Genesis 35 :: New King James Version (NKJV)

Jacob’s Return to Bethel

God Blesses Jacob at Bethel

Gen 35:1Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”

Gen 35:2

Gen 35:2And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments.

Gen 35:3

Gen 35:3“Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone.”

Gen 35:4

Gen 35:4So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree which was by Shechem.

Gen 35:5

Gen 35:5And they journeyed, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.

Gen 35:6

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

Gen 35:7

Gen 35:7And he built an altar there and called the place El Bethel,[fn] because there God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.

Gen 35:8

Gen 35:8Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the terebinth tree. So the name of it was called Allon Bachuth.[fn]

Gen 35:9

Gen 35:9Then God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Padan Aram, and blessed him.

Gen 35:10

Gen 35:10And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel.

Gen 35:11

Gen 35:11Also God said to him: “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body.

Gen 35:12

Gen 35:12“The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land.”

Gen 35:13

Gen 35:13Then God went up from him in the place where He talked with him.

Gen 35:14

Gen 35:14So Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He talked with him, a pillar of stone; and he poured a drink offering on it, and he poured oil on it.

Gen 35:15

Gen 35:15And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Bethel.

Death of Rachel

Gen 35:16

Gen 35:16Then they journeyed from Bethel. And when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel labored in childbirth, and she had hard labor.

Gen 35:17

Gen 35:17Now it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said to her, “Do not fear; you will have this son also.”

Gen 35:18

Gen 35:18And so it was, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-Oni;[fn] but his father called 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 35:20And Jacob set a pillar on her grave, which is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day.

Gen 35:21

Gen 35:21Then Israel journeyed and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder.

Gen 35:22

Gen 35:22And it happened, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine; and Israel heard about it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:

Jacob’s Twelve Sons

Gen 35:23

Gen 35:23the sons of Leah were Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun;

Gen 35:24

Gen 35:24the sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin;

Gen 35:25

Gen 35:25the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maidservant, were Dan and Naphtali;

Gen 35:26

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

Death of Isaac

Gen 35:27

Gen 35:27Then Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kirjath Arba[fn] (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had dwelt.

Gen 35:28

Gen 35:28Now the days of Isaac were one hundred and eighty years.

Gen 35:29

Gen 35:29So Isaac breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people, being old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

See the NKJV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NKJV Footnotes

(35:7)

Literally God of the House of God

(35:8)

Literally Terebinth of Weeping

(35:18)

Literally Son of My Sorrow

(35:18)

Literally Son of the Right Hand

(35:27)

Literally Town of Arba

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For more information on this translation, see the NKJV Preface.