Genesis Chapter 35

¹ And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.

Bethel means “House of God”

• Genesis 28:10-22 ¹⁰ And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.¹¹ And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.¹² And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.¹³ And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;¹⁴ And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.¹⁵ And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.¹⁶ And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.¹⁷ And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.¹⁸ And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.¹⁹ And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.²⁰ And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,²¹ So that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God:²² And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.

² Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:

³ And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.

⁴ And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.

They cleansed themselves of their idolatry and went off to build an altar to the one true God.

⁵ And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.

After the brothers got revenge for the rape of their sister Dinah, Jacob feared people would come after them. Instead, God caused these surrounding cities to fear them so they could go by without conflict.

⁶ So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him.

⁷ And he built there an altar, and called the place Elbethel: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother.

⁸ But Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth.

Allonbachuth means “Oak of Weeping“

⁹ And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him.

¹⁰ And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.

¹¹ And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;

¹² And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.

¹³ And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him.

¹⁴ And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon.

¹⁵ And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel.

¹⁶ And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour.

¹⁷ And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also.

¹⁸ And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.

Benoni means “son of my sorrow; son of my strength”
I’m going to be a little sad here… Rachel only ever wanted to have babies…. and here she has her second child and as she is dying she names him “Son of my Sorrow, son of my strength”.
Israel renames his son Benjamin, which means “”Son of the right hand”.

¹⁹ And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.

²⁰ And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave unto this day.

²¹ And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar.

²² And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine: and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:

²³ The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun:

²⁴ The sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin:

²⁵ And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali:

²⁶ And the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid: Gad, and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padanaram.

²⁷ And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned.

²⁸ And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years.

180 years

²⁹ And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

I always thought that when Isaac gave Jacob the blessing her was close to dying, however, this was not the case. Isaac gave his blessing to Jacob, then Jacob when to Padanaram to the house of Laban, worked 14 years for his wives and additional years for his cattle, then set out to return to his father’s land…and when Isaac did actually die, Joseph was already in exile in Egypt.
The reconciliation of Esau and Israel allowed them to come together to bury their father Isaac.