Genesis 35:1-15

1Then God said to Jacob, “Go to Bethel and live there. Make an altar there. I am the God who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.”

2So Jacob said to his family and those who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods which you have, wash yourselves until you are ritually clean, and change your clothes.

3Then let’s 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’ve gone.”

4So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods that they had in their possession as well as the earrings that they had on. Jacob buried these things under the oak tree near Shechem.

5As they moved on, God made the people of the cities that were all around them terrified so that no one pursued them.

6Jacob and all the people who were with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan.

7He built an altar there and called that place El Bethel [God of the House of God]. That’s where God had revealed himself to Jacob when he was fleeing from his brother.

8Rebekah’s nurse Deborah died and was buried under the oak tree outside Bethel. So Jacob called it the Tree of Crying.

9Then God appeared once more to Jacob after he came back from Paddan Aram, and he blessed him.

10God said to him, “Your name is Jacob. You will no longer be called Jacob, but your name will be Israel.” So he named him Israel.

11God also said to him, “I am God Almighty. Be fertile, and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from you.

12I will give you the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac. I will also give this land to your descendants.”

13Then God went up from him at the place where he had spoken with him.

14So 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.

15Jacob named the place where God had spoken with him Bethel [House of God].