Albert Barnes Commentary Genesis 35:1-29

"And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Beth-el, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, who appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the foreign gods that are among you, and purify yourselves, and change your garments: and let us arise, and go up to Beth-el; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went. And they gave unto Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hand, and the rings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. And they journeyed: and a terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan (the same is Beth-el), he and all the people that were with him. And he built there an altar, and called the place El-beth-el; because there God was revealed unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother. And Deborah Rebekah`s nurse died, and she was buried below Beth-el under the oak: and the name of it was called Allon-bacuth. And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him. And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel. And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; and the land which I gave unto Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land. And God went up from him in the place where he spake with him. And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he spake with him, a pillar of stone: and he poured out a drink-offering thereon, and poured oil thereon. And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Beth-el. And they journeyed from Beth-el; and there was still some distance to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labor. And it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; for now thou shalt have another son. And it came to pass, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-oni: but his father called him Benjamin. And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath (the same is Beth-lehem). And Jacob set up a pillar upon her grave: the same is the Pillar of Rachel`s grave unto this day. And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Eder. And it came to pass, while Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father`s concubine: and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve: The sons of Leah: Reuben, Jacob`s first-born, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun; the sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin; and the sons of Bilhah, Rachel`s handmaid: Dan and Naphtali; and the sons of Zilpah, Leah`s handmaid: Gad and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, that were born to him in Paddan-aram. And Jacob came unto Isaac his father to Mamre, to Kiriath-arba (the same is Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac sojourned. And the days of Isaac were a hundred and fourscore years. And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, old and full of days: and Esau and Jacob his sons buried him." — Genesis 35:1-29 (ASV)

8. דברה deborâh — Deborah, “bee.” בּכוּת אלּון 'alôn-bākût, Allon-bakuth, “oak of weeping.”

16. כברה kibrâh — “length stretch.” A certain but unknown distance, a stadium or furlong (Josephus) a hippodrome (Septuagint) which was somewhat longer, a mile (Kimchi). אפרת 'ephrâth — Ephrath, “fruitful or ashy.”

18. בן־אוני ben-'ônı̂y, Ben-oni, “son of my pain.” בנימין bı̂nyāmı̂yn — Benjamin, “son of the right hand.”

19. לחם בית bēyt-lechem, Beth-lechem, “house of bread.”

21. עדר ‛ěder, Eder, “flock, fold.”

This chapter contains the return of Jacob to his father’s house, and then records the death of Isaac.

(Genesis 35:1–8)

Jacob returns to Bethel. And God said to Jacob. He receives the direction from God. He had now been six years lingering in Sukkoth and Shechem. There may have been some contact between him and his father’s house during this interval. The presence of Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, in his family, is a plain indication of this. But Jacob seems to have turned aside to Shechem, either to visit the spot where Abraham first erected an altar to the Lord, or to seek pasture for his numerous flocks. Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there. In his perplexity and terror the Lord comes to his aid.

He reminds him of his former appearance to him at that place, and directs him to erect an altar there. This was Abraham’s second resting-place in the land. He who had there appeared to Jacob as Yahweh, the God of Abraham and Isaac, is now described as El (God), the Mighty One, probably in allusion to Bethel (house of El), which contains this name, and was at that time applied by Jacob himself to the place. “His house;” his wives and children. “All that were with him;” his male and female servants.

The strange gods, belonging to the stranger or the strange land. These include the teraphim, which Rachel had concealed, and the rings which were worn as amulets or charms. Be clean; cleanse the body, in token of the cleansing of your souls. Change your garments; put on your best attire, befitting the holy occasion. The God, in contradistinction to the strange gods already mentioned. Hid them; buried them. The oak which was by Shechem. This may have been the oak of Moreh, under which Abraham pitched his tent (Genesis 12:6). The terror of God; a dread awakened in their breast by some indication of the divine presence being with Jacob.

The patriarch seems to have retained possession of the land he had purchased and gained by conquest, in this place. His flocks are found there very shortly after this time (Genesis 37:12), he alludes to it, and disposes of it in his interview with Joseph and his sons (Genesis 48:22), and his well is there to this day.

Luz, which is in the land of Canaan. This seems at first sight to suggest that there was a Luz elsewhere, and to have been added by the revising prophet to determine the place here intended. Luz means an almond tree, and may have designated many a place. But the reader of Genesis would have needed no such reminder, as Jacob is clearly in the land of Canaan, going from Shechem to Hebron. It seems rather to call attention again (Genesis 33:18) to the fact that Jacob has returned from Paddan-aram to the land of promise.

The name Luz still recurs, as the almond tree may still be flourishing. And he built there an altar, and called the place El-beth-el. Thus has Jacob obeyed the command of God, and begun the payment of the vow he made twenty-six years before at this place (Genesis 28:20–22). There God revealed himself to him. The verb here נגלוּ niglû is plural in the Masoretic Hebrew, and so it was in the copy of Onkelos. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Septuagint have the singular.

The reading is therefore varied. The original was probably singular, and may have been so even with its present letters. If not, this is one of the few instances in which Elohim is construed grammatically with a plural verb. Deborah dies in the family in which she began life. She is buried under the well-known oak at Bethel. Jacob drops a natural tear of sorrow over the grave of this faithful servant, and for this reason, the oak is called the oak of weeping. It is probable that Rebekah was already dead, since otherwise we should not expect to find Deborah transferred to Jacob’s household. She may not have lived to see her favorite son on his return.

(Genesis 35:9–15)

God appears to Jacob again at Bethel, and renews the promise made to him there (Genesis 28:13–14). Again. The writer here refers to the former meeting of God with Jacob at Bethel, and thereby proves himself aware of the fact, and of the record already made of it. When he went out of Padan-aram. This corroborates the explanation of the clause (Genesis 35:6), which is in the land of Canaan.

Bethel was the last point in this land that was noticed in his flight from Esau. His arrival at the same point indicates that he has now returned from Paddan-aram to the land of Canaan. He called his name Israel. At Bethel he renews the change of name, to indicate that the meetings here were of equal moment in Jacob’s spiritual life with that at Penuel.

It implies also that this life had been declining in the interval between Penuel and Bethel, and had now been revived by the call of God to go to Bethel, and by the interview.

The renewal of the naming aptly expresses this renewal of spiritual life. I am God Almighty. So he proclaimed himself before to Abraham (Genesis 17:1). Be fruitful, and multiply. Abraham and Isaac had each only one son of promise.

But now the time of increase has come. Jacob has been blessed with eleven sons, and at least one daughter. And now he receives the long-promised blessing, be fruitful and multiply. From this time onward the multiplication of Israel is rapid. In twenty-six years after this time he goes down into Egypt with seventy souls, besides the wives of his married descendants, and two hundred and ten years after that Israel goes out of Egypt numbering about one million eight hundred thousand.

A nation and a congregation of nations, such as were then known in the world, had by that date come from him, and kings were to follow in due time. The land, as well as the seed, is again promised.

Jacob now, as was his custom, perpetuates the scene of divine manifestation with a monumental stone. God went up; as he went up from Abraham (Genesis 17:22) after a similar conference with him. He had now spoken to Jacob face to face, as he communed with Abraham. A pillar in the place where he talked with him, a consecrated monument of this second interview, not in a dream as before, but in a waking vision.

On this he pours a drink-offering of wine, and then anoints it with oil. Here, for the first time, we meet with the libation. It is possible there was such an offering when Melchizedek brought forth bread and wine, though it is not recorded. The drink-offering is the complement of the meat-offering, and both are accompaniments of the sacrifice which is offered on the altar. They are in themselves expressive of gratitude and devotion. Wine and oil are used to denote the quickening and sanctifying power of the Spirit of God.

Bethel. We are now familiar with the repetition of the naming of persons and places. This place was already called Bethel by Jacob himself; it is most likely that Abraham applied this name to it: and for all we know, some servant of the true God, under the Noahic covenant, may have originated the name.

(Genesis 17:16–22)

On the journey, Rachel dies at the birth of her second son. A stretch. It was probably a few furlongs. Fear not. The cause for encouragement was that the child was born, and that it was a son. Rachel’s desire and hope expressed at the birth of Joseph were therefore fulfilled (Genesis 30:24).

When her soul was departing. This phrase expresses not annihilation, but merely change of place. It presupposes the perpetual existence of the soul. Ben-oni, son of my pain, is the natural expression of the departing Rachel. Benjamin. The right hand is the seat of power.

The son of the right hand is therefore the child of power. He gave power to his father, as he was his twelfth son, and so completed the number of the holy family. Ephrath and Beth-lehem are names the origin of which is not recorded. The pillar of Rachel’s grave. Jacob loves the monumental stone. Unto this day. This might have been written ten or twenty years after the event, and therefore, before Jacob left Canaan . The grave of Rachel was well known in the time of Samuel (1 Samuel 10:2), and the Kubbet Rahil, dome or tomb of Rachel, stands perhaps on the identical spot, about an English mile north of Bethlehem.

(Genesis 35:21–22)

Eder - The tower of the flock was probably a watch-tower where shepherds guarded their flocks by night. It was a mile (Jerome) or more south of Bethlehem. Here Reuben was guilty of the shameful deed which came to the knowledge of his father, and occasions the allusion in (Genesis 49:4). He was by this act degraded from his position in the holy family. The division of the open parashah in the text here is more in accordance with the sense than that of the verse.

(Genesis 35:22–29)

Jacob’s return and his father’s death. The family of Jacob is now enumerated, because it has been completed by the birth of Benjamin. In Padan-aram. This applies to all of them but Benjamin; an exception which the reader of the context can make for himself.

Jacob at length arrives with his whole establishment at Hebron, the third notable station occupied by Abraham in the land (Genesis 13:1). Here also his father dwelt. The life of Isaac is now closed. Joseph must have been, at the time of Jacob’s return, in his thirteenth year, and therefore, his father in his hundred and fourth. Isaac was consequently in his hundred and sixty-third year. He survived the return of Jacob to Hebron about seventeen years, and the sale of Joseph his grandson about thirteen.

Esau and Jacob his sons buried him. From this, we learn that Esau and Jacob continued to be on brotherly terms from the day of their meeting at the ford of Jabbok.

This chapter closes the ninth of the pieces or documents marked off by the phrase these are the generations. Its opening event was the birth of Isaac (Genesis 25:19), which took place in the hundredth year of Abraham, and therefore, seventy-five years before his death recorded in the seventh document.

As the seventh is presented as the generations of Terah (Genesis 11:27) and relates to Abraham who was his offspring, so the present document, containing the generations of Isaac, refers chiefly to the sons of Isaac, and especially to Jacob, as the heir of promise.

Isaac as a son learned obedience to his father in that great typical event of his life, in which he was laid on the altar, and figuratively sacrificed in the ram which was his substitute. This was the great significant passage in his life, after which he retires into comparative tranquility.