GENESIS
CHAPTER 35
God sends Jacob to Beth-el, where he builds an altar, and the Lord appears to him—He renews the promise that Jacob shall be a great nation, and that his name shall be Israel—Jacob sets up an altar and pours a drink offering—Rachel bears Benjamin, dies in childbirth, and is buried near Beth-lehem—Reuben sins with Bilhah—Isaac dies and is buried by Jacob and Esau.
1 AND God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up [ When we go up we are going to higher ground; a position of power in battle. the temple is on higher ground, and the temple gives us a higher power to fight temptation. ] to Beth-el, ["House of God".] and dwell there: [ Jacob gets the command from God to move from Shechem southward to the sacred spot of ground where he was first taken some 20 years ago when he left the first time too get away from Esau. ] and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.
2 Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods [ Anything that you are worshiping that is not the true God. Remember Rachel took some of them from her father when they left. Jacob's servants were all Syrians, and no doubt were addicted less or more to idolatry and superstition. ] that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments: [ Put on good and clean clothes - change your state. Same as we do when we go to the temple today. Jacob is getting his family to make preparations to enter this holy ground called "Beth-el". Garments symbolize character. ]
3 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.
4 And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; [ Either they were worshipping them so to speak or the may have had engravings in them which were pagan in nature. They got rid of them nonetheless. ] and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.
5 And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.
6 ¶ So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Beth-el, he and all the people that were with him.
7 And he built there an altar, and called the place El-beth-el: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother.
8 But Deborah Rebekah’s nurse [ Deborah was Rebekah's wet nurse- i.e. the one who fed and nourished Jacob. So she is equated with not only the nourishing the house of Israel, but sits at the roots of the oak tree. ] died, and she was buried beneath Beth-el under an oak: [ Symbolic of the Tree of Abraham, she is considered the source of life. ] and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth. [ "The oak of weeping,". ]
9 ¶ And God appeared unto Jacob again, [ He appeared to him first at Shechem, when he commanded him to go to Bethel, and now that he is arrived at the place, God appears to him the second time, and confirms to him the Abrahamic blessing. ] when he came out of Padan-aram, and blessed him.
10 And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel [ God tells Jacob I am going to give you a new name. Jacob's name is changed by God from Jacob to Israel. Israel means "God contends". ] shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.
11 And God said unto him, [ Jacob. ] I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation [ (gdy) more than just posterity, here he refers to Jacob's covenant being one of a whole nation. A nation differs from other promises like land which are geographical in nature. A nation can combine more than one geographical region. Britian for example is in England as well as the Caribbean... He essentially gives him the blessings that he gave to Abraham and Issac your father. ] and a company of nations [ (qe halgdyim) more than one - many nations would come out of him. ] shall be of thee, and kings [ Kings in the since of leaders of the nations, Kings in the sense of Christ as the King of the world ( Abraham -> Isaac -> Jacob -> Judah -> Jesse -> David -> Mary also Joseph was of the same lineage. ), Kings in the sense that those endowed are endowed to become kings and queens. ] shall come out of thy loins;
12 And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.
14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon.
15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Beth-el. [ "el" in hebrew means "more Godly", "beth" = house so House of God, or Temple. ]
16 ¶ And they journeyed from Beth-el; [ Bethel = "house of God"; (Strong's #1008) Beyth-' El- ] ; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel [ Means "ewe" female sheep. Rachel means 'Little Ewe' or Lamb; Ewe of course is female and the female lamb was used for the peace-offerings . He became our peace offering with the Father. ] travailed, and she had hard labour. [ Rachel has had problems in getting pregnant, now it follows into child brith. None of it was easy for her. ]
17 And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also. [ Could the midwife tell already that she would have the son but would loose her life in the process? ]
18 And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, [ Interesting way of expression of death; not the end but just a change of place. ] (for she died) [ In time, Rachel had conceived again. As they were traveling from Beth-el in the north to Bethlehem in the south, Rachel went into labor and experienced a fatal complication. Scriptures indicate that it was a particularly hard labor. She endured severe pain. The midwife announced that the baby was a boy and asked for a name. Rachel must have been buried somewhere south of Bethel, on the road to Hebron (Gen 35:16,19). Bethel was ten miles north of Jerusalem, and Bethlehem was about six miles south of Jerusalem. It is usually concluded that Rachel was buried in the immediate vicinity of Bethlehem. The traditional site is still pointed out to visitors to that city. ] that she called his name Ben-oni: [ Means "son of pain" or son of my sorrow. ] but his father called him Benjamin. [ Rachel died giving birth to her second son and was buried just north of Bethlehem. Jacob was grief-stricken. I suppose he could not bear the thought of being reminded of the death of his beloved Rachel every time the name of the child was mentioned. So Jacob changed the name to Benjamin, which means “son of my right hand”. Means son of the right hand - the right hand is the seat of power; so the son of the right hand is the son of power. Remember Rachel was the wife at the right hand. ]
19 And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Beth-lehem. [ See Micah 5:2 as this is the place also referenced as the birthplace of the Messiah. ]
20 And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave unto this day. [ Rachel’s Tomb, located in the northern outskirts of Bethlehem, about 400 yards south of Jerusalem still stands today. ]
21 ¶ And Israel [ Jacob - since his name is now changed. Verse 10. ] journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar. [ In Hebrew, the term “tower of Edar” is "Migdal Edar" (mig-dawl ay-der) and the literal meaning of this title is “tower of the flock.” See Micah 4:8; Luke 2:8 The tower was build centuries before as a place for the guards to watch over the valley for anyone trying to attack Jeruselem. Jacob pitched his tent on the other side of Migdal Eder. Migdal Eder (flock-tower) was a watch-tower built for the protection of flocks against robbers or animals or any thing that could cause a blemish (2 Kings 18:8; 2 Chr. 26:10; 27:4) on the other side of Bethlehem, but hardly within 1000 paces of the town, where it has been placed by tradition since the time of Jerome. Edersheim(Alfred Edersheim’s The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah.), Targum Pseudo-Jonathan refers to this same pillar or tower as the Tower of the Flock (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 35:21); eder (H5739) means flock or herd. Probably Jacob named it so, because the name Rachel means ewe, which is a lamb or sheep (H7354 – same as H7353)[2]. The tower, according to the Scriptures, would be the name of the Lord (Proverbs 18:10). Moreover, this tower, which Jacob built, is mentioned again in Micah 4:8 and points to the Messiah. ]
22 And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine: and Israel heard it. [ The inclusion of the brief account of Reuben’s immorality in the historical account may seem unusual, but it explains why Reuben, the firstborn of Leah, forfeited the birthright. You can't sleep with your half brothers mom and get away with it - like Dad is not going to like that at all. Since Rachel was the second wife, her firstborn would then by right inherit the forfeited blessing. Joseph thus was the next legal heir in line, even though he was the eleventh son born. (1 Chronicles 5:1–3 specifically ties Reuben’s loss of the birthright to his transgression and shows how it went to Joseph.) The firstborn sons of the handmaids, Bilhah and Zilpah, would not be considered since they were the property of their mistresses and their children were also technically considered Rachel’s and Leah’s property. Old Testament Student Manual. Reuben was the first born son, and you can’t get away from that. But Joseph, even though he’s number eleven, is the birthright son and Joseph is the birthright son. Because the order goes from the first born of the first wife to the first born of the second wife. It’s the one that opens the matrix, the one that opens the womb. ] Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:
23 The sons of Leah; [ The children are arranged under their respective mothers, and not in order of their birth. ] Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun:
26 And the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid; Gad, and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padan-aram.