Chapter 35
1
God said to Jacob, "Rise, go up to Bethel and dwell there, and make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother."
2
Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Remove the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments."
3
And let us arise and go up to the house of God, and I will make there an altar for God, the one who answered me in the day of my distress, and who has been with me in the way that I have walked.
4
They gave Jacob all the foreign gods that were in their hand and the rings that were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem.
5
They journeyed, and a terror of God was on the cities around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.
6
Jacob came to Luz (which is in the land of Canaan), that is, Bethel, and all the people who were with him.
7
He built an altar there and called the place El Bethel, because the gods revealed themselves to him there when he fled from his brother.
8
And Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died, and she was buried under Bethel, under the oak; and he called its name Oak of Weeping.
9
God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-Aram and blessed him.
10
God said to him, "Your name is Jacob. No longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name." And he called his name Israel.
11
And God said to him, "I am God Almighty; be fruitful and multiply, a nation and an assembly of nations shall be from you, and kings shall come out from your loins."
12
And the land that I gave to Abraham and to Isaac—to you I will give it, and to your seed after you I will give the land.
13
God went up from him at the place where he had spoken with him.
14
Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he spoke with him—a pillar of stone. He poured out a libation on it and poured oil on it.
15
Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken to him there Bethel.