1 God said to Jacob: »Go to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar to God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.«
2 Jacob said to his family and those who were with him: »Get rid of the foreign gods that you have. Wash yourselves until you are ritually clean. Change your clothes.
3 »After that let us go to Bethel. I will make an altar there to God, who answered me when I was troubled and who has been with me wherever I have gone.«
4 So everyone gave Jacob their idols and their earrings. He buried them under the oak big tree near Shechem.
5 Jacob and his family traveled through Canaan. God terrified the people in the towns so much that no one dared bother them.
6 Finally, they reached Bethel, also known as Luz.
7 Jacob built an altar there and called it God of Bethel. That was the place where God appeared to him when he was running from Esau.
8 Deborah died. She was the servant who cared for Rebekah from childhood. She was buried near Bethel, under the holy tree. They named it Allon-bacuth weeping tree.
9 God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram. He blessed him.
10 God said to him: »Your name is Jacob. You shall no longer be called Jacob. Israel shall be your name.« Thus He called him Israel.
11 God also said: »I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and an assembly of nations will come from you. Kings shall come forth from you.
12 »The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you. I will give the land to your descendants after you.«
13 Then God went up from him at the place where he had spoken with him.
14 So Jacob set up a memorial, a stone marker, to mark the place where God had spoken with him. He poured a wine offering and olive oil on it.
15 Jacob named the place where God had spoken with him Bethel House of God.
16 After that they moved from Bethel. When there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel went into labor. She had severe labor pains.
17 When one of her pains hit, the midwife said: »Do not be afraid. You have another son!«
18 Rachel was dying! With her last breath she named her son Ben-oni Son of My Sorrow, but his father named him Benjamin Son of My Right Hand.
19 Rachel died and was buried on the way to Bethlehem Ephrath.
20 Jacob set up a stone as a marker for her grave. The same marker is at Rachels grave today.
21 Israel moved on again. He pitched his tent by the tower of Eder.
22 While Israel lived in that region, Reuben went to bed with his fathers concubine Bilhah. Israel heard about it. Jacob had twelve sons.
23 The sons of Leah were Jacobs firstborn Reuben, then Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.
24 The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin.
25 The sons of Rachels slave Bilhah were Dan and Naphtali.
26 The sons of Leahs slave Zilpah were Gad and Asher. These were Jacobs sons, who were born in Paddan-aram.
27 Jacob came home to his father Isaac, to Mamres city, Kiriath-arba Hebron. Abraham and Isaac had lived there for a while.
28 Isaac was one hundred and eighty years old.
29 Isaac took his last breath and died. He joined his ancestors in death at a very old age. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.