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Genesis 35 :: New International Version (NIV)

Jacob Returns to Bethel

Gen 35:1

Gen 35:1Then 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.”

Gen 35:2

Gen 35:2So 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.

Gen 35:3

Gen 35:3Then 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.”

Gen 35:4

Gen 35:4So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem.

Gen 35:5

Gen 35:5Then they set out, and the terror of God fell on the towns all around them so that no one pursued them.

Gen 35:6

Gen 35:6Jacob and all the people with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan.

Gen 35:7

Gen 35:7There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel,[fn] because it was there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

Gen 35:8

Gen 35:8Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak outside Bethel. So it was named Allon Bakuth.[fn]

Gen 35:9

Gen 35:9After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram,[fn] God appeared to him again and blessed him.

Gen 35:10

Gen 35:10God said to him, “Your name is Jacob,[fn] but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel.[fn]” So he named him Israel.

Gen 35:11

Gen 35:11And God said to him, “I am God Almighty[fn]; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will be among your descendants.

Gen 35:12

Gen 35:12The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.”

Gen 35:13

Gen 35:13Then God went up from him at the place where he had talked with him.

Gen 35:14

Gen 35:14Jacob set up a stone pillar at the place where God had talked with him, and he poured out a drink offering on it; he also poured oil on it.

Gen 35:15

Gen 35:15Jacob called the place where God had talked with him Bethel.[fn]

The Deaths of Rachel and Isaac

Gen 35:16

Gen 35:16Then they moved on from Bethel. While they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and had great difficulty.

Gen 35:17

Gen 35:17And as she was having great difficulty in childbirth, the midwife said to her, “Don’t despair, for you have another son.”

Gen 35:18

Gen 35:18As she breathed her last—for she was dying—she named her son Ben-Oni.[fn] But his father named him Benjamin.[fn]

Gen 35:19

Gen 35:19So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).

Gen 35:20

Gen 35:20Over her tomb Jacob set up a pillar, and to this day that pillar marks Rachel’s tomb.

Gen 35:21

Gen 35:21Israel moved on again and pitched his tent beyond Migdal Eder.

Gen 35:22

Gen 35:22While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard of it. Jacob had twelve sons:

Gen 35:23

Gen 35:23The sons of Leah: Reuben the firstborn of Jacob, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun.

Gen 35:24

Gen 35:24The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

Gen 35:25

Gen 35:25The sons of Rachel’s servant Bilhah: Dan and Naphtali.

Gen 35:26

Gen 35:26The sons of Leah’s servant Zilpah: Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan Aram.

Gen 35:27

Gen 35:27Jacob came home to his father Isaac in Mamre, near Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed.

Gen 35:28

Gen 35:28Isaac lived a hundred and eighty years.

Gen 35:29

Gen 35:29Then he breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, old and full of years. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
See the NIV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
NIV Footnotes
El Bethel means God of Bethel.
Allon Bakuth means oak of weeping.
That is, Northwest Mesopotamia; also in verse 26
Jacob means he grasps the heel, a Hebrew idiom for he deceives.
Israel probably means he struggles with God.
Hebrew El-Shaddai
Bethel means house of God.
Ben-Oni means son of my trouble.
Benjamin means son of my right hand.
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