Then God said to
Jacob, “Get ready and move to Bethel and settle there. Build an altar there to
the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother, Esau.”
So Jacob told
everyone in his household, “Get rid of all your pagan idols, purify yourselves,
and put on clean clothing. We are now going to Bethel, where I will build
an altar to the God who answered my prayers when I was in distress. He has been
with me wherever I have gone.”
So they gave
Jacob all their pagan idols and earrings, and he buried them under the great
tree near Shechem. As they set out, a terror from God spread over the
people in all the towns of that area, so no one attacked Jacob’s family.
Eventually,
Jacob and his household arrived at Luz (also called Bethel) in Canaan. Jacob
built an altar there and named the place El-bethel (which means “God of
Bethel”), because God had appeared to him there when he was fleeing from his
brother, Esau.
Soon after this,
Rebekah’s old nurse, Deborah, died. She was buried beneath the oak tree in the
valley below Bethel. Ever since, the tree has been called Allon-bacuth (which
means “oak of weeping”).
Now that Jacob
had returned from Paddan-aram, God appeared to him again at Bethel. God blessed
him, saying, “Your name is Jacob, but you will not be called Jacob any
longer. From now on your name will be Israel.” So God renamed him Israel.
Then God said,
“I am El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty.’ Be fruitful and multiply. You will become a
great nation, even many nations. Kings will be among your descendants! And I will give you the land I once gave to Abraham and
Isaac. Yes, I will give it to you and your descendants after
you.” Then God
went up from the place where he had spoken to Jacob.
Jacob set up a
stone pillar to mark the place where God had spoken to him. Then he poured wine
over it as an offering to God and anointed the pillar with olive oil. And
Jacob named the place Bethel (which means “house of God”), because God had
spoken to him there.
Leaving Bethel,
Jacob and his clan moved on toward Ephrath. But Rachel went into labor while
they were still some distance away. Her labor pains were intense. After a
very hard delivery, the midwife finally exclaimed, “Don’t be afraid—you have
another son!” Rachel was about to die, but with her last breath she named
the baby Ben-oni (which means “son of my sorrow”). The baby’s father, however,
called him Benjamin (which means “son of my right hand”). So Rachel died
and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). Jacob set up a
stone monument over Rachel’s grave, and it can be seen there to this day.
Then
Jacob traveled on and camped beyond Migdal-eder. While
he was living there, Reuben had intercourse with Bilhah, his father’s
concubine, and Jacob soon heard about it.
These are the
names of the twelve sons of Jacob:
The sons of Leah
were Reuben (Jacob’s oldest son), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.
The sons of Rachel were Joseph
and Benjamin.
The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s
servant, were Dan and Naphtali.
The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s
servant, were Gad and Asher.
These are the
names of the sons who were born to Jacob at Paddan-aram.
So Jacob returned to his
father, Isaac, in Mamre, which is near Kiriath-arba (now called Hebron), where
Abraham and Isaac had both lived as foreigners. Isaac lived for 180
years. Then he breathed his last and died at a ripe old age, joining his
ancestors in death. And his sons, Esau and Jacob, buried him.
~ Source : Genesis 35:1-29 [Holy Bible -NLT] taken from
https://www.biblegateway.com
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