35:1–8 Jacob’s return to Bethel—like his original return to the Promised Land—comes at the explicit encouragement of God, who commands him to return there and build an altar (Gen. 35:1).476 In both cases God’s word comes to Jacob after events have made it uncomfortable for him to remain where he is, first with Laban (31:1–2) and then at Shechem (34:30). In place of the altar he built to El-Elohe-Israel at Shechem (33:20) Jacob is commanded to build an altar to El-Bethel—the God who appeared to him at Bethel when he was escaping from Esau and who has been with him to protect him and bless him ever since (28:19–22; 31:11–13).

In contrast to his earlier passivity in leading his family (cf. Genesis 34) Jacob now confronts his household about its “foreign gods” (Gen. 35:2; Hb. ʾelohe-hannekar), a term that includes Laban’s terafim that Rachel brought with her (31:19) but is not limited to those idols. It is clear that Jacob has known of these objects but has previously said nothing about them. Now, however, it is time for them to be brought out and buried like the nonentities that they are, which is done at the terebinth tree near Shechem (35:4). These idols’ inability to predict or prevent such a fate for themselves only highlights still further the impotence of these “gods.” Yet they are not merely powerless; they are unnecessary, for the blessings of health and prosperity that they are supposedly able to give are exactly the blessings that the Lord himself has promised Jacob—and has repeatedly demonstrated his power to deliver. Israel’s religion can never be a both-and, embracing the worship of the Lord and of idols: it is an either-or, a choice that lies at the heart of the opening section of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:3–5.

Jacob also tells his household members to purify themselves and change their garments in preparation for the journey. After the repeated theme of defilement in the previous chapter, now the time has come for purification. We are not told what such purification rites look like, though the later Levitical laws perhaps give some clues (e.g., Num. 31:19–24). Although the word “holy” and its cognates do not occur in Genesis (apart from Gen. 2:3), the idea of God’s holiness is nonetheless understood and implicit. Cleansing and preparation are necessary before humans can stand in the presence of the Lord, and the symbolic significance of clothing as representative of a person’s spiritual state runs throughout the Bible (e.g., Zechariah 3; Eph. 4:24). Along with putting off the old, sin-stained garments of the former way of life, faithful members of God’s people must put on new habits of devotion and obedience.

Jacob describes the God of Bethel as the God who answers him in the day of his distress and who has been with him wherever he has gone (Gen. 35:3). This reflects God’s promise in 28:15 and Jacob’s own experience in the intervening years (cf. 31:5). The last time Jacob was at Bethel he had been fleeing (barakh; 35:7); this time he is there to be blessed (barak; v. 9).477 God’s faithfulness to his promises necessitates Jacob’s fulfilling his own vow to return to Bethel to build an altar and make appropriate sacrifices there (28:20–22).

Along with the foreign gods Jacob’s household also surrenders its earrings (35:4). In the ancient world earrings were sometimes worn as amulets, invoking the protection of pagan deities over the wearer;478 in some cases these earrings were refashioned into pagan cult objects (Ex. 32:2–3; Judg. 8:26–27), though they were also used in the construction of the tabernacle (Ex. 35:22) or for other legitimate purposes (e.g., Job 42:11). The disposal of such unclean objects via burial is unique in the OT; destruction by fire is the normal procedure, and an unusual Hebrew verb is used for the burial process (taman), lest the disposal be construed as some kind of honorific religious rite. The careful specification of the burial site as the “terebinth at Shechem” invites connections with the altar built by Abraham at the “terebinth of Moreh” (Gen. 12:6–7), as well as significant later events that transpire beside this same tree (Josh. 24:26; Judg. 9:6).

Jacob had feared reprisals from other local communities in the aftermath of events at Shechem (Gen. 34:30). However, just as the Lord had protected him from Laban and Esau, so too the Lord protects Jacob and his household against the Canaanites, causing a “terror” (khittat; 35:5) to fall on the surrounding cities, which prevents their pursuing Jacob and his sons. As a result he is able to journey to Bethel without interference and finally to fulfill his vow. The site is referred to by its earlier name, Luz (28:19), and the point is made that at this point Bethel is still in the land of Canaan—the land promised to the patriarchs by God but as yet not possessed by them. Jacob’s altar-building is thus not merely an act of thanksgiving for the Lord’s past faithfulness but a sign of his faith in the promises of God that are yet to be fulfilled.

Yet Jacob’s repentance and faith that issue in new obedience do not protect him from the pains and sorrows of life. As Jacob arrives at the holy place he buries his mother’s faithful nurse, Deborah (35:8). And as he leaves this place he buries his beloved wife, Rachel (v. 19). The journey to and from the house of God at Bethel is thus bracketed by two gravestones, reminding us of the ubiquitous presence of death in this world, the result of the curse on Adam and Eve’s sin (3:19).

35:9–15 At Bethel God appears to Jacob once more and renews his covenant with him (35:9–13). God reminds him of the transforming new name, Israel, given to him at Peniel (32:28). This name is a permanent reminder of God’s ongoing work in his life. At Bethel God also pronounces his blessing upon Jacob in the same words that his father, Isaac, had used in his blessing so many years before: “Be fruitful and multiply” (35:11; cf. 28:3). Yet now a new element is added to the blessing, picked up from God’s blessing to Abraham: “Kings shall come from your own body” (35:11; cf. 17:16). In place of Jacob’s ill-fated efforts to buy a piece of the Promised Land for himself at Shechem (33:19) God confirms that he will give it to him and his descendants as a gift.

God’s transforming work of blessing is not limited to turning Jacob into Israel: it will also take in Jacob’s family. His family has thus far been a model of strife and discord, yet God announces that from him will come a “company [or “community”] of nations” (Hb. qehal-ʿammim), just as Isaac had requested for him in Genesis 28:3. As we saw in chapter 28, it is not too strong to translate this phrase as “church of nations”—a covenant community of God’s people, bound together in spiritual unity. The blessings promised to all nations through the original blessing on Abraham (12:2–3) thus come to his spiritual heirs as they are incorporated into the new community of spiritual Israel, the church, a people who are one in Christ. However, as the story unfolds the tension between the two primary sons—Joseph (from the favored wife, Rachel) and Judah (from the unfavored wife, Leah)—will continue, leaving to be resolved the question as to which line will carry forward the messianic promise.

Jacob’s completion of his earlier vow upon this return to Bethel is marked by the erecting of a stone pillar (matsebah; 35:14; cf. 28:18) and its anointing with oil, just as Jacob did earlier, symbolizing the divine blessing he has received over the intervening years. In thanksgiving to God—and perhaps marking a rededication of the pillar, if it is the same stone set up earlier—this time he also pours out a drink offering to God.479 It is not clear whether this is a representative part of the fulfillment of his vow to offer a tithe of everything received in the meantime or a (rather inadequate) substitute for it. The former seems more probable. Just as Jacob’s renaming as Israel is confirmed in this chapter, so too the renaming of the location from its pagan identity of Luz to its true identity as Bethel is reiterated (35:15; cf. 28:19). This new name anticipates the capture and renaming of the city by the Benjaminites in the days of the judges (Judg. 1:23–26).

35:16–20 After departing from Bethel, Rachel goes into labor with her second and Jacob’s twelfth and final son. The labor is hard, but the midwife gives her the news that is supposed to cheer any woman facing difficult circumstances: “You have another son!” (Gen. 35:17; cf. 1 Sam. 4:20).480 As she lies dying, Rachel names her son Ben-Oni (cf. ESV mg. on Gen. 35:18: “son of my sorrow”), but Jacob gives him the more positive name Benjamin (“son of the right hand”). The right hand is the position of power and influence (Ps. 110:1). Having recently been renamed himself, Jacob knows well the power of a name and longs for a good future for his last son. Rachel’s earlier words to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” (Gen. 30:1), were strangely prophetic of her sad end, while her early death also fulfills Jacob’s unwitting curse in 31:32: “Anyone with whom you find your goods shall not live.”

The text records Rachel’s burial not far from Ephrath (Bethlehem), where Jacob sets up a pillar over her tomb (35:20). So soon after the pillar set up at Bethel, it is impossible to miss the poignant symbolism: one pillar represents God’s faithfulness and blessing upon Jacob, while the other emblematizes the sad losses of life in this fallen world. God’s presence with Jacob does not prevent his experiencing the latter as well as the former.

35:21–29 The period of Jacob’s life after Shechem is marked by a continued movement from place to place. After his disastrously failed attempt at settling down and integrating with the people of the land at Shechem Jacob adopts the sojourning life modeled for him by Abraham and Isaac (v. 27). The location of the tower of Edah (v. 21) is unknown to us, though presumably it lies somewhere between Bethlehem and Hebron.481 Its significance here is in Reuben’s reprehensible behavior of lying with Bilhah, his father’s concubine (v. 22). Such an act is not merely a sexual sin but represents a potential leadership challenge by Reuben against his father (cf. 2 Sam. 16:21).482 Jacob is aware of this sin of Reuben, but no response is recorded at the time, which seems to mark a return to the passivity of Genesis 34, where Simeon and Levi’s sin went unchecked by their father. Reuben’s sin is not forgotten, however; it earns him a curse rather than a blessing in Jacob’s final words (cf. 49:3–4). Along with that of Simeon and Levi (49:5–7), Reuben’s sin means that Leah’s first three sons have now all disqualified themselves, clearing the way for Leah’s fourth son, Judah, to become preeminent.

All twelve of Jacob’s sons are included in God’s promises, however, and so they are listed together here (Gen. 35:23–26). We find a variety of different orderings of the twelve sons in the Pentateuch (cf., e.g., the different arrangements in Num. 1:5–15 and 2:3–31, the latter of which takes the judgments of Genesis 49 into account), but in each case the mother’s identity outweighs strict birth order. A son’s sins may have a lasting impact on the status of the tribe descended from him, but none is excluded from the community. God’s gracious calling transcends the impact of human sin. Moreover, though all of them (apart from Benjamin) are born outside the land of Canaan, they are all heirs together of God’s promise of the land.

When Jacob left Bethel in Genesis 28, he defined the successful completion of his journey as “com[ing] again to my father’s house in peace” (28:21), so it is fitting that the conclusion of this section of Genesis records his peaceful return to visit Isaac at Hebron (35:27), where his father has continued to sojourn all the years Jacob has been gone. Isaac passes away at the age of 180 (v. 28), the third death to be recorded in this chapter.483 His death is a “good” death, “old and full of days” (v. 29; cf. 25:8), and he is “gathered to his people”—an idiom that strongly suggests a continuing existence of some kind beyond the grave, both for those who are heirs of God’s promise (Abraham, 25:8; Jacob, 49:33; Aaron, Num. 20:24; Moses, Deut. 32:50) and for those who are not (Ishmael, Gen. 25:17).484 These connections highlight the similarities between Isaac’s death and that of his father, Abraham; just as their lives mirrored each other, so too do their deaths. The earlier reconciliation between Jacob and Esau also continues in force, as they are involved together in burying their father, an ending that seemed unlikely earlier in the story. It is not stated explicitly here, but Isaac is buried at the cave of Machpelah, where Abraham and Sarah were also buried (cf. 49:31).