Rededication at Beth-El
35 Then God said to Jacob, “Get up! Go up to Beth-El and stay there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”
2 So Jacob said to his household and to everyone who was with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Cleanse yourselves and change your clothes. 3 Now let’s get up and go up to Beth-El so that I can make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and has been with me in the way that I have gone.”
4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods in their hand and the rings in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the oak tree near Shechem. 5 Then they journeyed, and the terror of God was on the cities that were around them, so they did not pursue Jacob’s sons. 6 Then Jacob arrived at Luz in the land of Canaan (that is Beth-El), he and all the people who were with him. 7 He built an altar there and called the place El-Beth-El because God had revealed Himself to him there when he fled from the presence of his brother.
8 Then Rebekah’s nurse Deborah died, and was buried below Beth-El, under the oak—so it was named Oak of Weeping.
9 God appeared to Jacob again, after he returned from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him. 10 God said to him:
“Your name was Jacob.
No longer will your name be Jacob, for your name will be Israel.”
So He named him Israel.
11 God also said to him:
“I am El Shaddai.
Be fruitful and multiply.
A nation and an assembly of nations will come from you.
From your loins will come forth kings.
12 The land that I gave to Abraham and to Isaac—
I give it to you, and to your seed after you
I will give the land.”
13 Then God went up from him at the place where He had spoken with him. 14 Jacob set up a memorial stone in the place where He had spoken with him—a stone pillar—and he poured a drink offering on it and poured oil on it. 15 Jacob named the place where God spoke with him Beth-El.
Rachel’s Death in Childbirth
16 Then they traveled from Beth-El, and while they were still a distance from entering Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth, but her labor was difficult. 17 While she was struggling to give birth, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for this is also a son for you.” 18 Now as her soul was departing (for she died), she named him Ben-Oni, but his father named him Benjamin. 19 Then Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). 20 Jacob set up a memorial stone over her grave. (It is the memorial stone over Rachel’s grave to this day.)
Israel Returns to Isaac
21 Then Israel journeyed on and set up his tent beyond the tower of Eder. 22 While Israel was living in that land, Reuben went and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it.
Now Jacob had twelve sons. 23 Leah’s sons were Jacob’s firstborn Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun. 24 Rachel’s sons were Joseph and Benjamin. 25 The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s female servant, were Dan and Naphtali, 26 and the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s female servant, were Gad and Asher. These are Jacob’s sons, who were born to him in Paddan-aram.
27 Then Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre of Kiriat-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed.
28 Now Isaac’s days were 180 years. 29 Then Isaac breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his peoples, old and full of days. So his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.