni (Son-of-My-Pain), but his father named him Ben-jamin (Son-of-Good-Fortune).

19 Rachel died and was buried on the road to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem.

20 Jacob set up a pillar to mark her grave. It is still there today, "Rachel's Grave Stone."

21 Israel kept on his way and set up camp at Migdal Eder.

Genesis 35:11-21 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.