35:3
“Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.”
The chapter at a glance
- 1–4Put away the foreign godsGod calls; the household is cleansed
- 5–8Back to BethelGod guards the road; Deborah dies
- 9–15God Almighty appearsThe name and the promise confirmed
- 16–21Rachel’s deathBen-oni becomes Benjamin
- 22–26Reuben and the twelve sonsSin in the house; the tribes named
- 27–29Isaac’s deathEsau and Jacob bury their father
The chapter in brief
God tells Jacob to go up to Bethel and make an altar there. Jacob tells his household to put away their foreign gods, purify themselves, and change their garments; they hand over the gods and their earrings, which he hides under the terebinth near Shechem. As they travel, a terror from God falls on the cities around them. At Bethel Jacob builds an altar and names the place El-bethel. Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, dies and is buried under an oak. God appears to Jacob again, confirms his name Israel, names Himself God Almighty, and promises a nation, kings, and the land. Jacob sets up a pillar and pours out a drink offering and oil. On the road toward Ephrath, Rachel dies in hard labor; she names her son Ben-oni, but his father calls him Benjamin, and she is buried on the way to Bethlehem. Reuben lies with Bilhah, his father’s concubine. The twelve sons are listed by their mothers, and Jacob comes to Isaac at Mamre, where Isaac dies at 180 and is buried by Esau and Jacob.
After the darkness of chapter 34, God speaks first. The chapter brings Jacob’s journey full circle, from Bethel to Bethel, and Jacob confesses what the whole story has shown: God “has been with me wherever I have gone” (v. 3). Renewal begins with putting away idols, but it is God who calls, God who guards the road, and God who appears “again” (v. 9); Jacob does not climb back by his own effort. Grief remains: three deaths and a son’s sin. And the promise widens toward Christ: “kings shall come from your own body” (v. 11), a line that runs through Judah to David and to Jesus, the Son of David. Rachel is buried on the way to Bethlehem, and Matthew draws her weeping into the story of Christ’s birth (Matthew 2:18). The King born in Bethlehem amid Rachel’s tears is the one who “will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 21:4).
Points for discussion
vv. 1–4
Put away the foreign gods
God’s first words recall the beginning: “the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau” (v. 1). Jacob’s answer is more than packing for a trip. The household gives up its “foreign gods” (likely including Rachel’s stolen teraphim, 31:19, and perhaps idols taken in the plunder of Shechem, 34:29), purifies itself, and changes clothes. They also hand over the rings in their ears, which some readers think were amulets tied to the idols; the text does not say. Joshua would later call Israel, at Shechem, to “put away the foreign gods that are among you” (Joshua 24:23), beside a terebinth there (Joshua 24:26), perhaps the same tree. Repentance is the household’s response to God’s call, not the ground of it. God spoke before anyone cleaned up.
vv. 5–8
A terror from God
Jacob had said, “I shall be destroyed” (34:30). God answers his fear with protection Jacob had not earned: “a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them” (v. 5). The same God who did not let Laban harm him (31:7, 24) now guards him from the consequences of his sons’ sin. Then a quiet grief: Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, dies and is buried under “Allon-bacuth,” the oak of weeping (v. 8). A servant woman, whose name appears here and nowhere else in Genesis, is mourned and remembered. God’s story keeps room for faithful people the world overlooks.
vv. 9–15
God Almighty
“God appeared to Jacob again” (v. 9) and confirms the name given at the Jabbok: “no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name” (v. 10). Some readers think two traditions of one renaming stand side by side; it reads more naturally as God confirming at Bethel what He gave at Peniel, as He spoke to Abraham more than once. He names Himself “God Almighty,” El Shaddai, the name He used to Abraham (17:1), and repeats Abraham’s promise: a nation, “a company of nations,” and “kings shall come from your own body” (v. 11; compare 17:6). Jacob sets up a pillar again, as he did twenty years earlier (28:18), and pours out a drink offering and oil. The vow of 28:20-22 has come round: God has been with him, kept him, and brought him back.
vv. 16–21
Ben-oni and Benjamin
Rachel, who once cried, “Give me children, or I shall die!” (30:1), dies giving birth to her second son. With her last breath she names him Ben-oni, usually understood as “son of my sorrow” (the word can also mean “strength,” as in 49:3, but sorrow fits her dying). Jacob renames him Benjamin, “son of the right hand,” the side of honor and strength. Rachel is buried “on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem)” (v. 19). Jeremiah later hears “Rachel weeping for her children” as Israel goes into exile (Jeremiah 31:15), and then hears God’s comfort: “there is hope for your future” (Jeremiah 31:17). Matthew sets Rachel’s weeping beside Herod’s slaughter of Bethlehem’s children (Matthew 2:18). Her grief is gathered into the story of the Child who escaped that slaughter and grew up to bring the comfort Jeremiah promised. For any reader who has lost a mother, a wife, or a child in childbirth: Genesis tells Rachel’s death with tenderness and never as a punishment.
vv. 22–26
Reuben’s sin
One sentence records it, and one sentence records the response: “And Israel heard of it” (v. 22), the same silence as 34:5. Taking a father’s concubine was, in the ancient world, a bid for the father’s place (compare Absalom in 2 Samuel 16:21-22), and many readers think Reuben was grasping at headship. Jacob’s dying words take preeminence from him (49:3-4), and Chronicles says his birthright went to Joseph’s sons (1 Chronicles 5:1-2). With Reuben set aside here and Simeon and Levi set aside for Shechem (49:5-7), the way opens for the fourth son, Judah, from whom “the scepter shall not depart” (49:10). The line that leads to Christ runs not through the most deserving son but through God’s choosing.
For discussion
Jacob hears of Reuben’s sin and, as far as the text tells, says nothing until his deathbed. What do silence and delay cost a family? Compare Genesis 34:5 and 1 Samuel 3:13.
vv. 27–29
Isaac’s death
Jacob reaches his father at Mamre, and Isaac dies “old and full of days” (v. 29). Esau and Jacob bury him together, as Isaac and Ishmael buried Abraham (25:9). By the ages Genesis itself gives (25:26; 37:2; 41:46; 45:6; 47:9), Isaac lived on for about twelve years after Joseph was sold, so Genesis closes Isaac’s story here before turning to Esau’s line and to Joseph. The brothers who could not live together can stand together at a grave. Death does not reconcile, but it can remind us what matters.
Threads across the chapter
Bethel to Bethel. Jacob fled from Bethel (28:10-22) and returns there to build the altar he vowed (vv. 1-15), confessing that God “has been with me wherever I have gone” (v. 3).
Names. El-bethel (v. 7), Allon-bacuth (v. 8), Israel (v. 10), God Almighty (v. 11), and Benjamin (v. 18) mark God’s work and human grief alike.
Births and deaths. Deborah (v. 8), Rachel (v. 19), and Isaac (v. 29) die, while Benjamin is born (v. 18) and the twelve sons are counted (vv. 22-26).
The firstborn passed by. Reuben’s sin (v. 22) joins Simeon and Levi’s violence (34:25), clearing the way for Judah’s line.
Key words
- 35:2
- אֱלֹהֵי הַנֵּכָר elohei hannekar“Foreign gods”; the idols surrendered before the household goes up to Bethel
- 35:11
- אֵל שַׁדַּי El Shaddai“God Almighty”; the name God gave Abraham, used again as He renews the promise
- 35:18
- בֶּן־אוֹנִי ben-oni“Son of my sorrow”; Rachel’s dying name for her son
- 35:18
- בִּנְיָמִין binyamin“Son of the right hand”; Jacob’s name for the child, turning sorrow toward honor
Cross-references
- Genesis 28:18-22The first pillar at Bethel and Jacob’s vow
- Joshua 24:23-26Israel told to put away foreign gods at Shechem, by the terebinth
- Genesis 17:1-6God Almighty’s promise to Abraham of nations and kings
- Jeremiah 31:15-17Rachel weeping, and God’s promise of hope
- Matthew 2:18Rachel’s weeping in the story of Christ’s birth
- Genesis 49:3-4Reuben loses preeminence
- 1 Chronicles 5:1-2Reuben’s birthright given to Joseph’s sons; a chief from Judah
- Revelation 21:4God will wipe away every tear
- 1
Why does God’s call to Bethel come right after the disaster at Shechem, and what does it show about how God renews His people?
- 2
What “foreign gods” might a Christian household need to put away today, and why must that come before worship rather than after it?
- 3
God renames Jacob a second time. Why might we need God to confirm what He has already given?
- 4
How do Rachel’s death and Matthew’s use of her weeping help us grieve as people with hope?
- 5
What do Reuben’s sin and the silence that met it teach about leadership in a family?
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