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35:1  God said to Jacob, “·Go [L Rise up and go up] to the city of Bethel [12:8] and live there. Make an altar to the God who appeared to you there when you were ·running away [fleeing] from your brother Esau [28:1–22].”
35:2  So Jacob said to his ·family [household] and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods you have, and ·make yourselves clean [purify yourselves], and change your clothes.
35:3  We will ·leave here and go [L rise up and go up] to Bethel. There I will build an altar to God, who ·has helped [L answered] me ·during my time of trouble [L in the day of my distress]. He has been with me [C an indication of a covenant relationship] everywhere I have gone.”
35:4  So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods ·they had [in their possession; L in their hands], and the earrings ·they were wearing [L on their ears], and he hid them under the ·great tree [L oak; or terebinth; 12:6] near the town of Shechem.
35:5  Then Jacob and his sons left there. But ·God caused the people in the nearby cities to be afraid [L the terror of God was on the surrounding cities], so they did not ·follow [pursue] them.
35:6  And Jacob and all the people who were with him went to Luz, which is now called Bethel, in the land of Canaan.
35:7  There Jacob built an altar and named the place ·Bethel, after God [El-Bethel; or “God of Bethel”], because God had appeared to him there when he was ·running [fleeing] from his brother.
35:8  Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak tree at Bethel, so they named that place ·Oak of Crying [L Allon-bacuth].
35:9  When Jacob came back from ·northwestern Mesopotamia [L Paddan-aram], God appeared to him again and blessed him.
35:10  God said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but you will not be called Jacob any longer. Your new name will be Israel.” So he called him Israel [32:28].
35:11  God said to him, “I am ·God Almighty [L El Shaddai]. ·Have many children [L Be fruitful] and ·grow in number [L multiply; 1:22] as a nation. ·You will be the ancestor of many nations [L A company/assembly of nations will come from you] and kings [L will spring from your loins].
35:12  The same land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you and your ·descendants [L seed; 12:2].”
35:13  Then God ·left him [L went up from him in the place where he spoke with him].
35:14  Jacob set up a ·stone on edge [L pillar, a stone pillar] in that place where God had talked to him, and he poured a drink offering and olive oil on it to make it special for God.
35:15  And Jacob named the place Bethel [C “house of God”].
35:16  ·Jacob and his group [L They] ·left [departed from] Bethel. ·Before they came to [or While still some distance from] Ephrath [C near Bethlehem four miles south of Jerusalem; 35:19], Rachel began giving birth to her baby [L and had hard labor],
35:17  but she was having ·much trouble [hard labor]. When ·Rachel’s nurse [L the midwife] saw this, she said, “Don’t be afraid, Rachel. You are giving birth to another son.”
35:18  Rachel gave birth to the son, but she herself died. As she lay dying, she named the boy ·Son of My Suffering [Ben-oni], but Jacob called him Benjamin [C “son of my right hand/the south”].
35:19  Rachel was buried on the road to Ephrath, ·a district of [or which is] Bethlehem,
35:20  and Jacob set up a pillar on her grave. It is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day.
35:21  Then Israel [C Jacob’s new name] continued his journey and ·camped [L pitched his tent] just south of ·Migdal Eder [or the tower of Eder; C Eder means “the flock”; perhaps located near Jerusalem; Mic. 4:8].
35:22  While Israel was there, Reuben ·had sexual relations [L lay] with Israel’s ·slave woman [concubine] Bilhah, and Israel heard about it [49:3–4]. Jacob had twelve sons.
35:23  He had six sons by his wife Leah: Reuben, his ·first son [firstborn], then Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.
35:24  He had two sons by his wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.
35:25  He had two sons by Rachel’s slave girl Bilhah: Dan and Naphtali.
35:26  And he had two sons by Leah’s slave girl Zilpah: Gad and Asher. These are Jacob’s sons who were born in ·northwestern Mesopotamia [L Paddan-aram].
35:27  Jacob went to his father Isaac at Mamre near Hebron [13:18; 18:1; 23:17–18; 25:9], where Abraham and Isaac had ·lived [sojourned; lived as an alien].
35:28  Isaac lived one hundred eighty years.
35:29  So Isaac breathed his last breath and died [L and was gathered to his people/relatives; 25:8] when he was very old [L and full of days], and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.