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Genesis 35 - Return to Bethel and Rachel's Death

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Previous combined narration for Genesis 35–36; updated chapter-specific narration is pending.

God calls Jacob back to Bethel after the violence at Shechem. The household must surrender its foreign gods before it can renew its worship. Yet obedience does not spare Jacob the deaths of Deborah, Rachel, and Isaac, or the shame of Reuben’s sin. Genesis 35 teaches a return to God that is concrete enough to change a household and patient enough to endure grief. The promise continues among people who still need cleansing, judgment, and mercy.

Put away the foreign gods (Genesis 35:1-5)

1 And God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to the place, Bæthel, and dwell there; and make there an altar to the God that appeared to thee, when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. 2 And Jacob said to his house, and to all that were with him, Remove the strange gods that are with you from the midst of you, and purify yourselves, and change your clothes. 3 And let us rise and go up to Bæthel, and let us there make an altar to God who hearkened to me in the day of calamity, who was with me, and preserved me throughout in the journey, by which I went. 4 And they gave to Jacob the strange gods, which were in their hands, and the ear-rings which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the turpentine tree which is in Secima, and destroyed them to this day. 5 So Israel departed from Secima, and the fear of God was upon the cities round about them, and they did not pursue after the children of Israel.

Jacob remembers the God who heard him in calamity and guarded him on the road. The command brings him back to the place of his earlier vow (Genesis 28:20-22). His altar at Shechem did not complete this return. Neither should we call every step before Bethel a rejection of God: Genesis 33 records worship, while Genesis 35 records the further obedience God now requires. A past encounter with God does not release us from responding to His present command.

The whole household is involved. Jacob asks for foreign gods, purification, and changed clothes; the people actually hand things over. Rachel had stolen Laban’s images (Genesis 31:19), and the sons had plundered the houses of Shechem (34:29). These episodes make the presence of foreign worship within the camp understandable, but this chapter does not identify the origin of each surrendered object. The text directs attention to what they relinquish, not to an inventory we can reconstruct.

The earrings belong to this surrender. Later, earrings become material for the golden calf (Exodus 32:2-4), and spoil earrings help furnish Gideon’s ephod, which becomes a snare to his household (Judges 8:24-27). These parallels show how possessions can be drawn into false worship; they do not prove that every earring was an amulet or that jewelry itself is sinful. Here Jacob’s family gives up what has become entangled with rival allegiance.

Joshua will likewise command the people to remove foreign gods and set their hearts toward the Lord (Joshua 24:23-26). His covenant account also remembers a stone beneath an oak. The Hebrew-based Joshua text locates that covenant at Shechem; Brenton’s Joshua 24:25 instead names Selo. The repeated summons to undivided worship is clear without making the two textual forms geographically identical. At Jacob’s departure, God restrains the surrounding cities. His protection allows obedience to continue; it does not pronounce the slaughter at Shechem righteous.

Translation insight: “destroyed them to this day”

Brenton’s final clause in verse 4 is also present in the Greek text translated by NETS, while the Hebrew-based English text ends with hiding the objects beneath the tree. The additional clause stresses a decisive disposal. Repentance cannot remain a private intention while the object of our divided loyalty stays ready for use.

The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪

In the Coptic baptismal rite, the candidate faces west to renounce Satan and his impure works, then turns east to accept Christ. An adult speaks personally; a parent or godparent speaks for a child. The acceptance says, “I accept You, O Christ, my God, with all Your Holy commandments, all Your life-giving service and works.”1 This gives the household’s surrender a fitting Christian connection: allegiance is changed through renunciation and acceptance. Jacob’s purification is an earlier biblical scene, not the instituted sacrament itself. Galatians 3:27 speaks of putting on Christ in baptism; Colossians 3:9-10 joins putting off the old person to putting on the new. Changed garments should lead us to a changed life, including truthful speech and the abandonment of habits we keep excusing.

Bethel and the Oak of Mourning (Genesis 35:6-8)

6 And Jacob came to Luza, which is in the land of Chanaan, which is Bæthel, he and all the people that were with him. 7 And he built there an altar, and called the name of the place Bæthel; for there God appeared to him, when he fled from the face of his brother Esau. 8 And Deborrha, Rebecca’s nurse, died, and was buried below Bæthel under the oak; and Jacob called its name, The Oak of Mourning.

Luza is Luz, here identified with Bethel; Secima in the preceding passage is Shechem. The household arrives together, and Jacob builds the altar where God had met him in his flight. The place is remembered through God’s faithfulness, not through Jacob’s achievement. Genesis 28:19 itself gives the name’s sense, “the House of God.”

Deborah’s burial belongs here, beside the altar. She is Rebekah’s nurse, a person whose work could disappear behind the names of patriarchs and mothers. Scripture keeps her name and the tree’s name, the Oak of Mourning. Renewed worship does not erase those who have served quietly, and the household’s tears are allowed a memorial. Grief can be brought into the life of prayer without turning every loss into a lesson about the mourner’s failures.

The name and promise renewed (Genesis 35:9-15)

9 And God appeared to Jacob once more in Luza, when he came out of Mesopotamia of Syria, and God blessed him. 10 And God said to him, Thy name shall not be called Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name; and he called his name Israel. 11 And God said to him, I am thy God; increase and multiply; for nations and gatherings of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins. 12 And the land which I gave to Abraam and Isaac, I have given it to thee; and it shall come to pass that I will give this land also to thy seed after thee. 13 And God went up from him from the place where he spoke with him. 14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where God spoke with him, even a pillar of stone; and offered a libation upon it, and poured oil upon it. 15 And Jacob called the name of the place in which God spoke with him, Bæthel.

God reaffirms the name Israel already given in Genesis 32. The wounded and compromised family receives its future from God’s word. The promise of land reaches back through Isaac to Abraham, while “increase and multiply” recalls God’s blessing upon humanity in Genesis 1:28. The family’s calling belongs within God’s care for His creation. “Nations and gatherings of nations” and the promise of kings make Jacob’s future larger than a private household.

The next chapter will name kings who ruled in Edom before a king ruled in Israel (Genesis 36:31). A promise from God need not mature before every other people achieves visible strength. Jacob marks the encounter with stone, a poured offering, and oil. Worship answers a gift already spoken; he cannot purchase the promise with his offering.

Bethel also directs Christian hope toward Christ. In John 1:51, the ascending and descending angels of Jacob’s vision are associated with the Son of Man. John 1:14 proclaims the Word’s dwelling among us in the flesh. Communion with God finds its fullness in the incarnate Son, rather than in our ability to secure a holy location for ourselves.

Gems from the Fathers 💎

St. Justin Martyr directly quotes Genesis 35:6-10 in Dialogue with Trypho 58, alongside Jacob’s earlier visions. He understands the One who appeared to Jacob as the divine Lord, read in relation to the Son who reveals the Father. Justin’s pre-Nicene terminology is received here in the light of Athanasius’s explicit account of the Father and Son giving one undivided blessing. After quoting the renewed name, Justin insists, “He is called God, and He is and shall be God.”2 The sentence places Jacob’s encounter within God’s saving revelation, not within the worship of a creature.

St. Athanasius provides a closely related doctrinal explanation in Against the Arians III.12-13. His immediate argument concerns Jacob’s blessing of Joseph’s sons in Genesis 48, not a commentary on Genesis 35. He explains that Jacob’s delivering Angel is God’s Word, not a created angel, and that the Father and Son give one blessing. This helps us receive the theophany, an appearance of God, without imagining a lesser deity beside the Father. Athanasius writes, “For through the Son is given what is given; and there is nothing but the Father operates it through the Son; for thus is grace secure to him who receives it.”3 The God who preserved Jacob is known to us through the Son, who brings us into communion with His Father.

Rachel’s death and Benjamin’s birth (Genesis 35:16-20)

16 [And Jacob removed from Bæthel, and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Gader,] and it came to pass when he drew nigh to Chabratha, to enter into Ephratha, Rachel travailed; and in her travail she was in hard labour. 17 And it came to pass in her hard labour, that the midwife said to her, Be of good courage, for thou shalt also have this son. 18 And it came to pass in her giving up the ghost (for she was dying), that she called his name, The son of my pain; but his father called his name Benjamin. 19 So Rachel died, and was buried in the way of the course of Ephratha, this is Bethleem. 20 And Jacob set up a pillar on her tomb; this is the pillar on the tomb of Rachel, until this day.

The midwife speaks courage, a son is born, and Rachel dies. All three facts remain together. Her dying name for the child is translated by Brenton as “The son of my pain.” Jacob calls him Benjamin, conventionally understood as “son of the right hand.”4 The changed name gives the child a place beyond the sorrow of his birth, while the pillar preserves Rachel’s memory. Jacob has marked both the place of God’s word (35:14) and his wife’s grave with a pillar: worship and mourning each have their place in the household’s remembrance. Consolation must make room for the mother as well as for the surviving child. A grieving family need not silence its loss in order to welcome new life.

The bracketed opening of Brenton’s verse 16 places the encampment beyond the tower of Gader before Rachel’s labour. It corresponds to the journey notice numbered 35:21 in the Hebrew-based text. Consequently, this Brenton chapter has no separate verse 21. NETS likewise places that notice before the birth and marks the correspondence. Readers therefore encounter the journey notice once, before Rachel’s labour, rather than again after her burial.

Jeremiah 31:15 (LXX 38:15) later presents Rachel weeping for her children at Ramah, and Matthew 2:16-18 takes up that lament for Herod’s killing of the children around Bethlehem. The connection is biblical memory and prophetic lament, not a claim that every place named is the same site. Jeremiah’s following verses promise return and a future for the children. Matthew brings the lament into the story of the Christ who has come among His suffering people.

The encampment Brenton places at the “tower of Gader” appears in the Hebrew-based text as the tower of Edar or Eder (Genesis 35:21). The Hebrew phrase is also found in Micah 4:8, where it is translated “tower of the flock.”5 Micah also names Bethlehem Ephrathah as the place from which a ruler will come in 5:2 (Brenton 5:1). These verbal connections place the language of flock, birth, and kingship near the reader’s memory of Rachel. They do not establish an archaeological identification of Gader or make Rachel’s death a direct prediction of the Nativity. The scriptural hope reaches its center in Christ, whose coming does not make the slain or bereaved expendable.

The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪

On Toba 3, the Coptic Synaxarium commemorates the slain children of Bethlehem by the order of King Herod. Its account explicitly recalls Rachel’s weeping in Jeremiah.6 The remembrance gives the Church a way to mourn the children before God while confessing Christ. It neither justifies their killing nor asks bereaved readers to call death good. Prayer can hold grief and hope together without explaining away either.

Reuben wounds the household (Genesis 35:22)

22 And it came to pass when Israel dwelt in that land, that Ruben went and lay with Balla, the concubine of his father Jacob; and Israel heard, and the thing appeared grievous before him. And the sons of Jacob were twelve.

Balla is Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid and the mother of Dan and Naphtali (35:25). Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, violates his father’s household by lying with her. The short account supplies no words from Bilhah and no account of her consent. It cannot be used to blame her or to treat a vulnerable person as a mere object in a contest between men. Those harmed by sexual wrongdoing deserve protection and trustworthy support, including a priest or qualified helper; silence in the narrative does not require silence from someone seeking help.

Brenton adds that the matter appeared grievous to Israel. This evaluation is also present in NETS’s Greek form and absent from the corresponding Hebrew-based verse. Jacob’s grave displeasure is explicit, but the consequences unfold later. Genesis 49:3-4 names the defilement of his bed, and 1 Chronicles 5:1-2 says Reuben loses the firstborn’s privilege. It distinguishes the birthright or blessing given to Joseph from the ruling line associated with Judah.

Reuben, Simeon, and Levi are the first three sons. Genesis 49 judges Reuben’s violation and the brothers’ violent anger before speaking of Judah’s rule (49:5-12). This is a connected family history, yet Judah’s own conduct in Genesis 38 still needs exposure and repentance. The royal promise does not rest on an untouched human pedigree. Nor should the warning about lost privilege become a claim that every sinner is beyond healing in Christ. It calls those with responsibility to repent before injury spreads through a household.

The twelve sons and Isaac’s burial (Genesis 35:23-29)

23 The sons of Lea, the first-born of Jacob; Ruben, Symeon, Levi, Judas, Issachar, Zabulon. 24 And the sons of Rachel; Joseph and Benjamin. 25 And the sons of Balla, the hand-maid of Rachel; Dan and Nephthalim. 26 And the sons of Zelpha, the hand-maid of Lea; Gad and Aser. These are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Mesopotamia of Syria. 27 And Jacob came to Isaac his father to Mambre, to a city of the plain; this is Chebron in the land of Chanaan, where Abraam and Isaac sojourned. 28 And the days of Isaac which he lived were an hundred and eighty years. 29 And Isaac gave up the ghost and died, and was laid to his family, old and full of days; and Esau and Jacob his sons buried him.

The twelve are named according to their mothers. Lea is Leah, Judas is Judah, and Zelpha is Zilpah. Keeping these forms in view helps the reader follow the Septuagint without mistaking familiar persons for new ones. Verse 26 summarizes the household associated with Jacob’s time in Mesopotamia; the chapter has just narrated Benjamin’s birth on the road near Ephrathah. The summary should not relocate that birth or erase its account.

Reuben remains in the list after his sin. The family record neither hides his wrong nor deletes him to produce a respectable image. The reader must hold belonging and accountability together. Christian households also need truthful memory: covering up wrongdoing to protect the family name wounds the people the name ought to shelter.

Jacob reaches Isaac at Mambre, or Mamre, identified here with Chebron, Hebron. Esau and Jacob then bury their father together, as Isaac and Ishmael had buried Abraham (Genesis 25:9). Their different futures do not prevent this shared act of honor. At a death, reconciliation may take the form of doing one needed duty together. Their cooperation does not remove the complexity of their history, but neither should that history rob the act of its goodness.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

  1. Answer the command you have postponed. Jacob returns when God calls him. Name one neglected obedience, such as returning to prayer, making a confession, or ending a dishonest arrangement. Take a definite first step rather than defending the delay.
  2. Make renunciation visible. The family hands over what it has carried. Remove one object, practice, or source of influence that keeps pulling you toward false allegiance. Let baptismal acceptance of Christ shape what you keep welcoming into your home.
  3. Remember the person who served quietly. Deborah has a name and a place of mourning. Pray for someone whose hidden labor sustained your family or parish, and thank a living servant without waiting for a funeral.
  4. Stay beside the grieving. Rachel’s memorial survives Benjamin’s new name. Offer a bereaved person a concrete kindness and room to speak. Do not use the promise of resurrection to hurry their tears.
  5. Join belonging to accountability. Reuben’s name remains, and his wrong remains named. Where you bear responsibility, confess without blaming the vulnerable and cooperate with measures that protect those harmed.

Lord Jesus Christ, who reveals the Father and receives us into His life, free us from divided worship. Receive our grief, correct our misuse of privilege, and teach our households to answer Your mercy with truth.

Footnotes

  1. Fr. Gregory Bishay, The Sacrament of Baptism: Order and Explanation, printed rite, PDF pp. 19-20, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles. 🔗 ↩

  2. St. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 58, translated by Marcus Dods and George Reith, ANF 1, on Genesis 35:6-10. 🔗 ↩

  3. St. Athanasius, Against the Arians III.12-13, on Jacob’s blessing and the Father’s gift through the Son, NPNF II.4. 🔗 ↩

  4. Brown-Driver-Briggs, “בִּנְיָמִין,” entry 1144, “son of (the) right hand.” 🔗 ↩

  5. The repeated Hebrew phrase in Genesis 35:21 and Micah 4:8, Westminster Leningrad Codex; Brown-Driver-Briggs, “מִגְדַּל־עֵדֶר,” entry 4029. 🔗 Genesis 35:21, 🔗 Micah 4:8, 🔗 Lexical entry. ↩

  6. Coptic Synaxarium, Toba 3, “The Commemoration of the Slain Children of Bethlehem by the Order of King Herod.” 🔗 ↩

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