Genesis 35

Verse-by-verse explanation

1. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 35:15Jacob again calls the name of the place Bethel, closing the cycle that began with the dream of the ladder.
16. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 35:25Dan and Naphtali complete the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid, used as a surrogate mother in chapter 30.
26. Genesis 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. Genesis 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. Genesis 35:28Isaac lived one hundred and fourscore years in all — the most advanced age recorded among the three main patriarchs of the book.
29. Genesis 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.