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JANUARY 18
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him. So Jacob set up a pillar in the place
where He talked with him, a pillar of stone;
and he poured a drink offering on it, and he
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35:2–4 Put away the foreign gods. Moving poured oil on it. And Jacob called the name of
to Bethel necessitated spiritual preparation the place where God spoke with him, Bethel.
beyond the level of an exercise in logistics. 16 Then they journeyed from Bethel. And
Possession of idolatrous symbols such as fig- when there was but a little distance to go to
urines,amulets,or cultic charms (v.4,“earrings”), Ephrath, Rachel labored in childbirth, and she
including Rachel’s troubling teraphim (31:19), had hard labor. Now it came to pass, when
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was no longer tolerable. Idols buried out of she was in hard labor, that the midwife said to
sight, plus bathing and changing to clean her, “Do not fear; you will have this son also.”
clothes, all served to portray both cleansing 18 And so it was, as her soul was departing (for
from defilement by idolatry and consecration she died), that she called his name Ben-Oni;
of the heart to the Lord. It had been 8 or 10 but his father called him Benjamin. So Ra-
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years since Jacob’s return to Canaan and,
appropriately, time enough to clean up all chel died and was buried on the way to
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traces of idolatry. Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). And Jacob set
a pillar on her grave, which is the pillar of Ra-
chel’s grave to this day.
35:5 the terror of God. A supernaturally
21 Then Israel journeyed and pitched his tent
induced fear of Israel rendered the surrounding
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city-states unwilling and powerless to inter- beyond the tower of Eder. And it happened,
vene and made Jacob’s fear of their retaliation when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben
rather inconsequential (34:30). went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concu-
bine; and Israel heard about it.
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Now the sons of Jacob were twelve: the
and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar sons of Leah were Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn,
there to God, who answered me in the day of and Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and
my distress and has been with me in the way Zebulun; the sons of Rachel were Joseph and
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which I have gone.” So they gave Jacob all the Benjamin; the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maid-
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foreign gods which were in their hands, and servant, were Dan and Naphtali; and the sons
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the earrings which were in their ears; and of Zilpah, Leah’s maidservant, were Gad and
Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree which Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were
was by Shechem. born to him in Padan Aram.
5 And they journeyed, and the terror of God 27 Then Jacob came to his father Isaac at
was upon the cities that were all around them, Mamre, or Kirjath Arba (that is, Hebron),
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and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. So where Abraham and Isaac had dwelt. Now
Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the days of Isaac were one hundred and eighty
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the land of Canaan, he and all the people who years. So Isaac breathed his last and died, and
were with him. And he built an altar there and was gathered to his people, being old and full of
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called the place El Bethel, because there God days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
appeared to him when he fled from the face of Now this is the genealogy of Esau, who
his brother. 36 is Edom. Esau took his wives from the
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8 Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and daughters of Canaan: Adah the daughter of
she was buried below Bethel under the tere- Elon the Hittite; Aholibamah the daughter of
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binth tree. So the name of it was called Allon Anah, the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite; and
Bachuth. Basemath, Ishmael’s daughter, sister of
9 Then God appeared to Jacob again, when Nebajoth. Now Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau,
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he came from Padan Aram, and blessed him. and Basemath bore Reuel. And Aholibamah
10 And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; bore Jeush, Jaalam, and Korah. These were
your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, the sons of Esau who were born to him in the
but Israel shall be your name.” So He called land of Canaan.
his name Israel. Also God said to him: “I am 6 Then Esau took his wives, his sons, his
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God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a daughters, and all the persons of his household,
nation and a company of nations shall proceed his cattle and all his animals, and all his goods
from you, and kings shall come from your which he had gained in the land of Canaan,
body. The land which I gave Abraham and and went to a country away from the presence
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Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants of his brother Jacob. For their possessions
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after you I give this land.” Then God went up were too great for them to dwell together, and
from him in the place where He talked with the land where they were strangers could not
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