Genesis 35:5

5 And when they went (forth), dread assailed all men by compass of the city, and they were not hardy to pursue them going away. (And when they went forth, the fear of God assailed all the men of the cities about, and they were not hardy to pursue after them.)

Genesis 35:5 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 35:5

And they journeyed
Jacob and his family, with all that were with them, from Shechem to Bethel:

and the terror of God was upon the cities that [were] round about
them;
an exceeding great panic seized the inhabitants of the cities of the land of Canaan, all about Shechem, which was from God himself impressing it on their minds, through what the sons of Jacob had done to that city:

and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob;
as it might have been thought they would, and take revenge on them for their ill usage of the inhabitants of a neighbouring city; but instead of this, they were afraid they should be used in the same manner; wherefore Jacob and his family journeyed in safety, and came to Bethel in peace.

Genesis 35:5 In-Context

3 rise ye, and go we up into Bethel, that we make there an altar to the Lord, which heard me in the day of my tribulation, and was fellow of my way. (rise ye, and go we up to Bethel, to make there an altar to the Lord, who answered me on the day of my trouble, and who gave me fellowship on the way.)

4 Therefore they gave to Jacob all the alien gods which they had, and [the] earrings, that were in their ears; and Jacob delved them under a terebinth tree, which is behind the city of Shechem. (And so they gave Jacob all the foreign gods which they had, and the earrings that they were wearing; and Jacob buried them under the terebinth tree, which is behind the city of Shechem.)

5 And when they went (forth), dread assailed all men by compass of the city, and they were not hardy to pursue them going away. (And when they went forth, the fear of God assailed all the men of the cities about, and they were not hardy to pursue after them.)

6 Therefore Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, by the sire-name Bethel, he and all his people with him. (And so Jacob came to Luz, that is, Bethel, in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him.)

7 And he builded there an altar to the Lord, and called the name of that place The house of God, for God appeared there to him, when he fled his brother. (And he built there an altar to the Lord, and called the name of that place El-bethel, for God appeared to him there, when he fled from his brother.)