Genesis 35:1-13 ▼

1 Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and live there, and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”

2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods which are among you and cleanse yourselves and change your garments;

3 and let us arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.”

4 So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods which they had and the rings which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the oak which was near Shechem.

5 Then they journeyed on, and there was a terror from God upon the cities which were around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.

6 So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him.

7 And he built an altar there and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed Himself to him when he fled from his brother.

8 Then Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak; it was named Allon-bacuth.

9 Then God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him.

10 And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, But Israel shall be your name.” Thus He called his name Israel.

11 God also said to him, “I am God Almighty; Be fruitful and multiply; A nation and an assembly of nations shall come from you, And kings shall come forth from your loins.

12 And the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, And I will give the land to your seed after you.”

13 Then God went up from him in the place where He had spoken with him.