Open English Translation GEN Chapter 35

35 Then God told Yacob, “Pack up and move to Beyt-el and settle there, and make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.”[ref]

2 So Yacob instructed his household and everyone with him, “Remove any foreign idols that are among you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. 3 Then we’ll leave here and make the uphill trip to Beyt-el, and I’ll make an altar there to God, who answered me when I was distressed. He’s been with me wherever I’ve gone.” 4 So they gave Yacob all their idols and their earrings, and he buried them under the terebinth tree that was near Shekem.

5 Then they started their journey but and the people of the cities around them were afraid of Yacob’s God so they didn’t attack them. 6 So Yacob and everyone with him eventually arrived at Luz in the Canaan region (which is now named Beyt-el). 7 He built an altar there and named the place ‘El Beyt-el’ (which means ‘the God of Beyt-el’), because God had revealed himself to him there when he was fleeing from his brother Esau. 8 Then Rebekah’s nurse Deborah died and was buried under the oak tree below Beyt-el so he named the place ‘Allon Bakut’ (which means ‘oak of weeping’).

9 Now that Yacob had left Paddan Aram and come back to Beyt-el, God appeared to him there again and blessed him 10 and told him, “Your name is Yacob but you won’t be called Yacob anymore. From now on, you’ll be called Yisra’el (‘Israel’).” So again[ref] God called him Yisra’el. 11 Then God also told him, “I’m God the provider. Be fruitful and multiply. Out of you will come a nation and a community of nations, and kings will come from your descendants,[ref] 12 and I’ll give you the land that I gave to Abraham and to Isaac, and in the future, I’ll give the land to your descendants after you.” 13 After God finished talking to Yacob, he left him and went back up. 14 Then Yacob set up a stone pillar at the place where God had spoken with him, and he poured a drink offering over it, followed by oil,[ref] 15 and he named that place ‘Beyt-el’ (which means ‘God’s house’) because God had spoken to him there.

16 Then they moved on from Beyt-el, and there was still quite a distance to go to reach to the town of Ephrath. Then Rahel went into labour, but was having great difficulty in delivering the baby. 17 At one point when she was in hard labour, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid. You’ve got another son.” 18 But Rahel was dying, and as her spirit was leaving her, she named the baby ‘Ben’oni’ (which means ‘son of my sorrow’), but afterwards Yacob renamed him ‘Benyamin’ (which means ‘son of my right hand’).

19 Thus Rahel died and was buried on the path to Ephrath (which is now called Bethlehem). 20 Yacob set up a stone pillar over her grave—that’s the pillar of Rahel’s grave to this day. 21 Then Yisra’el and his household moved on and pitched their tents beyond Migdal Eder.

22 While they were living in that area, Yisra’el’s son Reuben slept with his father’s slave-wife Bilhah, and Yisra’el found out about it.[ref]

Yisra’el now had twelve sons. 23 Le’ah’s sons were his eldest son Rueben, and then to Simeon, Levi, Yihudah, Yissakar, and Zebulun. 24 Rahel’s sons were Yosef and Benyamin. 25 The sons of Rahel’s slave woman Bilhah were Dan and Naftali. 26 The sons of Leah’s slave women Zilpah were Gad and Asher. Those were Yisra’el’s sons who were nearly all born in Paddan Aram.

27 Then Yisra’el went VISIT OR LIVE? to his father Yitshak in Mamre (also named Kiriath Arba or Hebron), where Abraham and Yitshak had lived for a time.[ref] 28 Yitshak lived to be 180 years old. 29 Then Yitshak, having lived a long and full life, breathed his last and died and joined his ancestors, and his sons Esau and Yisra’el buried him.