Genesis 35:2

Jacob’s Return to Bethel

1 Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to ^aBethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, ^bwho appeared to you ^cwhen you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”

2 And Jacob said to his ^ahousehold and to all who were with him, “Put away ^bthe foreign gods that are among you, ^cpurify yourselves, and change your garments.

3 Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, ^awho answered me in the day of my distress ^band has been with me in the way which I have gone.”

4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign¹ gods which were in their hands, and the ^aearrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under ^bthe terebinth tree which was by Shechem.

5 And they journeyed, and ^athe terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.

6 So Jacob came to ^aLuz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him.

7 And he ^abuilt an altar there and called the place¹ El Bethel, because ^bthere God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.

8 Now ^aDeborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the terebinth tree. So the name of it was called¹ Allon Bachuth.

9 Then ^aGod appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Padan Aram, and ^bblessed him.

10 And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; ^ayour name shall not be called Jacob anymore, ^bbut Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel.

Commentaries:

Forerunner Commentary
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What Does Genesis 35:2 Mean?

Genesis 35:1-3

In Genesis 28:20-22, Jacob made a vow that, if God would be with him, he would return to Bethel. Instead, however, after leaving Laban, he stops first at Succoth for a time, then settles in Shechem, fifteen miles short of Bethel. Perhaps he does not feel ready to go to Bethel, which means "House of God," because some of his family still hold to their pagan gods. Perhaps he feels that he knows best, and Shechem is a better spot (Bethel is about a thousand feet higher in elevation than Shechem).

God allows him this latitude, but in the Rape of Dinah and the subsequent murders (found in Genesis 34), it is obvious that God wants him to honor his promise to return to Bethel.

In Genesis 34:30, we see something else about Jacob:

Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have troubled me by making me obnoxious among the inhabitants of the land, . . . and since I am few in number, they will gather themselves together against me and kill me. I shall be destroyed, my household and I." (Emphasis ours)

This verse does not put Jacob in the best light! He appears to have been just a bit self-centered. At this point in the story, he was not thinking in terms of Dinah's best interests, only of his own.

It seems that Jacob failed Dinah in several ways. He put her outside Shechem where she should have never been. He allowed continuing worship of pagan gods in his home. He was concerned more with his personal honor and image than that of his daughter. Moreover, he left it to his sons to deal with this tragedy rather than taking a leadership role.

Mike Ford
The Rape of Dinah

Other Forerunner Commentary entries containing Genesis 35:2:

Amos 4:4-5
Amos 5:4-12
Amos 5:5-6
Amos 5:6
Amos 5:21-24

<< Genesis 35:1

Genesis 35:3 >>

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Jacob’s Return to Bethel

What Does Genesis 35:2 Mean?

A Verse and a Thought,Every Morning

A Verse and a Thought,
Every Morning