Jacob Moves to Bethel

1Later, God told Jacob, “Get up, move to Bethel, and live there. Build an altar to the God who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.”

2Jacob announced to his household and to everyone with him, “Throw away the foreign gods that you’ve kept among you, purify yourselves, and change your clothes. 3Then let’s get up and go to Bethel, where I’ll build an altar to the God who answered me when I was in distress and who was with me on the road, wherever I went.”

4So they handed over to Jacob all their foreign gods on which they had been depending,a along with the rings that they were wearing on their ears. Jacob buried them under the oak that grew near Shechem. 5As they set out on their journey, because the people who lived in theb cities around them feared God, they did not pursue Jacob’s sons.

6Eventually, Jacob and everyone with him arrived at Luz (also called Beth-el) in the territory of Canaan. 7He built an altar there to God and named the place El Beth-el, because God had revealed himself there when he was fleeing from his brother. 8Rebekah’s nurse Deborah died and was buried there, under the oak tree that was below Beth-el. That’s why the place was named Allon-bacuth.c

God Appears Again to Jacob

9God appeared again to Jacob after he had arrived from Paddan-aramd and blessed him. 10Then God told him,

“Your name is Jacob.

No longer are you to be called Jacob.

Instead, your name will be Israel.”

So God called his name Israel 11and also told him,

“I am God Almighty.

You are to be fruitful

and multiply.

You will become a nation—

in fact, an assembly of nations!

Kings will come from you—

they’ll emerge from your own loins!

12Now as for the land

that I gave to Abraham and Isaac,

I’m giving it to you

and to your descendants who come after you.

I’m giving the land to you!”

13After this, God ascended from the place where he had been speaking to him. 14Jacob erected a pillar of stone at that very place where God had spoken to him. He poured a drink offering over it, anointed it with oil, 15and named the place where God had spoken to him Beth-el.

Rachel Dies in Childbirth

16Later, they set out from Beth-el. While still a long waye from Ephrathah, Rachel started to have trouble giving birth. 17While she was suffering due to her difficult labor, the midwife told her, “Don’t fear! You’re going to have another son.”

18Just before she died,f Rachel called her son’sg name Ben-oni,h but his father Jacobi named him Benjamin.j 19So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrathah, also known as Bethlehem. 20Jacob erected a pillar over her grave, and that pillar stands over Rachel’s grave to this day.

Jacob Settles Near Migdal Eder

21Jacob continued his travels, and eventually pitched his tent facing Migdal Eder. 22But while Israel lived in that land, Reuben went inside his father’s tentk and had sexual relations with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it. Now Jacob had twelve sons. 23Leah’s sons were Reuben (Jacob’s first-born), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. 24Rachel’s sons were Joseph and Benjamin. 25Rachel’s servant Bilhah’s sons were Dan and Naphtali. 26Leah’s servant Zilpah’s sons were Gad and Asher. These were Jacob’s sons who were born to him while he lived in Paddan-aram.l

The Death of Isaac

27So Jacob reached his father Isaac at Mamre, in Kiriath-arba (also known as Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had lived. 28Isaac had lived a total of 180 years 29when he died and joined his ancestors at a ripe old age. Then his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.