Jacob Returns to Bethel

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"Move on to Bethel now, and settle there," God said to Jacob, "and build an altar to worship the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau."

So Jacob instructed all those in his household to destroy the idols they had brought with them, and to wash themselves and to put on fresh clothing." For we are going to Bethel," he told them, "and I will build an altar there to the God who answered my prayers in the day of my distress, and was with me on my journey."

So they gave Jacob all their idols and their earrings, and he buried them beneath the oak tree near Shechem. Then they started on again. And the terror of God was upon all the cities they journeyed through, so that they were not attacked.

Finally they arrived at Luz (also called Bethel), in Canaan. And Jacob erected an altar there and named it "The altar to the God who met me here at Bethel" because it was there at Bethel that God appeared to him when he was fleeing from Esau.

Soon after this, Rebekah's old nurse Deborah died and was buried beneath the oak tree in the valley below Bethel. And ever after it was called "The Oak of Weeping."

Upon Jacob's arrival at Bethel, en route from Paddan-aram, God appeared to him once again and blessed him. And God said to him, "You shall no longer be called Jacob ('Grabber'), but Israel ('One who prevails with God'). I am God Almighty," the Lord said to him, "and I will cause you to be fertile and to multiply and to become a great nation, yes, many nations, many kings shall be among your descendants. And I will pass on to you the land I gave to Abraham and Isaac. Yes, I will give it to you and to your descendants."

Afterwards Jacob built a stone pillar at the place where God had appeared to him; and he poured wine over it as an offering to God, and then anointed the pillar with olive oil. Jacob named the spot Bethel ("House of God"), because God had spoken to him there.

The Deaths of Rachel and Isaac »

TEXT SOURCE: (Genesis 35:1-15) The Children's Living Bible, ^©1970 Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187
TITLE SOURCE: The New Student Bible, ^©1992 Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids Michigan 49530