Twenty years ago Jacob vowed at Bethel that if God brought him home in peace, the Lord would be his God and that stone would be God’s house. He came home — and stopped at Shechem, a day short, until his daughter’s ruin forced him to move. Now God says plainly what Jacob has been putting off: Arise, go up to Bethel. He buries the household idols under an oak, builds the altar at last, and hears the new name confirmed by God’s own voice. On the road out, Rachel dies bearing Benjamin, and a little further on Isaac is buried by both his sons.
A study in Genesis 35-36 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 8 min read
Arise, Go Up To Bethel
“And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Beth-el, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.”
Genesis 35:1
God does not rebuke Jacob. He simply names the place Jacob has been avoiding. At Bethel, fleeing for his life, Jacob had vowed that if God brought him home in peace, “then shall the LORD be my God… and this stone… shall be God’s house” (Genesis 28:21-22). He has been home for years. He settled at Shechem, built an altar there, and stayed — a day’s journey short of the vow. The reminder in this verse is gentle and total: that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest. The God of the vow is still waiting at the address Jacob gave Him.
“While Jacob was thus bowed down with trouble, the Lord directed him to journey southward to Bethel. The thought of this place reminded the patriarch not only of his vision of the angels and of God’s promises of mercy, but also of the vow which he had made there, that the Lord should be his God.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 205
Put Away The Strange Gods
“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: and let us arise, and go up to Beth-el; 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.”
Genesis 35:2-3
Before he can lead his family to the altar, Jacob has to admit what is in the camp. There are foreign gods in his tents — Rachel had carried her father’s household idols out of Paddan-aram, and others have been picked up since. Jacob had tolerated them. Now the command to go up to Bethel makes tolerance impossible. Be clean, and change your garments: the reform is outward and visible because the compromise had been allowed to become ordinary.
“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.”
Genesis 35:4
“He determined that before going to this sacred spot his household should be freed from the defilement of idolatry.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 205
He Built There An Altar
“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.”
Genesis 35:5
Jacob had said after the slaughter at Shechem that the Canaanites would gather and destroy him (Genesis 34:30). They do not. The moment he sets out in obedience, the danger he had used as his excuse for staying simply lifts — not because Jacob armed himself, but because God put a dread on the towns he passed.
“And he built there an altar, and called the place El-beth-el: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother.”
Genesis 35:7
The vow is finally kept. At Bethel he had named the place “house of God”; now he names the altar El-beth-el, “the God of the house of God” — the emphasis has moved from the place to the Person. Twenty years and a great deal of grief lie between the promise and its payment, but God had waited.
“God caused a fear to rest upon the inhabitants of the land, so that they made no attempt to avenge the slaughter at Shechem. The travelers reached Bethel unmolested.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 206
Thy Name Shall Be Israel
“And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padan-aram, and blessed him. 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.”
Genesis 35:9-10
The new name was first given in the dark at the Jabbok by the wrestler who would not tell His own name (Genesis 32). Here it is repeated in daylight, at the altar, with God plainly identified. What Jacob received in a struggle is now confirmed in worship.
“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; 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.”
Genesis 35:11-12
The words are the covenant given to Abraham and to Isaac, handed down now to the third generation intact: descendants, kings, and the land. Jacob adds nothing to it and has earned none of it. He set up a stone pillar and poured out oil, exactly as he had done here the first time — the same act, done now by a man with a different name.
She Called His Name Ben-oni
“But Deborah Rebekah’s nurse died, and she was buried beneath Beth-el under an oak: and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth.”
Genesis 35:8
The chapter of the kept vow is also a chapter of graves. Allon-bachuth means “oak of weeping.” Deborah had come from Mesopotamia with Rebekah two generations before; her death cuts one more thread back to Jacob’s mother, whom he never saw again after he fled.
“And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Ben-oni: but his father called him Benjamin. And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Beth-lehem.”
Genesis 35:18-19
Rachel, for whom Jacob served fourteen years, dies bearing her second son on the road south. She names him Ben-oni, “son of my sorrow”; Jacob overrules her with Benjamin, “son of my right hand.” He will not let the boy carry his mother’s dying grief as a name. Decades later, on his own deathbed in Egypt, the one loss Jacob reaches back for is this one (Genesis 48:7).
“In the family history of his long and troubled life the loss of Rachel was alone recalled.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 206
Reuben Went And Lay With Bilhah
“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.”
Genesis 35:22
Four words follow the deed: and Israel heard it. No confrontation is recorded, exactly as with Dinah. But Jacob does not forget. On his deathbed he tells Reuben, his firstborn, “unstable as water, thou shalt not excel” — and the double portion of the birthright passes to Joseph’s sons instead (Genesis 49:3-4). The firstborn’s place in the family is lost here, in a single verse, years before the sentence is spoken aloud.
His Sons Esau And Jacob Buried Him
“And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned… 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.”
Genesis 35:27-29
Jacob reaches Hebron in time for the last years of his blind father’s life. And at the grave, the two brothers stand together. The last time they were in a room with Isaac, Esau was weeping for a stolen blessing and planning murder (Genesis 27). Now they bury him side by side, the quarrel already settled at Peniel. It is the second time in the book a father is buried by two sons who had every reason to hate each other — Isaac and Ishmael did the same for Abraham (Genesis 25:9).
“And Jacob, well content with the spiritual blessings of the birthright, resigned to the elder brother the inheritance of their father’s wealth — the only inheritance that Esau sought or valued.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 207
Genesis 36 then gives a whole chapter to Esau’s line — the chiefs and kings of Edom, a nation up and running “before there reigned any king over the children of Israel.” Esau’s descendants get their crowns first. The narrative records them fully, then turns away for good: “Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir.” The two brothers part in peace but for good, because “their riches were more than that they might dwell together.” From here the book follows only Jacob’s twelve sons — and the next chapter opens on the one he loved best.
