Genesis 35:1-8
Expanded Bible
Jacob in Bethel
35 God said to Jacob, “·Go [L Rise up and go up] to the city of Bethel [12:8] and live there. Make an altar to the God who appeared to you there when you were ·running away [fleeing] from your brother Esau [28:1–22].”
2 So Jacob said to his ·family [household] and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods you have, and ·make yourselves clean [purify yourselves], and change your clothes. 3 We will ·leave here and go [L rise up and go up] to Bethel. There I will build an altar to God, who ·has helped [L answered] me ·during my time of trouble [L in the day of my distress]. He has been with me [C an indication of a covenant relationship] everywhere I have gone.” 4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods ·they had [in their possession; L in their hands], and the earrings ·they were wearing [L on their ears], and he hid them under the ·great tree [L oak; or terebinth; 12:6] near the town of Shechem. 5 Then Jacob and his sons left there. But ·God caused the people in the nearby cities to be afraid [L the terror of God was on the surrounding cities], so they did not ·follow [pursue] them. 6 And Jacob and all the people who were with him went to Luz, which is now called Bethel, in the land of Canaan. 7 There Jacob built an altar and named the place ·Bethel, after God [El-Bethel; or “God of Bethel”], because God had appeared to him there when he was ·running [fleeing] from his brother.
8 Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak tree at Bethel, so they named that place ·Oak of Crying [L Allon-bacuth].
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