Chapter 35
Drafted by Grok 4.7 on 8 October 2026. First draft. Not independently reviewed. Leningrad Codex, through the Open Scriptures Westminster Leningrad Codex. The written consonants are printed. A Masoretic reading is footnoted when it differs. No Dead Sea reading was substituted unless it was read from a fragment. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions are witnesses, not the default.
1God said to Jacob, “Get up, go up to Bethel and settle there, and make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you were fleeing from Esau your brother.”
2Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your clothes.
3Let us get up and go up to Bethel, and I will make an altar there to the God who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me on the way I have gone.”
4They gave Jacob all the foreign gods that were in their hands, and the rings that were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the terebinth that was near Shechem.
5They set out, and a terror from God fell on the cities around them, so they did not pursue Jacob’s sons.
6Jacob came to Luz, that is Bethel, in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him.
7He built an altar there and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother.
8Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak, and he named it Allon-bacuth.
Notes (1)Hide notes
- Translation
Allon-bacuth means “oak of weeping.”
9God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram, and he blessed him.
10God said to him, “Your name is Jacob. You will no longer be called Jacob. Israel will be your name.” So he named him Israel.
11God said to him, “I am God Shaddai. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation, and a company of nations, will come from you, and kings will come from your body.
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Shaddai is kept as a name. See the glossary.
12The land that I gave to Abraham and to Isaac I give to you, and to your offspring after you I give the land.”
13Then God went up from him at the place where he had spoken with him.
14Jacob set up a standing stone in the place where God had spoken with him, a standing stone of stone, and he poured a drink offering on it and poured oil on it.
15Jacob named the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.
16They set out from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor, and she had hard labor.
17While she was in hardest labor, the midwife said to her, “Do not be afraid, for this one too is a son for you.”
18As her life was leaving her, for she was dying, she named him Ben-oni, but his father named him Benjamin.
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Ben-oni is “son of my sorrow.” Benjamin is “son of the right hand.”
19Rachel died and was buried on the road to Ephrath, that is Bethlehem.
20Jacob set up a standing stone over her grave. It is the standing stone of Rachel’s grave to this day.
21Israel set out and pitched his tent beyond Migdal-eder.
22While Israel was living in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard. The sons of Jacob were twelve.
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Leningrad leaves a pause in this verse after “Israel heard,” before the count of the twelve sons. No words are written in the pause, and none are supplied. Differences of accent on “he lay,” “Bilhah,” “his father,” and “Israel” are not a different sentence.
23The sons of Leah were Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, then Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.
24The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin.
25The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s servant, were Dan and Naphtali.
26The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s servant, were Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram.
27Jacob came to Isaac his father at Mamre, at Kiriath-arba, that is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned.
28The days of Isaac were one hundred and eighty years.
29Isaac breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, old and full of days, and Esau and Jacob his sons buried him.