GroundedNarrativeGenesis 35 (selected)
Back to Bethel
Genesis 35 (selected)narrative
Back to Bethel
The history
Jacob comes back to Bethel, the place of the stairway, decades older, and God confirms the new name there in plain daylight, the blessing the river gave him in the dark now spoken openly. But the homecoming is laced with graves. Rachel dies bearing Benjamin and names him Ben-oni, son of my sorrow, with her last breath; his father quietly renames him son of my right hand. And Isaac dies, buried by both his sons, Esau and Jacob standing together at the grave the way Isaac and Ishmael once stood at Abraham’s. The cycle closes the way it opened, with estranged brothers meeting again over their father’s body.
Sarna · Alter
1Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” 10And God said to him, “Though your name is Jacob, you will no longer be called Jacob. Instead, your name will be Israel.” So God named him Israel. 18And with her last breath—for she was dying—she named him Ben-oni. But his father called him Benjamin. 19So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). 29Then he breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, old and full of years. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.