Genesis 35:1-7

JACOB RECALLED TO BETHEL

"And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, who appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the foreign gods that are among you, and purify yourselves, and change your garments: and let us arise, and go up to Bethel; 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. And they gave unto Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hand, and the rings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. And they journeyed, and a terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan (the same is Bethel), he and all the people that were with him. And he built there an altar, and called the place El-Beth-El; because there God was revealed unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother."

The acute distress of Jacob due to his sons' massacre of the Shechemites had probably sent the patriarch to his knees in prayer. God's answer came in the command to "Go up to Bethel," a thing Jacob had long ago promised to do, but which he had neglected, despite the fact of its being only a day's journey from Shechem. He had just been too busy making money. To go "up" to Bethel was true geographically, for the place was a thousand feet above the lowland of Shechem, but the expression "to go up to" was also true in another way. "The verb go up often described a religious pilgrimage."[6] In Jacob's case both meanings are applicable, for it was indeed a renewal of religious faith on the part of Jacob.

As a preparation for this journey, Jacob demanded and received obedience from his family that they: (1) put away their idols; (2) purified themselves; and (3) changed their clothes. Francisco suggested that this latter requirement might have been the origin "of our custom of wearing `our Sunday best'."[7]

"The foreign gods ..." Included in the idols uncovered here were Laban's which had been stolen by Rachel, a fact unknown by Jacob until this occasion. Josephus tells us that, "As he was therefore purifying his followers, he lighted upon the gods of Laban; (for he did not before know that they were stolen by Rachel)."[8]

The reappearance of idols in possession of the children of Israel is noted in connection with the wilderness wanderings, centuries later (Acts 4:42); and, from this, it has been supposed that some of Jacob's posterity might have recovered some of those "gods" after Jacob buried them. Certainly everyone knew where they were, and, if the gods were made of metal, they would have suffered no great damage in being buried. To avoid such inference, Whitelaw, and others, have supposed that Jacob "destroyed them before burying them."[9]

"And the rings which were in their ears ..." There was nothing innocent about those ear-rings. "These were amulets with idolatrous significance."[10] "They were often covered with allegorical figures and mysterious sentences, supposed to be endowed with talismanic virtue."[11]

"And they journeyed ..." The word here rendered journeyed literally means to "pick up the tent stakes,"[12] and the imperative form of this verb, [~nasa'], is "sometimes printed on the green light of the traffic signals in Israel."[13]

"A terror of God was upon the cities ..." This mantle of God's protection cast about the journeying Israel was all of grace and none of merit, because his evil sons certainly deserved to suffer for their massacre and enslavement of the Shechemites. That God nevertheless protected Israel in this extremity was due to the necessity of it in order not to allow the frustration of the ultimate purpose of making redemption available for all men. It will be recalled that a similar thing fell upon the citizens of Jericho at the approach of the Israelites after the forty years of wandering in the wilderness. The harlot Rahab revealed to the spies of Joshua that, "I know that Jehovah hath given you the land, and that the fear of you is fallen upon us, and that all inhabitants of the land melt away before you" (Joshua 2:9). Again and again, God used this same device in the protection of the Chosen People.

"He built there an altar ... called the name of the place El-Beth-El ..." "This is no double account of the same event. The new name presupposes the first visit."[14] Furthermore, this does not mean that he changed the name of it back to Bethel (Genesis 35:8), the use of Bethel in that verse probably indicating the time of Deborah's death as being prior to this event. In fact, Jacob was "not renaming the place, but he reiterated it for the benefit of his household."[15] The name for God in this passage is plural, just as in earlier chapters. However, it is impossible for the reference here to be understood as "divine angels."[16] It is only another example of "singular-plural polarity in Israel's idea of God."[17] We join many others in finding here intimations of the Triune Godhead revealed in the N.T.