Genesis 35

1 And God said to Jacob, “Rise, go up to the place Bethel, and settle there. And make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from the face of your brother Esau.” 2 So Jacob said to his household, and to everyone with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves, and change your clothes, 3 and let us rise and go up to Bethel. There let us make an altar to the God who listened to me in the day of trouble, who was with me and kept me safe through the whole journey I have traveled.” 4 And they gave Jacob the foreign gods that were in their hands, and the rings from their ears, and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree at Shechem and destroyed them — they are gone to this day. 5 So Israel set out from Shechem, and the fear of God fell on the cities all around them, and no one pursued the children of Israel. 6 And Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan — that is, Bethel — he and all the people with him. 7 He built an altar there and called the name of the place Bethel, for there God had appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother Esau. 8 And Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died below Bethel under the oak. And Jacob named it the Oak of Mourning. [e]

9 And God appeared to Jacob once more at Luz, when he came out of Mesopotamia of Syria, and God blessed him. 10 And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob. You shall no longer be called Jacob — Israel shall be your name.” [f] 11 And God said to him, “I am your God. Increase and multiply. Nations and gatherings of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your body. 12 And the land I gave to Abraham and Isaac — I have given it to you; it shall be yours, and to your seed after you I will give this land.” 13 Then God went up from him, from the place where he had spoken with him. 14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where God had spoken with him — a pillar of stone — and poured out a drink offering on it, and poured oil on it. 15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.

16 Then Jacob moved on from Bethel and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Gader. And as he drew near Chabratha, on the way into Ephrath, Rachel went into labor — and her labor was hard. [a] 17 In the midst of her hard labor, the midwife said to her, “Take courage — you have this son also.” 18 And as her life was leaving her — for she was dying — she named him The Son of My Pain. But his father called his name Benjamin. [b] 19 So Rachel died, and she was buried beside the road to Ephrath — that is, Bethlehem. 20 And Jacob set up a pillar on her tomb. It is the pillar of Rachel’s tomb to this day. 21 While Israel was living in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine — and Israel heard of it, and the thing was grievous in his sight. [c]

22 Now the sons of Jacob were twelve. 23 The sons of Leah: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun. 24 The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. 25 The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s servant girl: Dan and Naphtali. 26 And the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s servant girl: Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Mesopotamia of Syria. [d] 27 And Jacob came home to Isaac his father at Mamre, at a city of the plain — that is, Hebron, in the land of Canaan, where Abraham and Isaac had lived as strangers. 28 And the days of Isaac’s life were 180 years. 29 And Isaac breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his family, old and full of days. And Esau and Jacob his sons buried him.