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Gênesis 35

ARC · Chapter 35/50

1Depois disse Deus a Jacob: Levanta-te, sobe a Bethel, e habita ali; e faz ali um altar ao Deus que te appareceu, quando fugiste diante da face de Esaú teu irmão.

2Então disse Jacob á sua familia, e a todos os que com elle estavam: Tirae os deuses estranhos, que ha no meio de vós, e purificae-vos, e mudae os vossos vestidos.

3E levantemo-nos, e subamos a Bethel; e ali farei um altar ao Deus que me respondeu no dia da minha angustia, e que foi commigo no caminho que tenho andado.

4Então deram a Jacob todos os deuses estranhos, que tinham em suas mãos, e as arrecadas que estavam em suas orelhas; e Jacob os escondeu debaixo do carvalho que está junto a Sichem.

5E partiram; e o terror de Deus foi sobre as cidades que estavam ao redor d'elles, e não seguiram após os filhos de Jacob.

6Assim chegou Jacob a Luz, que está na terra de Canaan, (esta é Bethel), elle e todo o povo que com elle havia.

7E edificou ali um altar, e chamou aquelle logar El-beth-el: porquanto Deus ali se lhe tinha manifestado quando fugia diante da face de seu irmão.

8E morreu Debora, a ama de Rebecca, e foi sepultada ao pé de Bethel, debaixo do carvalho cujo nome chamou Allonbachuth.

9E appareceu Deus outra vez a Jacob, vindo de Paddan-aram, e abençoou-o.

10E disse-lhe Deus: O teu nome é Jacob; não se chamará mais o teu nome Jacob, mas Israel será o teu nome. E chamou o seu nome Israel.

11Disse-lhe mais Deus: Eu sou o Deus Todo-poderoso; fructifica e multiplica-te; uma nação e multidão de nações sairão de ti, e reis procederão dos teus lombos

12E te darei a ti a terra que tenho dado a Abrahão e a Isaac, e á tua semente depois de ti darei a terra.

13E Deus subiu d'elle, do logar onde fallara com elle.

14E Jacob poz uma columna no logar onde fallara com elle, uma columna de pedra; e derramou sobre ella uma libação, e deitou sobre ella azeite.

15E chamou Jacob o nome d'aquelle logar, onde Deus fallara com elle, Bethel.

16E partiram de Bethel: e havia ainda um pequeno espaço de terra para chegar a Ephrata, e pariu Rachel, e ella teve trabalho em seu parto.

17E aconteceu que, tendo ella trabalho em seu parto, lhe disse a parteira: Não temas, porque tambem este filho terás.

18E aconteceu que, saindo-se-lhe a alma (porque morreu), chamou o seu nome Benoni; mas seu pae o chamou Benjamin.

19Assim morreu Rachel; e foi sepultada no caminho d'Ephrata, este é Beth-lehem.

20E Jacob poz uma columna sobre a sua sepultura; esta é a columna da sepultura de Rachel até ao dia de hoje.

21Então partiu Israel, e estendeu a sua tenda d'além de Migdal Eder.

22E aconteceu que, habitando Israel n'aquella terra, foi Ruben, e deitou-se com Bilhah, concubina de seu pae; e Israel ouviu-o. E eram doze os filhos de Jacob:

23Os filhos de Leah: Ruben, o primogenito de Jacob, depois Simeão e Levi, e Judah, e Issacar e Zebulon;

24Os filhos de Rachel: José e Benjamin;

25E os filhos de Bilhah, serva de Rachel: Dan e Naphtali;

26E os filhos de Zilpah, serva de Leah: Gad e Aser. Estes são os filhos de Jacob, que lhe nasceram em Paddan-aram.

27E Jacob veiu a seu pae Isaac, a Mamre, a Kiriath-arba (que é Hebron), onde peregrinaram Abrahão e Isaac.

28E foram os dias de Isaac cento e oitenta annos.

29E Isaac expirou, e morreu, e foi recolhido aos seus povos, velho e farto de dias; e Esaú e Jacob, seus filhos, o sepultaram.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

God commands Jacob to return to Bethel to build an altar; he purifies his family from foreign idols, God confirms his new name, Israel, and then Rachel dies giving birth to Benjamin; finally, Isaac dies.

Explanation

This chapter marks an important spiritual return: Jacob goes back to the place where he had his first striking encounter with God (Bethel, chapter 28), and before building the altar, he asks the whole family to purify themselves, giving up the foreign idols they still carried — a necessary step of full commitment before renewing their worship. God formally reaffirms the name Israel and the covenant promise, consolidating the family's spiritual identity. Amid these blessings, however, comes a deep loss: Rachel dies giving birth to her second son, Benjamin, whose name she had chosen in the midst of her agony ('Benoni,' son of my sorrow) before Jacob softened it. The chapter closes with the peaceful death of Isaac, ending a generation and preparing the narrative to focus fully on Jacob's twelve sons, who would become the twelve tribes of Israel.

Fun facts

  • Rachel's tomb, marked by a stone pillar (v. 20), is mentioned as a well-known geographic landmark still centuries later, in 1 Samuel 10:2, showing how the site remained identifiable in Israel's memory and geography.
  • With the birth of Benjamin, the number of Jacob's twelve sons is complete, from whom the twelve tribes of Israel would arise — a foundational structure that would organize the entire nation throughout the rest of the Old Testament.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Gênesis 35:1God commands Jacob to go up to Bethel and dwell there and make an altar — returning to the same place of the dream of the ladder, in chapter 28, when he was fleeing Esau with nothing but a stone for a pillow.
  2. Gênesis 35:2The “strange gods” are the idols Jacob’s household had kept — including the ones Rachel had stolen from her father (chapter 31) and possibly others brought from Shechem after the plunder (chapter 34). Before going up to a sacred place, Jacob asks everyone to put them away and be clean, a gesture of purification before presenting themselves to God.
  3. Gênesis 35:3Jacob announces to his family the decision to go up to Bethel to build the promised altar, recalling that it was there God answered him in the day of his distress and was with him in the way which he went.
  4. Gênesis 35:4The “earrings” were earrings worn in the ear, likely tied to the worship of the idols being handed over — which is why they end up in the same bundle Jacob hides under the oak by Shechem. They were not merely decorative jewelry; they carried religious weight in the culture of the time.
  5. Gênesis 35:5As they journey, “the terror of God” falls upon the cities round about, and they do not pursue the sons of Jacob — a welcome supernatural protection after the violent massacre in Shechem in the previous chapter.
  6. Gênesis 35:6Jacob arrives at Luz — the same place he had already renamed Bethel, in chapter 28 — now accompanied by all the people that were with him.
  7. Gênesis 35:7The altar receives the name El-beth-el, something like “God of the house of God,” in direct reference to the moment God appeared to Jacob as he fled his brother, years earlier.
  8. Gênesis 35:8The death of Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse since before her marriage to Isaac, is a personal detail showing this woman still accompanied the family decades later — buried under an oak whose name, Allon-bachuth, preserves the memory of the weeping for her.
  9. Gênesis 35:9God appears to Jacob again, now that he has come out of Padan-aram, and blesses him — a second confirmation after the nighttime encounter at Peniel.
  10. Gênesis 35:10God formally confirms the name change to Israel, which had already been given during the struggle on the bank of the Jabbok, in chapter 32.
  11. Gênesis 35:11God presents Himself as “Almighty” and promises that from Jacob will come a nation and a company of nations, and kings shall come out of his loins — a promise fulfilled through the twelve sons and, much later, through the monarchy of Israel.
  12. Gênesis 35:12The promise of the land, already made to Abraham and Isaac, is now explicitly repeated to Jacob and his descendants — the third generation receiving the same covenant.
  13. Gênesis 35:13Describing God as “going up” is the text’s way of marking the visible end of that appearance, a device common in Old Testament accounts of direct encounters with God.
  14. Gênesis 35:14Jacob sets up another stone pillar at the site and pours a drink offering and oil on it — a consecration ritual marking the place as sacred, similar to what he had already done there years before.
  15. Gênesis 35:15Jacob again calls the name of the place Bethel, closing the cycle that began with the dream of the ladder.
  16. Gênesis 35:16On the way from Bethel, still a little way from Ephrath, Rachel travails and has hard labour — the birth that will cost her own life.
  17. Gênesis 35:17The midwife tries to comfort Rachel in the midst of her hard labour, assuring her, “Fear not; thou shalt have this son also” — but the relief of the news does not stop the tragedy that follows.
  18. Gênesis 35:18Dying in childbirth, Rachel calls her son Ben-oni, something like son of my sorrow — but his father calls him Benjamin, son of the right hand, a place of honor and strength. It is Jacob’s gesture of giving the boy a future different from the tragedy of his birth.
  19. Gênesis 35:19Rachel dies right after giving birth and is buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem — one of the saddest moments in the book, closing the love story that began by the well, in chapter 29.
  20. Gênesis 35:20Jacob sets a pillar upon her grave, a marker that, according to the text, still existed at the time these words were written.
  21. Gênesis 35:21Israel — the name the text now increasingly uses after the confirmation at Bethel — journeys on and spreads his tent beyond the tower of Edar.
  22. Gênesis 35:22For Reuben to lie with Bilhah, his own father’s concubine, was considered an extremely serious transgression — tampering with the patriarch’s concubine was seen almost as claiming his authority. The text records the fact tersely and moves straight to the list of the twelve sons, without explaining the consequence here, which only appears much later, in chapter 49.
  23. Gênesis 35:23The list begins with Leah’s sons: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, followed by Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun — the six sons who were prominent in the stories of chapters 29 and 30.
  24. Gênesis 35:24Joseph and Benjamin, Rachel’s only sons, close the list — Benjamin being precisely the son whose birth had just cost his mother her life.
  25. Gênesis 35:25Dan and Naphtali complete the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid, used as a surrogate mother in chapter 30.
  26. Gênesis 35:26Gad and Asher are the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid — the text closes the list by noting that all these were born to Jacob in Padan-aram, except Benjamin, who had just been born in Canaan.
  27. Gênesis 35:27Jacob finally comes unto his own father Isaac at Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron — closing the circle of the long journey that began back in chapter 28, when he fled alone from Esau.
  28. Gênesis 35:28Isaac lived one hundred and fourscore years in all — the most advanced age recorded among the three main patriarchs of the book.
  29. Gênesis 35:29“Old and full of days” is a Hebrew expression meaning that someone died elderly, having lived long enough, without any sense that time was lacking — it is not praise for accomplishments, just a way of saying life had run its natural course. The same expression appears elsewhere in Genesis to describe the deaths of the patriarchs.

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