The History of Jacob, Part Seven

(Genesis 35:01 - 35:22)

Jehovah told Jacob, "Move on to Bethel, make your home there, and build an altar to the god who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau."

Jacob called together his household and his followers and told them, "Get rid of all your foreign idols, purify yourselves, bathe, and put on fresh clothes.  We are going to leave here and move to Bethel.  There I will erect an altar to Jehovah, who helped me when I was in need and has been at my side through all my journeys."

They turned over to Jacob all the foreign idols that were in their possession and as well as the earrings they wore so that Jacob could bury them in the shade of an old oak tree outside of Shechem.

As they embarked upon their journey, no one dared pursue them for the neighboring cities were terrified of the power of Jacob's god.  Jacob and his people arrived at the town of Luz in Canaan, which he had formerly named Bethel.  There he built an altar and called it El-Bethel, for that was where Jehovah had appeared to him when he fled from his brother.

At that time Deborah, who had been Rebecca's nurse, passed away, and she was buried underneath an oak tree in Bethel, the name of which was Allonbachuth [meaning oak of weeping].

Jehovah made an appearance before Jacob, after his return from Aram, and blessed him.  He told him, "You shall no longer be called 'Jacob', but 'Israel'."  And so Jacob changed his name to "Israel".  Jehovah also said to him, "I am the omnipotent God.  Be prolific and multiply!  Nations and kingdoms will arise from your descendants and the land that I bestowed upon Abraham and Isaac, I bequeath to you and, after you, your progeny."

Jehovah ascended from the place where he had spoken to Jacob.  In this spot, where he had communed with his god,  Jacob erected a stone pillar and poured over it, as a sacred offering, wine and oil.  He called the place Bethel [meaning "house of god"]. 

Jacob's party departed from Bethel.  In the early summer, when they were but a half day's journey from Ephrath, Rachel began to experience the pangs of childbirth and, while in difficult and painful labor, was in peril of losing her baby.  Aware of this, her midwife assured her, "Don't be afraid, my lady, you will give birth to another son!"  She was indeed delivered of a son, but died in childbirth.  With her last breath, she named her child "Benoni" [meaning "son of my suffering"]. His father, however, called him Benjamin [meaning "son of the right hand"].

Rachel was buried along the road to Ephrath at a place called Bethlehem.  Jacob erected a tombstone upon her grave, a monument which stands to this day.  Leaving that land, the people of Israel made their camp just south of the Tower of Eder [meaning "the flock"].

While they were living there, Reuben had sex with his father's concubine Bilhah -- something that aroused Israel's ire when he became aware of it.

Notes
1.  It seems amazing that Jacob's household, servants, perhaps family possessed idols and were not faithful to the worship of Jehovah.  One wonders whether or not they believed in Jehovah's existence, regarded him as a god worth worshiping, or whether they merely could not resist the temptation to worship other gods and shunned the idea of religious exclusivity.  Taking a bath and having a change of clothes before a journey was a common ritual.  The disposal of earrings goes along with the giving up of the idols.  Did earrings signify something, were they charms or amulets, or is the prohibition against them merely a condemnation of personal vanity?

2.  Jacob's homicidal sons were apparently going to get off scot-free and receive no punishment for the massacre at Shechem.  Since the town was depopulated and the entire wealth of it carried away, one wonders what would happen to it.  It is implied that retaliations against Jacob's crew were considered by neighboring towns, which begged off for fear of Jacob's otherworldly protection.  (Sodom and Gomorrah was not so distantly in the past.)

3.  Jehovah is now calling himself God, the omnipotent God, something more than a mere superhuman patron of the Abraham family, even though his interests still seem very parochial,  the advancement of a single, patently unworthy family.  After Jehovah concludes his meeting with Jacob, he departs, leaving in an upward direction -- as far as can be made out from the text.  The exact manner in which he leaves is, alas, not recorded.  He doesn't disappear, he doesn't walk away.  Does he fly into the sky, levitate, or depart in an aerial vehicle?  One would really like to know!

4.  Jacob and his forbears are constantly erecting altars and setting up monumental pillars at sites where they had seen or spoken to Jehovah.  It would be natural to assume that these places were special, sacred even.  The places need to be marked and the encounters commemorated.

5.  Rachel is buried at a wide place in the road called Bethlehem.  This would become important later on!  Jacob does not honor her last wish and call their son "Benoni", but insists on naming the son himself, choosing "Benjamin".

6.  The Tower of Eder referred to has never been definitively located, but it was probably a few miles south of Jerusalem, as was Ephrath and Bethlehem.

7.  Reuben takes up with his father's concubine (or lesser wife)  Bilhah, who is also his step-mother.  (One would think she'd be a little old for him.)  His father Jacob (now Israel) knows all about it, and is naturally angry, although, it should be mentioned, the original Hebrew text emits this detail.