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Génesis 35

VBL · Chapter 35/50

1Entonces Dios le dijo a Jacob: “Prepárate para ir a Betel y vivir allí. Construye allí un altar a Dios, que se te apareció cuando estabas huyendo de tu hermano Esaú”.

2Entonces Jacob le dijo a su familia y a todos los que estaban con él: “Deshazte de los ídolos paganos que tienes contigo. Purifíquense y cambien su ropa.

3Debemos prepararnos e ir a Betel para construir un altar a Dios que me respondió en mi tiempo de angustia. Él ha estado conmigo donde quiera que haya ido”.

4Entregaron a Jacob todos los ídolos paganos que tenían, así como sus pendientes, y los enterró bajo el roble de Siquem.

5Al partir en su viaje, el terror de Dios se extendió por todos los pueblos de alrededor, así que nadie intentó tomar represalias contra los hijos de Jacob.

6Jacob y todos los que lo acompañaban llegaron a Luz (también conocida como Bethel) en el país de Canaán.

7Construyó un altar allí y llamó al lugar El-Bethel, porque allí se le había aparecido Dios cuando huía de su hermano Esaú.

8Deborah, la enfermera de Rebeca, murió y fue enterrada bajo el roble cerca de Bethel. Así que se le llamó “el roble del llanto”.

9Dios se le apareció de nuevo a Jacob y lo bendijo después de su regreso de Paddan-aram.

10Dios le dijo: “Jacob no será más tu nombre. En lugar de Jacob tu nombre será Israel”. Así que Dios le llamó Israel.

11Entonces Dios dijo: “¡Yo soy el Dios Todopoderoso! Reproduce, aumenta, y te convertirás en una nación - de hecho un grupo de naciones - y los reyes estarán entre tus descendientes.

12Te daré a ti y a tus descendientes la tierra que también di a Abraham e Isaac”.

13Entonces Dios dejó el lugar donde había estado hablando con Jacob.

14Después Jacob puso un pilar de piedra en el lugar donde Dios había hablado con él. Derramó una ofrenda de bebida sobre ella, y también aceite de oliva.

15Jacob llamó al lugar Betel, porque allí había hablado con Dios.

16Luego se fueron de Betel. Cuando aún estaban a cierta distancia de Efrat, Raquel se puso de parto y tuvo grandes dificultades para dar a luz.

17Cuando tuvo los peores dolores de parto, la comadrona le dijo: “No te rindas, tienes otro hijo”

18Pero ella se estaba muriendo, y con su último aliento le puso el nombre de Benoni. Pero su padre le puso el nombre de Benjamín.

19Raquel murió y fue enterrada camino de Efrat (también conocida como Belén).

20Jacob colocó una piedra conmemorativa sobre la tumba de Raquel, y sigue ahí hasta hoy.

21Israel siguió adelante y acampó más allá de la torre de vigilancia en Eder.

22Durante el tiempo que vivió allí, Rubén fue y se acostó con Bilhá, la concubina de su padre, e Israel se enteró de ello.

23Los hijos de Lea: Rubén (el primogénito de Jacob), Simeón, Leví, Judá, Isacar, y Zabulón.

24Los hijos de Raquel: Joséy Benjamín.

25Los hijos de Bila, la criada personal de Raquel: Dan y Neftalí.

26Los hijos de Zilpá, la criada personal de Lea: Gad y Aser.

27Jacob regresó a casa de su padre Isaac en Mamre, cerca de Quiriat-arba (también conocida como Hebrón), donde habían vivido Abraham e Isaac.

28Isaac vivió hasta la edad de 180 años,

29cuando respiró por última vez y murió a una edad avanzada. Había vivido una vida plena y ahora se unió a sus antepasados en la muerte. Sus hijos Esaú y Jacob lo enterraron.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

God commands Jacob to return to Bethel to build an altar; he purifies his family from foreign idols, God confirms his new name, Israel, and then Rachel dies giving birth to Benjamin; finally, Isaac dies.

Explanation

This chapter marks an important spiritual return: Jacob goes back to the place where he had his first striking encounter with God (Bethel, chapter 28), and before building the altar, he asks the whole family to purify themselves, giving up the foreign idols they still carried — a necessary step of full commitment before renewing their worship. God formally reaffirms the name Israel and the covenant promise, consolidating the family's spiritual identity. Amid these blessings, however, comes a deep loss: Rachel dies giving birth to her second son, Benjamin, whose name she had chosen in the midst of her agony ('Benoni,' son of my sorrow) before Jacob softened it. The chapter closes with the peaceful death of Isaac, ending a generation and preparing the narrative to focus fully on Jacob's twelve sons, who would become the twelve tribes of Israel.

Fun facts

  • Rachel's tomb, marked by a stone pillar (v. 20), is mentioned as a well-known geographic landmark still centuries later, in 1 Samuel 10:2, showing how the site remained identifiable in Israel's memory and geography.
  • With the birth of Benjamin, the number of Jacob's twelve sons is complete, from whom the twelve tribes of Israel would arise — a foundational structure that would organize the entire nation throughout the rest of the Old Testament.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Génesis 35:1God commands Jacob to go up to Bethel and dwell there and make an altar — returning to the same place of the dream of the ladder, in chapter 28, when he was fleeing Esau with nothing but a stone for a pillow.
  2. Génesis 35:2The “strange gods” are the idols Jacob’s household had kept — including the ones Rachel had stolen from her father (chapter 31) and possibly others brought from Shechem after the plunder (chapter 34). Before going up to a sacred place, Jacob asks everyone to put them away and be clean, a gesture of purification before presenting themselves to God.
  3. Génesis 35:3Jacob announces to his family the decision to go up to Bethel to build the promised altar, recalling that it was there God answered him in the day of his distress and was with him in the way which he went.
  4. Génesis 35:4The “earrings” were earrings worn in the ear, likely tied to the worship of the idols being handed over — which is why they end up in the same bundle Jacob hides under the oak by Shechem. They were not merely decorative jewelry; they carried religious weight in the culture of the time.
  5. Génesis 35:5As they journey, “the terror of God” falls upon the cities round about, and they do not pursue the sons of Jacob — a welcome supernatural protection after the violent massacre in Shechem in the previous chapter.
  6. Génesis 35:6Jacob arrives at Luz — the same place he had already renamed Bethel, in chapter 28 — now accompanied by all the people that were with him.
  7. Génesis 35:7The altar receives the name El-beth-el, something like “God of the house of God,” in direct reference to the moment God appeared to Jacob as he fled his brother, years earlier.
  8. Génesis 35:8The death of Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse since before her marriage to Isaac, is a personal detail showing this woman still accompanied the family decades later — buried under an oak whose name, Allon-bachuth, preserves the memory of the weeping for her.
  9. Génesis 35:9God appears to Jacob again, now that he has come out of Padan-aram, and blesses him — a second confirmation after the nighttime encounter at Peniel.
  10. Génesis 35:10God formally confirms the name change to Israel, which had already been given during the struggle on the bank of the Jabbok, in chapter 32.
  11. Génesis 35:11God presents Himself as “Almighty” and promises that from Jacob will come a nation and a company of nations, and kings shall come out of his loins — a promise fulfilled through the twelve sons and, much later, through the monarchy of Israel.
  12. Génesis 35:12The promise of the land, already made to Abraham and Isaac, is now explicitly repeated to Jacob and his descendants — the third generation receiving the same covenant.
  13. Génesis 35:13Describing God as “going up” is the text’s way of marking the visible end of that appearance, a device common in Old Testament accounts of direct encounters with God.
  14. Génesis 35:14Jacob sets up another stone pillar at the site and pours a drink offering and oil on it — a consecration ritual marking the place as sacred, similar to what he had already done there years before.
  15. Génesis 35:15Jacob again calls the name of the place Bethel, closing the cycle that began with the dream of the ladder.
  16. Génesis 35:16On the way from Bethel, still a little way from Ephrath, Rachel travails and has hard labour — the birth that will cost her own life.
  17. Génesis 35:17The midwife tries to comfort Rachel in the midst of her hard labour, assuring her, “Fear not; thou shalt have this son also” — but the relief of the news does not stop the tragedy that follows.
  18. Génesis 35:18Dying in childbirth, Rachel calls her son Ben-oni, something like son of my sorrow — but his father calls him Benjamin, son of the right hand, a place of honor and strength. It is Jacob’s gesture of giving the boy a future different from the tragedy of his birth.
  19. Génesis 35:19Rachel dies right after giving birth and is buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem — one of the saddest moments in the book, closing the love story that began by the well, in chapter 29.
  20. Génesis 35:20Jacob sets a pillar upon her grave, a marker that, according to the text, still existed at the time these words were written.
  21. Génesis 35:21Israel — the name the text now increasingly uses after the confirmation at Bethel — journeys on and spreads his tent beyond the tower of Edar.
  22. Génesis 35:22For Reuben to lie with Bilhah, his own father’s concubine, was considered an extremely serious transgression — tampering with the patriarch’s concubine was seen almost as claiming his authority. The text records the fact tersely and moves straight to the list of the twelve sons, without explaining the consequence here, which only appears much later, in chapter 49.
  23. Génesis 35:23The list begins with Leah’s sons: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, followed by Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun — the six sons who were prominent in the stories of chapters 29 and 30.
  24. Génesis 35:24Joseph and Benjamin, Rachel’s only sons, close the list — Benjamin being precisely the son whose birth had just cost his mother her life.
  25. Génesis 35:25Dan and Naphtali complete the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid, used as a surrogate mother in chapter 30.
  26. Génesis 35:26Gad and Asher are the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid — the text closes the list by noting that all these were born to Jacob in Padan-aram, except Benjamin, who had just been born in Canaan.
  27. Génesis 35:27Jacob finally comes unto his own father Isaac at Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron — closing the circle of the long journey that began back in chapter 28, when he fled alone from Esau.
  28. Génesis 35:28Isaac lived one hundred and fourscore years in all — the most advanced age recorded among the three main patriarchs of the book.
  29. Génesis 35:29“Old and full of days” is a Hebrew expression meaning that someone died elderly, having lived long enough, without any sense that time was lacking — it is not praise for accomplishments, just a way of saying life had run its natural course. The same expression appears elsewhere in Genesis to describe the deaths of the patriarchs.

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