Genesis 35

God commands Jacob to go to Bethel (vs. 1-5)—Because of what happened in chapter 34, Jacob was fearful that the peoples of the area would gather together and attack him (34:30). The Lord solves the problem by commanding Jacob to go to Bethel and by putting “the terror of God…upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob” (v. 5). Jacob orders his household—that would be servants and all—to “put away the foreign gods that are among you” (v. 2). It’s a little surprising he hadn’t done so earlier, but it might have been because of his own wife. Remember that Rachel had stolen her father’s idols (Genesis 31:19), perhaps because she still believed in them; it was the environment in which she was raised. Well, regardless, Jacob wasn’t going to tolerate it any more.

Jacob at Bethel (vs. 6-15)—The patriarch did as ordered, went to Bethel, and built an altar to God. Bethel was the location where Jacob had his famous dream when he fled from Esau; it was here that God first appeared to him and gave him the promise He had given Abraham and Isaac (Gen. 28:10-22). The Lord briefly repeats the promise here (vs. 11-12). An interesting and peculiar sidelight in this section: verse 8 records the death of Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse. Rebekah’s death is nowhere recorded, but that of her nurse is. I have no idea why. Something to ask the Lord about in heaven.

The death of Rachel (vs. 16-20)—Jacob and his entourage then left Bethel, but sadness strikes. Rachel gives birth to the final son, Benjamin, but she dies in the process. She was buried “on the way to Ephrath, (that is, Bethlehem)” (v. 19), but how near to that city, we aren’t told.  Bethlehem, which still exists today, is a very ancient city, at least 4,000 years old.

The list of Jacob’s sons (vs. 21-26)—Jacob “pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder” (v. 21), which is supposed to be near Bethlehem, and a tradition has it that it’s the location where the angels appeared to the shepherds announcing Christ’s birth. To show further the debauchery of Jacob’s sons, “Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine; and Israel heard about it” (v. 22), but we don’t know what Jacob—or, remember his name is also Israel—did about “it.” Apparently, nothing. Verses 23-26 lists his sons, according to their mothers.

The death of Isaac (vs. 27-29)—At some point after that, Jacob moves on to Mamre, where his father Isaac lived. And at some point after that, Isaac died. No chronological data is given here, but these events were doubtless fairly close together. Israel comforts his father in his declining days. Isaac lived 180 years, and was buried by his two sons, Esau and Jacob. Moses doesn’t say where.