Genesis 35

¹ God said to Jacob, 'Move on, go to Bethel and settle there. Make an altar there for the God whoappeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.'

² Jacob said to his family and to all who were with him, 'Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you;cleanse yourselves, and change your clothes.

³ We must move on and go to Bethel. There I shall make an altar for the God who heard me when I wasin distress, and gave me his help on the journey I made.'

⁴ They gave Jacob al the foreign gods in their possession, and the earrings that they were wearing.Jacob buried them under the oak tree near Shechem.

⁵ They broke camp; a divine terror struck the towns round about, and no one pursued the sons ofJacob.

⁶ When Jacob arrived at Luz in Canaan -- that is, Bethel-and al the people with him,

⁷ he built an altar there and named the place El-Bethel, since it was there that God had appeared to himwhen he was fleeing from his brother.

⁸ Deborah, who had been Rebekah's nurse, died and was buried below Bethel, under the oak tree; sothey named it the Oak of Tears.

⁹ God again appeared to Jacob on his return from Paddan-Aram, and blessed him.

¹⁰ God said to him, 'Your name is Jacob, but from now on you wil be cal ed not Jacob but Israel.' Thushe came by the name Israel.

¹¹ God said to him, 'I am El Shaddai. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation, indeed an assembly of nations,wil descend from you, and kings will issue from your loins.

¹² The country which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I now give to you; and this country I shal give toyour descendants after you.'

¹³ Then God went up from him.

¹⁴ Jacob raised a monument at the spot where he had spoken to him, a standing-stone, on which hemade a libation and poured oil.

¹⁵ Jacob named the place Bethel where God had spoken to him.

¹⁶ They left Bethel, and while they were stil some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labour, andher pains were severe.

¹⁷ When her labour was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, 'Do not worry, this is going to be anotherboy.'

¹⁸ At the moment when she breathed her last, for she was dying, she named him Ben-Oni. His father,however, named him Benjamin.

¹⁹ So Rachel died and was buried on the road to Ephrath, now Bethlehem.

²⁰ Jacob raised a monument on her grave, that same monument of Rachel's Tomb which is theretoday.

²¹ Israel left and pitched his tent beyond Migdal-Eder.

²² While Israel was living in that district, Reuben went and slept with Bilhah his father's concubine, andIsrael found out. The sons of Jacob were now twelve.

²³ The sons of Leah: Jacob's eldest son Reuben, then Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun.

²⁴ The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

²⁵ The sons of Bilhah, Rachel's slave-girl: Dan and Naphtali.

²⁶ The sons of Zilpah, Leah's slave-girl: Gad and Asher. These were the sons born to Jacob in Paddan-Aram.

²⁷ Jacob came home to his father Isaac at Mamre, at Kiriath-Arba -- now Hebron -- where Abraham andIsaac had stayed.

²⁸ Isaac was one hundred and eighty years old

²⁹ when he breathed his last. He died and was gathered to his people, an old man who had enjoyed hisful span of life. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.