THE BOOK OF GENESIS

 

Genesis Chapter 35

1 ¶ And God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and there make an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.

2 Then Jacob said to his household, and to all who were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your clothes:

3 And let us get ready, and go up to Bethel; and there I will make an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and has been with me wherever I have gone.

4 So they gave to Jacob all the strange gods that they had, and all the earrings that were in their ears; and Jacob buried them under the oak that was near Shechem.

5 And as they journeyed: a terror from God was upon the cities that were around them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.

6 ¶ When Jacob came to Luz, that is, Bethel, which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him.

7 He there built an altar, and called the place El-bethel: because God appeared to him there, when he fled from his brother.

8 And Deborah Rebekah’s nurse died, and she was buried under the oak below Bethel: so it was called The Oak of Weeping.

9 And God appeared to Jacob again, when he returned from Padan-aram, and blessed him.

10 And God said to him, Your name was Jacob: your name will not be Jacob any longer, but your name will be Israel: so he called him Israel.

11 And God said to him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations will come from you, and kings will spring out of your loins;

12 And the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give to you, and I will give the land to your descendants after you.

13 Then from the very spot where he had spoken to him, God ascended.

14 And Jacob erected a pillar in the place where God had talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured out a drink offering on it, and he poured oil on it.

15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Bethel.

16 ¶ Then they moved on from Bethel; and when they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel travailed, and she had hard labor.

17 And it so happened, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said to her, Fear not; for now you will have another son.

18 And as her soul was departing, (for she died) she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.

19 And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.

20 And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: it is the pillar of Rachel’s tomb, which is there to this day.

21 ¶ And Israel journeyed on, and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Edar.

22 And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine: and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob numbered twelve:

23 The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun:

24 The sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin:

25 And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali:

26 And the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid; Gad, and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Padan-aram.

27 And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, by the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned.

28 Now the days of Isaac were one hundred and eighty years.

29 And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered to his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.