A. Bethel, Benjamin's Birth, and Burying Isaac, Gen. 35.
"The connection with the previous chapter can be established in several ways. Jacob's departure from Shechem is conditioned by the fears he expresses in 34:30; verse 5 of the present chapter (p. ? ) is in direct response to them. The idols mentioned in verses 2 and 4 most likely derive largely from the looting of Shechem. The theme of sexual offense is shared by both chapters [Reuben 35:22a, p. ? ], and in both cases Jacob maintains his silence, which is expressed by means of the Hebrew verb שָׁמַע "to hear." In both instances, as is clear from 49:3-7, sons of Jacob [Reuben, Simeon, Levi; p. ? ] forfeit their place in the line of leadership succession. Chapter 34 is dominated by the theme of defilement; this chapter opens with the subject of purification. Finally, both narratives exhibit a consciousness of Israelite distinctiveness. This is expressed through sexual purity and the rite of circumcision in the preceding story and through the renunciation of idolatry in the present one." (Sarna)
A.1. Jacob Returns to Bethel, 35:1-15
35:1-4 Preparing themselves morally to visit God at Bethel
Then God said to Jacob, “Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.” 2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. 3 Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.” 4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem.
After the massacre at Shechem Jacob had felt very unsafe from possible retribution from surrounding Canaanites. He needs to get out of there. But "God's intervention transforms ignominious flight into a dignified pilgrimage to Bethel" (Sarna). God knows that now he needs his faith-batteries recharged, and the best place to do that was Bethel, where he had appeared to Jacob when he was once before running for his life (Gen 28:10-22, p. ? ). Although Bethel is about 1,000 feet higher than Shechem, God also uses the words "go up", because that was the verb one used for making a pilgrimage to a sanctuary. In many ways this trip is an ascent.
When Jacob was last there, he had set up a pillar (maṣṣēḇāh, 28:18, p. ? ) to commemorate the vision. Now he is told, when he has reached the place, to build an altar. Although in a sense both pillars and altars could serve as commemorating devices, an altar (מִזְבֵּחַ) differed from a pillar in that it served for sacrifice (זָבַח). Abraham was always building altars to God in the places where God met him: first at Shechem in Gen 12:7, then between Bethel and Ai in 12:8, then at the oaks of Mamre near Hebron (13:18), and finally on Mt. Moriah where he intended to obey God and sacrifice Isaac (22:9). Isaac too built an altar to God in Beersheba (26:25). Jacob himself had built an altar near Shechem right after he arrived (33:18-20).
Knowing from this instruction that he was going to have to offer a sacrifice to God in Bethel and act in a priestly status, Jacob becomes conscious of the inappropriateness of the idols that his family had. This might have been just Laban's household gods, in which case perhaps they had not been worshiped by Jacob's family while in Canaan. But it is also possible that they were part of the plunder his sons had taken from Shechem, in which case also they may not have been worshiped but were kept for their monetary value. But even to own such items was inappropriate for worshipers of the one true God, who tolerated allegiance to no other god. Mention is made also of the rings in their ears, which may have served as amulets or good luck pieces in pagan society and could also have been part of the plunder from Shechem. These too must go.
Idols could be disposed of in various ways. In v. 4 we learn that Jacob "hid" (or "buried", וַיִּטְמֹ֤ן, Exod 2:12; Deut 33:19; Josh 2:6; 7:21) them under the oak near Shechem. This is probably the oak of Moreh, where Jacob's grandfather Abraham had encamped when he first arrived in Canaan (12:6, p. ? ). Burying the idols insured that they would not be used by others. Centuries later, in the era of Jesus, pious Jews buried worn out Torah scrolls, rather than destroying them.
The rite of purification would certainly have involved immersion in water. And the changing of clothes would signify a change in behavior, since righteous conduct is often described as wearing garments of righteousness, and evil persons as clothed in sin. St. Paul continues the use of this metaphor, when he urges Christians to put off all forms of evil and put on Christ. A change of "garment" is his metaphor.
35:5-8 Safety on the Trip
And as they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. 6 And Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him, 7 and there he built an altar and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother. 8 And Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried under an oak below Bethel. So he called its name Allon-bacuth.
As on his journeys to and from Laban, so too now God provides protection for Jacob and his family as they travel to Bethel. Jacob had feared reprisals from the neighboring cities: now God placed a supernatural terror upon those cities, so that no one dared attack the traveling party. This protection was clearly undeserved, but God in his mercy is protecting Jacob, who is the heir to his promises to Abraham, and Jacob’s 12 sons who will become the nation of Israel.
Bethel was formerly named Luz, and because a former resident from there had migrated north into the land of the Hittites and founded a city by the same name (Judg 1:26), it is necessary for the narrator to remind us that the Luz he mentions here is the southern one, in the land of Canaan.
Another burial now takes place under an oak tree, this time it is an old woman who had nursed Jacob's mother Rebekah. When Rebekah left Laban’s house to go to marry Isaac, her nurse went with her, according to Gen. 24:59. How she came to be back in the company of Jacob and his entourage we are not told. Early Jewish interpreters assumed that Rebekah had sent her along with Jacob, but no mention is made of this, and Jacob claims that he arrived at Laban's alone ("with only my staff," 32:10 [MT 32:11], p. ? ). But obviously Jacob grew up knowing this woman who was so closely tied to his mother. And so the report of her death and burial brings closure to Jacob’s relationship with Rebekah, his mother, who had orchestrated the event that had forced him to flee Canaan. It is interesting that there is no further reference to Rebekah after Jacob fled Canaan in 28:10. Apparently she died while Jacob was in Harran. And so in attending to the burial of Deborah, his mother's wet-nurse, Jacob participates vicariously in the burial of his mother and thus honors her.
35:9-15 God appears to Jacob again at Bethel
The appearance of God to Jacob a second time in vv. 9-15 must have come sometime after he built and consecrated the altar in v. 7.
Question: God had appeared to Jacob in 32:28 and changed his name then. This was on the occasion when Jacob wrestled with God. Why do you think he did this a second time?
Since Jacob’s name had been changed outside the promised land, (32:28) the new name, Israel, needs to be confirmed and validated by God himself in the land of promise.
As in earlier visions, God identifies himself by name. This time he uses the name by which he had reassured Abraham that he would give him a multitude of descendants and changed his name to confirm the promise, El Shaddai (17:1 [p. ? ]; 28:3 [p. ? ]). Here to God reaffirms the name change of Jacob to Israel that was first mentioned after Jacob had persevered in struggling with the angel at Peniel (32:26-28, cf. p. ? ). Abraham, Isaac and Jacob used a number of titles and names for the one God whom they worshiped. Foremost among these was Yahweh. But the patriarchs used other names with equal frequency, and it was only at the time of the exodus from Egypt that the name Yahweh became truly meaningful and its true significance understood by God’s people. Exod. 6:3: “I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai, but my name Yahweh I did not make myself known to them.” This doesn’t mean they did not know the name, but rather that they did not yet know it’s true significance.
What is more important than its precise translation is the fact that this is the same name by which Isaac himself invoked God when he bestowed his blessing upon Jacob in Ch. 28. It was the name he used to describe God in his role of multiplying the offspring of Jacob.
Gen. 28:3 May El-Shaddai bless you and make you fruitful and numerous, that you may become a company of peoples. 4 May he give to you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien—land that God gave to Abraham.”
And it is in this vein that God uses the name for himself as he addresses Jacob here in v. 11:
“I am El-Shaddai: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall spring from you.
God then blesses Jacob in the words of Isaac’s blessing upon Jacob but also uses the same terms of the blessing that he (God) had bestowed upon Abraham at the covenant renewal in chapter 17. There he changed Abram's name to Abraham and said: “I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you.” (same as what God says to Jacob in v. 11). Finally God includes the promise that Jacob and his offspring will at last take possession of the land. This blessing is national in scope. The name change signifies this. Jacob, by becoming Israel is the true heir to the Abrahamic promises, the one through whom the nation of Israel is to come into being.
God's promises to Jacob here, which are also called a "blessing" (v. 9), build upon those given already to Abraham in ch. 17 [p. ? ]. There Abraham was promised his descendants would become a multitude of nations (הֲמֹ֥ון גֹּויִֽם). Here the same is promised to Jacob (v. 11 "a nation and a company of nations [קְהַ֥ל גֹּויִ֖ם]"), with the addition that among them would be a line of kings (מְלָכִ֖ים), which we know began with Saul and David and continued down to the Babylonian captivity.
With the purging of idolatry and the arrival at Bethel, the contacts with Mesopotamia, maintained by each of the patriarchs, are finally and decisively severed. The mention of the death of Deborah thus becomes appropriate here for she was a living symbol of that connection.
A.2. The Birth of Benjamin & Death of Rachel, 35:16-26
35:16-21 Rachel dies giving birth to Benjamin
As they journey south from Bethel Rachel begins to give birth, and in the midst of what was apparently a very difficult labor, her midwife tried to comfort her saying, “Don’t be afraid, for you have another son.” Rachel had expressed her longing for another son when she named her firstborn Joseph, which means “may he add”, and at the time she had said: “May the Lord add to me another son.” (30:24). At last that longing was being fulfilled, but at the cost of her own life. She named her son Ben-Oni, “son of my sorrow.” However, to make sure that his wife’s dying gift to him would be properly honored, Jacob renames him Benjamin, meaning “right-hand son,” or “most honored son”.
Jacob has finally returned to his own country with his beloved wife Rachel. How ironic that at this particular juncture Rachel dies while giving birth to her second son… one she had longed for. She named him “son of my sorrow” (אלון בכות) perhaps thinking of her own sorrow in dying and never seeing him grow up… but also she may have been thinking of Jacob’s sorrow… he would have a son but at the cost of the mother, and so this child would be to him the son of sorrow. Jacob quickly changes the name to “son of my right hand” emphasizing another side of the truth. If he was to be bereft of his beloved Rachel, yet the son born to her would be his comfort and consolation. And we will see how this was borne out later in the Joseph story.
Jacob then buried Rachael beside the road leading to Ephrath, and he set up a pillar at her grave… a pillar set up so soon after that of v. 14. This one was witness to the pain of human existence, while the former pillar was witness to God’s goodness and mercy. Rachel’s tomb became a well-known pilgrimage site down to the end of the monarchy period.
35:22 Reuben sleeps with Bilhah, Jacob's concubine
Why did Reuben commit this odious act with his father’s concubine, Bilhah? Bilhah was Rachael’s maid whom she had given to Jacob as a co-wife during her barren years, and Bilhah bore him 2 sons, Dan and Naphtali. By violating Bilhah Reuben makes sure that she cannot usurp his own mother, Leah’s, position as chief wife now that Rachel is dead. His mother’s sister, Rachel, had always been a rival to Leah in Jacob’s affections. Now he makes sure that the maid of his mother’s sister shall not rival her.
He may also have been prematurely trying to lay claim to an inheritance that would eventually be his anyway as the firstborn son of Jacob, for we know from other biblical stories for a man to come into possession of his father’s concubines implied that he was the heir and rightful successor to his father.
In either case Bilhah was reduced to living widowhood, because she could not be legitimately joined to a man again. When he learns of the the incident, Jacob takes no definitive action, similar to his response to the rape of Dinah. That Jacob was deeply offended by this act and remembered it throughout his life, however, is reflected in his last testament where he takes away Reuben’s legal status as his firstborn (Gen. 49:3-4)
35:23-26 The Current Status of Jacob's Children
With the birth of Benjamin, the family of Jacob is now complete and the biography of Jacob is coming to a close, and so it is appropriate that we are given a list of Jacob’s 12 sons. The sons are listed according to their mothers, not their birth order. The mothers are listed chronologically in the order of their connection with Jacob; first are the 2 wives in order of their seniority, then come the 2 handmaids in reverse.
A.3. The Death of Isaac, 35:27-29
Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had resided as aliens. 28 Now the days of Isaac were one hundred eighty years. 29 And Isaac breathed his last; he died and was gathered to his people, old and full of days; and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
The report of Isaac’s death, which occurred many years after the earlier events of this chapter, is placed here in order to reintroduce Esau and provide a transition to the next chapter. The reunion of Jacob and Esau at their father’s deathbed closes out the long story of their generation: others will now dominate the scene.
As we come to the close of the story of one generation and are about to embark on the story of the next generation, it behooves us to examine our lives and ask ourselves what kind of spiritual legacy are we leaving for the generation that follows us?
Throughout the entire story of Jacob we have seen his deceit, his trickery, his failure with his sons, his fear instead of faith. Yet God showed him his mercy protected him, blessed him with many sons, brought him out of exile, and in this chapter he has called Jacob to himself again.
How many times have we fallen prey to one or another of Jacob’s sins? Where would we be now if it weren’t for God through his spirit calling us back to himself, forgiving us, showing us the way to walk in paths of righteousness? Where would we be it it were not for his promise never to leave us nor forsake us?
As we sang in our anthem this morning:
If thou, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
Lord, who shall stand?
But there is forgiveness with thee
that thou may be feared.
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits
and in his word do I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for morning,
more than watchmen for morning.
Hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord there is steadfast love.
With him is full redemption.
He will redeem us from all our sins.
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