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 purify 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 As they journeyed, there was a great terror 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 Now 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; You shall no longer be called Jacob, But Israel shall be your name.”Thus He called him Israel.

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

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 descendants after you.”

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