Genesis 35:1-13 ▼

1 Then God said to Jacob, |Go up at once to Bethel and live there. Make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.|

2 So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, |Get rid of the foreign gods you have among you. Purify yourselves and change your clothes.

3 Let us go up at once to Bethel. Then I will make an altar there to God, who responded to me in my time of distress and has been with me wherever I went.|

4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods that were in their possession and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob buried them under the oak near Shechem

5 and they started on their journey. The surrounding cities were afraid of God, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.

6 Jacob and all those who were with him arrived at Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan.

7 He built an altar there and named the place El Bethel because there God had revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

8 (Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel; thus it was named Oak of Weeping.)

9 God appeared to Jacob again after he returned from Paddan Aram and blessed him.

10 God said to him, |Your name is Jacob, but your name will no longer be called Jacob; Israel will be your name.| So God named him Israel.

11 Then God said to him, |I am the sovereign God. Be fruitful and multiply! A nation--even a company of nations--will descend from you; kings will be among your descendants!

12 The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you. To your descendants I will also give this land.|

13 Then God went up from the place where he spoke with him.