Read the Bible

¹ Then God said to Jacob, "Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother." ² And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments.³ Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone."⁴ So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree which was by Shechem. ⁵ And they journeyed, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.

⁶ So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him.⁷ And he built an altar there and called the place El Bethel, [fn] because there God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother. ⁸ Now Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the terebinth tree. So the name of it was called Allon Bachuth. [fn] ⁹ Then God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Padan Aram, and blessed him.¹⁰ And God said to him, "Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name." So He called his name Israel.¹¹ Also God said to him: "I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body.¹² The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land."¹³ Then God went up from him in the place where He talked with him.¹⁴ 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 poured oil on it.¹⁵ And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Bethel.

¹⁶ Then they journeyed from Bethel. And when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel labored in childbirth, and she had hard labor.¹⁷ Now it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said to her, "Do not fear; you will have this son also."¹⁸ And so it was, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-Oni; [fn] but his father called him Benjamin. [fn] ¹⁹ So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).²⁰ And Jacob set a pillar on her grave, which is the pillar of Rachel's grave to this day.

²¹ Then Israel journeyed and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder.²² And it happened, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine; and Israel heard about it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve: ²³ the sons of Leah were Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, and Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun;²⁴ the sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin;²⁵ the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's maidservant, were Dan and Naphtali;²⁶ and the sons of Zilpah, Leah's maidservant, were Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Padan Aram. ²⁷ Then Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kirjath Arba [fn] (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had dwelt. ²⁸ Now the days of Isaac were one hundred and eighty years.²⁹ So Isaac breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people, being old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.