Genesischapter 35
29 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Genesis Overview.
This chapter was written for a people who would one day be called to put away foreign gods of their own. It completes the long road home that began when Jacob left with a vow on his lips. God calls him back to the place of that vow, and the household has to prepare. Listen for the things that are finished here, a promise kept, a name confirmed and a generation ending. There is joy and grief in it, a birth and three burials. By its end the twelve sons who became Israel's tribes stand named together for the first time.
Context
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, whose own camp had to be purged of foreign gods more than once
- What
- A narrative of Jacob's return to Bethel, God's renewal of the covenant and the name Israel, and the deaths of Deborah, Rachel and Isaac.
- Where
- From Shechem up to Bethel, then south past Ephrath near Bethlehem to the Tower of Eder, ending at Mamre near Hebron.
- When
- The traditional dating places it in the 1900s BC, and Genesis 35:28 records Isaac's death at a hundred and eighty years.
- Why
- To show God keeping His promise to bring Jacob home, and to close Jacob's return with the twelve sons named as the heads of Israel's tribes.
Historical context
The chapter is Jacob's, and he travels in it as the head of a household that has just made itself hated at Shechem.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
The ground runs from Shechem up to Bethel, then south past Ephrath to the Tower of Eder, and ends at Mamre near Hebron.
The occasion is a command to go back to Bethel and build the altar there, and the vow being paid is the one made at Genesis 28:20 to 22, twenty years earlier.
A first hearer understood the purge at verses 2 to 4. The household hands over its foreign gods and its earrings, and earrings in that world were often amulets carrying a god's protection rather than ornament. The three orders, get rid of them, purify yourselves and change your garments, are the preparation Israel is given at Exodus 19:10 before God comes down on the mountain.
He also knew why the move needed protecting. A terror from God falls on the surrounding towns so that they do not pursue, which answers the fear Jacob named at Genesis 34:30 for a clan travelling with flocks and children through hostile country.
Rachel dies in childbirth on the road and Jacob sets a pillar over her grave, the one patriarchal grave outside Machpelah, and the text notes the marker was still standing when Genesis was written. Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, is named here for the first time on the day she dies, which tells a reader she had been in the household since Rebekah left Haran decades earlier.
Significance
The last two tribal fathers arrive in this chapter and the list of the twelve is complete, with Reuben's act against his father's bed recorded flatly three verses before he is still called the firstborn.
Show the rest of the significance, 2 more paragraphs
For Israel, Bethel was the place God confirmed the new name and repeated the promise of the land and of nations to come.
It was also a lesson in order. Going back to the altar meant first throwing away what the household had picked up on the way.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
Rashi binds this chapter to the one before it by a delayed vow. The command to go up to Bethel he reads as a rebuke: "Because you have delayed to fulfil your vow to sacrifice to me at Bethel you have been punished by this trouble of your daughter coming upon you", on Genesis Rabbah 81:2 (Rashi on Genesis 35:1:1, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain). The strange gods the household is told to put away he identifies as the plunder, "which you have in your possession from the spoil of Shechem" (Rashi on Genesis 35:2:1). The second appearance at Bethel he counts against the first, "the second time at this spot: once when he set out on his journey, once when he returned" (Rashi on Genesis 35:9:1), and the new name he reads by its meaning, the old name belonging to a man who comes by stealth and the new one signifying prince and chief (Rashi on Genesis 35:10:1). On the burial of Rebekah's nurse he supplies the missing history, that Rebekah had promised to send for Jacob and "she sent Deborah to him to Padan-aram to tell him to leave that place" (Rashi on Genesis 35:8:1). At Benjamin's birth he hands on the tradition that a twin sister was born with each of Jacob's sons "with each of Jacob's sons a twin-sister was born, whilst with Benjamin an additional twin sister was born", on Genesis Rabbah 82:8 (Rashi on Genesis 35:17:1), and on the list of the sons after Reuben's offence he keeps the title, "even when it speaks of his corrupt action Scripture calls him firstborn", on Genesis Rabbah 82:11 (Rashi on Genesis 35:23:1). Where he has nothing he says so, and on the thirteenth verse he writes, "I do not know what this is intended to tell us". Radak works the place names. He takes the sixth verse to teach that there was a second town called Luz, and the third naming of Bethel as the writer making sure the reader ties the house of God, the monument and the altar to one site (Radak on Genesis 35:6:1 and 35:15:1, translated by Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY). Malbim comments here at 35:3:1 and 35:19:1 and Ibn Ezra at 35:14:1, 35:20:1 and 35:26:1, and the corpus holds no English of either under a licence permitting quotation, so they stand as citations.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, thirty-five of them Midrash and five Talmud. Bereshit Rabbah is cited sixteen times, and its run holds the chapter's turns: 81:1, 81:3 and 84:4 at the going up and the putting away of the gods, 81:4 and 82:1 at the terror that fell on the cities, 81:5 at the burial under the oak, 46:8 and 82:4 and 82:5 at the new name and the blessing, 82:7, 82:8 and 82:9 at Rachel's death and Benjamin's naming, and 73:2 and 74:4 at the list of the sons. Midrash Lekach Tov is cited at Genesis 34:21:1, 35:15:1, 35:24:1 and 35:25:1 and at Deuteronomy 29:12:1, Bereshit Rabbati at Parashat Vayishlach 32, 33 and 58, Bamidbar Rabbah at 4:1, 4:8 and 15:12, and Midrash Aggadah at Genesis 35:6:1 and Leviticus 19:2:3. The five Talmud locators are Jerusalem Talmud Avodah Zarah 5:4:5 at the burying of the gods, Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 7:1:5 at the oak of weeping, Berakhot 12b:28 at the changing of the name, and Avot DeRabbi Natan 41:1 and 25:1 at Israel's journey and at Isaac's death. Rashi hands on further sayings with their locators, among them Genesis Rabbah 81:2, 82:8, 82:9 and 82:11.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Genesis 35:1:1, 35:2:1, 35:4:1, 35:5:1, 35:7:1, 35:8:1, 35:9:1, 35:10:1, 35:11:1, 35:13:1, 35:16:1, 35:17:1, 35:18:1, 35:22:1 and 35:23:1, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain; Radak, Radak on Genesis 35:6:1, 35:12:1, 35:15:1 and 35:21:1, translated by Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY; Malbim, Malbim on Genesis 35:3:1 and 35:19:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus under a licence permitting quotation; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Genesis 35:14:1, 35:20:1 and 35:26:1, cited only; Menachem ben Seruk, the Machbereth, as Rashi cites it at Rashi on Genesis 35:16:1; Midrash, Bereshit Rabbah 46:8, 47:6, 73:2, 74:4, 80:5, 81:1, 81:3, 81:4, 81:5, 82:1, 82:4, 82:5, 82:7, 82:8, 82:9 and 84:4; Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 34:21:1, 35:15:1, 35:24:1 and 35:25:1 and Deuteronomy 29:12:1; Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayishlach 32, 33 and 58; Bamidbar Rabbah 4:1, 4:8 and 15:12; Midrash Aggadah, Genesis 35:6:1 and Leviticus 19:2:3; Devarim Rabbah 2:11; Aggadat Bereshit 40:1 and 69:2; Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 35:14:1; Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 4:17 and Pesakhim 8:8; Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 12b:28; Jerusalem Talmud, Jerusalem Talmud Avodah Zarah 5:4:5, Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 7:1:5; Avot DeRabbi Natan, Avot DeRabbi Natan 25:1 and 41:1.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Bury the Foreign Gods; Go to Bethel
Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you: God sends Jacob back to Bethel, where he had vowed at Genesis 28:20 to 22 that the LORD would be his God and the stone would be God's house. The vow is still unpaid. God names himself here by that night, as the one who appeared when Jacob fled from Esau. Jacob has bought ground at Shechem and built an altar there, and the altar at Bethel is the one he owes.
Genesis 35:1
“Seven or eight years it was now since he came to Canaan; he had purchased ground there, and had built an altar in remembrance of God's last appearance to him when he called him Israel ( ch. xxxiii. 19, 20 ); but still Beth-el is forgotten. Note, Time is apt to wear out the sense of mercies and the impressions made upon us by them; it should not be so, but so it is.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 35:2-4
Rachel had taken her father's household gods at Genesis 31:19, and the household still carries foreign gods. The order runs get rid of them, purify yourselves, change your garments, which is the preparation Israel is given at Exodus 19:10 before God comes down. Clarke reads the earrings they hand over as charms consecrated to a god. Jacob buries the lot under the oak near Shechem.
Genesis 35:2
“After he was called by God, Jacob ascends to Bethel, that is, to the house of God (this is how the name Bethel is interpreted), offers sacrifices to God and is declared chief and master of the holy rites. He teaches his successors and descendants how they must enter the house of God. He orders the foreign gods to be rejected like dung and filth and to change the garments. It is fitting for us to do likewise when we are called before God, or enter the divine temple, especially in the time of the holy baptism.”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · GLAPHYRA ON GENESIS, 5.4patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 35:2
“Put away the strange gods - אלהי הנכר elohey hannechar, the gods of the foreigners, which were among them. Jacob’s servants were all Syrians, and no doubt were addicted less or more to idolatry and superstition.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
who answered me in my day of distress: Jacob's words answer the promise of Genesis 28:15, where God said He would be with him and watch over him wherever he went. The day of distress is the night of Genesis 32:7, when the same root describes his fear of Esau. The promise has held.
Genesis 35:3
“Answered me in the day of my distress - Not only when he fled from the face of his brother, but more particularly when he was in his greatest strait at the brook of Jabbok.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jacob buried them under the oak near Shechem: Abram's first altar in the land stood at the oak of Moreh at Shechem, Genesis 12:6 to 7. At Joshua 24:23 Joshua gives Israel the same order at Shechem, to put away the foreign gods among them. The command returns to the same town.
Genesis 35:4
“And - ear-rings which were in their ears - Whether these rings were in the ears of the gods, or in those of Jacob’s family, we may rest assured that they were not mere ornaments, but served for superstitious purposes. Ear-rings were certainly worn as amulets and charms, first consecrated to some god, or formed under some constellation, on which magical characters and images were drawn. A very ancient and beautiful one of this kind brought from Egypt, cut out of a solid piece of cornelian, now lies before me.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 35:4
“The oak being deemed a consecrated tree, to bury them at its root was to deposit them in a place where no bold hand would venture to disturb the ground; and hence it was called from this circumstance--"the plain of Meonenim"--that is, "the oak of enchantments" (Jud 9:37); and from the great stone which Joshua set up--"the oak of the pillar" (Jud 9:6).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Genesis 35:5-7
a terror from God fell over the surrounding cities: Jacob had said at Genesis 34:30 that he and his household would be destroyed, and a terror from God answers that fear. The surrounding cities do not pursue. He builds the altar he was told to build and calls the place El-bethel, the God of the house of God. The name fastens to the One who met him there.
Genesis 35:5
“And the terror of God was upon the cities - Though the Canaanites were much exasperated against the sons of Jacob for their barbarous usage of the Shechemites; yet they were so restrained by a divine power, that they could not take this fair opportunity to avenge their neighbours quarrel. God governs the world more by secret terrors on men's minds than we are aware of.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 35:5
“Note, The way of duty is the way of safety. While there was sin in Jacob's house, he was afraid of his neighbours; but now that the strange gods were put away, and they were all going together to Bethel, his neighbours were afraid of him.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
everyone with him arrived in Luz: Luz was the Canaanite name of the city, and Genesis 28:19 records that Jacob called the place Bethel, house of God. Judges 1:23 to 26 tells how the house of Joseph took Luz, and a man from it built a second Luz among the Hittites. Luz is the almond of Genesis 30:37.
Genesis 35:6
“So Jacob came to Luz . . . that is, Beth-el--It is probable that this place was unoccupied ground when Jacob first went to it; and that after that period [CALVIN], the Canaanites built a town, to which they gave the name of Luz [Ge 28:19], from the profusion of almond trees that grew around.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
he called that place El-bethel: Revealed Himself is a plural verb in the Hebrew, with God as its subject. Some read the plural as a sign of the persons of the Godhead, and others tie it to the angels Jacob saw at Bethel on the night he fled, at Genesis 28:12. Genesis 20:13 has the same plural.
Genesis 35:7
“As when he made a thankful acknowledgement of the honour God had done him in calling him Israel, he worshipped God by the name of El-elohe-israel, so now he was making a grateful recognition of God's former favour at Beth-el, he worships God by the name of El-beth-el, the God of Beth-el, because there God appeared to him.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 35:7
“El-beth-el - אל בית אל the strong God, the house of the strong God. But the first אל el is wanting in one of De Rossi’s MSS., as it is also in the Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac, and some copies of the Arabic. The sentence reads much better without it, and much more consistent with the parallel passages.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died: Deborah is named here for the first time, on the day she dies. Genesis 24:59 sent Rebekah away with her nurse and gave no name. The oak below Bethel is called Allon-bachuth, the oak of weeping. Rebekah's own death is never reported, and Genesis 49:31 is where a reader learns she was buried at Machpelah.
Genesis 35:8
“Rebekah probably was dead, but her old nurse (of whom mention is made chap. xxiv, 59,) survived her, and Jacob took her to his family. While they were at Beth-el she died, and died lamented, so much lamented, that the oak under which she was buried, was called Allon-bachuth, the oak of weeping.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 35:8
“But Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died - She was sent with Rebekah when taken by Abraham’s servant to be wife to Isaac, Gen 24:59. How she came to be in Jacob’s family, expositors are greatly puzzled to find out; but the text does not state that she was in Jacob’s family.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 35:8
“Deborah (Hebrew, a "bee"), supposing her to have been fifty years on coming to Canaan, had attained the great age of a hundred eighty. When she was removed from Isaac's household to Jacob's, is unknown. But it probably was on his return from Mesopotamia; and she would have been of invaluable service to his young family.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Your Name Shall Be Israel
Genesis 35:9-10
God appeared to him again and blessed him: God appeared to Jacob again and blessed him, after he had returned from Paddan-aram. The name Israel is spoken over him a second time, three chapters after the man at the ford gave it. Jerome takes the first as promise and this as fulfilment. Wesley reads God confirming in person what the angel had said.
Genesis 35:9
“And God appeared unto Jacob again,.... At Bethel, as he had at Shechem, when he bid him go thither, Gen 35:1; or rather as he had at the brook Jabbok, where he said to him the same things as here, Gen 32:24, though Jarchi interprets it of his appearing again to him at the same place at Bethel, where he had appeared to him the first time, at his going to Haran, and now a second time: when he came out of Padanaram; or returned from thence: and blessed him; with the same blessings as before, renewing and confirming them.”
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 35:9
“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. To Isaac and Jacob these frequent appearances of God were necessary, but they were not so to Abraham; for to him one word was sufficient - Abraham believed God.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
you will no longer be called Jacob: After Genesis 17:5 the name Abram drops out of the account, and the name Jacob stays in use. Verse 21 calls him Israel, and verse 22 uses both names. At Genesis 46:2 God Himself calls to him, Jacob, Jacob.
Genesis 35:10
“God now confirmed the change of his name. It was done before by the angel that wrestled with him, chap. xxxii, 28, and here it was ratified by the divine majesty, to encourage him against the fear of the Canaanites.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
ConnectionsGenesis 32:28
Genesis 35:11-12
Isaac had sent him out at Genesis 28:3 with God Almighty's blessing, to be fruitful and multiply, and God now says it to him in person. El Shaddai is the name used in the covenant with Abraham at Genesis 17:1, where a change of name and kings descending stand in the same order. The land goes to Jacob and his descendants, and the family holds a cave in it.
Genesis 35:11
“Two things are promised him which we have met with often before:-- (1.) That he should be the father of a great nation, great in number-- a company of nations shall be of thee (every tribe of Israel was a nation, and all the twelve a company of nations), great in honour and power-- kings shall come out of thy loins.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac: The grant now runs through three names, the land given to Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob. Joseph dies speaking the same three names over the land at Genesis 50:24. Exodus 6:8 carries them to Moses.
Genesis 35:12
“These two promises had a spiritual signification, of which we may suppose Jacob himself had some notion, though not so clear and distinct as we now have; for, without doubt, Christ is the promised seed, and heaven is the promised land; the former is the foundation, and the latter the top-stone, of all God's favours.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 35:13-15
God went up from the place: The same line closes the covenant scene with Abraham at Genesis 17:22. Jacob answers with a pillar, as he had on the night he fled at Genesis 28:18, and this stone takes a drink offering as well as the oil. It is the first drink offering in Scripture. He gives the place the name he had given it twenty years before, so the vow and the paying of it carry one name.
Genesis 35:13
“And God went up from him - This was not a vision, nor a strong mental impression, but a real manifestation of God. Jacob saw and heard him speak, and before his eyes he went up - ascended to heaven. This was no doubt the future Savior, the Angel of the covenant. See Gen 16:7.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
he poured out a drink offering on it: The drink offering is nesek, poured out, the libation later set beside the daily offerings at Numbers 28:7. The pillar is a matsevah, the word Deuteronomy 16:22 uses when it forbids Israel to set one up for worship. His pillar marks where God spoke.
Genesis 35:14
“A drink-offering - נסך nesech, a libation. These were afterwards very common in all countries. At first they consisted probably of water only, afterwards wine was used; see on Lev 7:1 (note), etc. The pillar which Jacob set up was to commemorate the appearance of God to him; the drink-offering and the oil were intended to express his gratitude and devotion to his preserver. It was probably the same pillar which he had set up before, which had since been thrown down, and which he had consecrated afresh to God.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 35:14
“When we ascend to Bethel, that is, to the house of God, we will know the stone, I mean, the elected stone, which was made into a cornerstone, that is, Christ. We will see the one who is anointed by the Father in joy and exultation for all the creatures that live under the sky. As I said, the Son is anointed by God the Father: "Joy of us all, universal exultation" according to the words of the psalmist.”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · GLAPHYRA ON GENESIS, 5.5patristic
Genesis 35:14
“When he was going to Padan-aram, he set up for a pillar that stone on which he had laid his head. This was agreeable enough to his low condition and his hasty flight; but now he took time to erect one more stately, more distinguishable and durable, probably placing that stone in it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
called the place where God had spoken: The name stands for centuries after this day. Jeroboam sets up a golden calf at Bethel at 1 Kings 12:29. Hosea 4:15 calls it Beth-aven, house of wickedness.
Genesis 35:15
“And he confirmed the name he had formerly given to the place, Beth-el, the house of God. Yet this very place afterwards lost the honour of its name, and became Beth-aven, a house of iniquity, for here it was that Jeroboam set up one of his calves. It is impossible for the best men to entail so much as the profession and form of religion upon a place.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Rachel Dies Bearing Benjamin
Genesis 35:16-18
some distance from Ephrath: Rachel had asked God for another son at Genesis 30:24, and Benjamin is that son. Bearing him kills her, and with her last breath she names him Ben-oni, son of sorrow. His father calls him Benjamin, son of the right hand. He is the one child in Genesis whose mother's name for him is overruled by his father.
Genesis 35:16
“There was but a little way to come to Ephrath - The word כברת kibrath, translated here a little way, has greatly perplexed commentators. It occurs only here, in Gen 48:7, and 2Ki 5:19; and it seems to have been some sort of measure applied to land, as we say a mile, an acre, a rood, a perch; but what the exact quantity of the kibrath was cannot be ascertained. Ephrath, called also Bethlehem, and Bethlehem Ephrata, was the birthplace of our blessed Redeemer. See its meaning Mat 2:6 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the midwife said to her: This is the first midwife in Scripture, and midwives return at Genesis 38:28 and Exodus 1:15. Women say nearly the same words to the dying wife of Phinehas at 1 Samuel 4:20. Both mothers die in labor and name the son.
Genesis 35:17
“We are apt in extreme perils to comfort ourselves and our friends with the hopes of a temporal deliverance, in which we may be disappointed; we had better ground our comforts on that which cannot fail us, the hope of eternal life. Rachel had passionately said, Give me children, or else I die; and now she had children (for this was her second) she died.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Her last breath is in Hebrew her nephesh going out, the word for the living being God formed at Genesis 2:7. Benjamin's tribe gives Israel its first king, Saul, at 1 Samuel 9:1 to 2. Paul claims it at Philippians 3:5.
Genesis 35:18
“She called his name Ben-oni--The dying mother gave this name to her child, significant of her circumstances; but Jacob changed his name into Benjamin. This is thought by some to have been originally Benjamin, "a son of days," that is, of old age. But with its present ending it means "son of the right hand," that is, particularly dear and precious.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 35:18
“As her soul was in departing - Is not this a proof that there is an immortal spirit in man, which can exist separate from and independent of the body? Of Rachel’s death it is said, בצאת נפשה betseth naphshah, in the going away of her soul; her body did not go away, therefore her soul and body must have been distinct. If her breath only had been in tended, נשמה neshamah or רוח ruach would have rather been used, as the first means breath, the latter breath or spirit indifferently.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 35:19-20
Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath: The road she dies on runs into Bethlehem, and Micah 5:2 names that town as the place the ruler of Israel comes from. Jacob sets a pillar on the grave, and the verse says it still marks her tomb. Jeremiah 31:15 hears Rachel weeping for her children. Matthew 2:18 puts that line over the children killed at Bethlehem.
Genesis 35:19
“And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. Hence called Bethlehem Ephratah, Mic 5:2; with great pertinency is Rachel represented as if risen from her grave, and weeping for her children, when the children of Bethlehem, and thereabout, were slain by Herod, she being buried so near that place, Mat 2:16; at what age she died is not said. Polyhistor, out of Demetrius (d), reports, that she died after Jacob had lived with her twenty three years. (d) Apnd Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 21. p. 424.”
Jacob set up a pillar on her grave: This is the first grave in Scripture marked with a pillar. At 1 Samuel 10:2 Samuel sends Saul past Rachel's tomb at Zelzah, on the border of Benjamin, as a sign on his road home.
Genesis 35:20
“And Jacob set up a pillar upon her grave - So that it was known long after to be Rachel's sepulchre, 1 Sam. x, 2, and Providence so ordered it, that this place afterwards fell in the lot of Benjamin.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 35:20
“Jacob set a pillar upon her grave - Was not this the origin of funeral monuments? In ancient times, and among rude nations, a heap of stones designated the burial place of the chief; many of these still remain in different countries. Afterwards a rude stone, with a simple inscription, was used, containing only the name of the deceased, and that of his father. But where arts and sciences flourished, superb monuments were erected highly decorated, and pompously inscribed.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 35:21-22
pitched his tent beyond the Tower of Eder: Eder is the tower of the flock, and Micah 4:8 addresses the tower of the flock as the stronghold of the daughter of Zion. Jerome reports that the Hebrews placed this spot where the temple was later built. Reuben then sleeps with his father's concubine Bilhah, and the whole recorded response is that Israel heard about it. Genesis 49:4 tells the firstborn he will not excel.
Genesis 35:21
“Tower of Edar - Literally, the tower of the flock, and so translated Mic 4:8. It is supposed that this tower was about a mile from Bethlehem, and to have been the place where the angels appeared to the shepherds. The Targum of Jonathan expressly says: “It is the place in which the King Messiah shall be manifested in the end of days.” By the tower of the flock we may understand a place built by the shepherds near to some well, for the convenience of watering their flocks, and keeping watch over them by night.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
To take a father's concubine was to claim the father's place, as Absalom did with David's concubines at 2 Samuel 16:22. 1 Chronicles 5:1 records that Reuben lost the birthright over this bed, and it passed to the sons of Joseph. The Hebrew text breaks mid-verse here.
Genesis 35:22
“Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine - Jonathan, in his Targum, says that Reuben only overthrew the bed of Bilhah, which was set up opposite to the bed of his mother Leah, and that this was reputed to him as if he had lain with her.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 35:22
“Though perhaps Bilhah was the greater criminal, yet Reuben's crime was so provoking that for it he lost his birth-right and blessing, chap. xlix, 4. And Israel heard it - No more is said, that is enough; he heard it with the utmost grief and shame, horror and displeasure.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The Twelve Sons; Isaac Buried
Genesis 35:23-26
Reuben the firstborn of Jacob: The twelve are listed together for the first time, grouped by their four mothers. Reuben still carries the title firstborn of Jacob. That stands one verse after verse 22, so the list keeps the rank while the birthright has gone. The closing line says they were born in Paddan-aram, which holds for eleven, since Benjamin was born on the road.
Genesis 35:23
“The sons of Leah,.... Jacob's first wife, which are six, and are reckoned in order, according to their birth, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun.”
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 35:23
“The sons of Leah - The children are arranged under their respective mothers, and not in order of their birth.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 35:23
“2 Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments: 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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin: Rachel bears two sons, and her line becomes three tribes when Jacob adopts Joseph's sons Ephraim and Manasseh at Genesis 48:5. Genesis 37 to 50 turns on these two.
Genesis 35:24
“The sons of Rachel,.... Then Rachel's, Jacob's next wife, though in right his first and only one, who had two children, Joseph and Benjamin.”
maidservant Bilhah were Dan and Naphtali: Bilhah is named here three verses after Reuben's act with her. Dan's tribe drops out of the sealed tribes of Revelation 7:5 to 8. Naphtali's land around Galilee is where Matthew 4:13 to 15 places the ministry of Jesus.
Genesis 35:25
“And the sons of Bilhah,.... Then Bilhah's sons, who was Rachel's handmaid, and these were two, Dan and Naphtali.”
maidservant Zilpah were Gad and Asher: Leah named Gad for good fortune and Asher for happiness at Genesis 30:11 to 13. Gad settles east of the Jordan with Reuben at Numbers 32. Anna the prophetess, who gives thanks over the infant Jesus at Luke 2:36 to 38, is of Asher.
Genesis 35:26
“Sons of Jacob . . . born to him in Padan-aram--It is a common practice of the sacred historian to say of a company or body of men that which, though true of the majority, may not be applicable to every individual. Here is an example, for Benjamin was born in Canaan [Ge 35:16-18].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 35:26
“Born to him in Padan-aram - i.e., all but Benjamin was born in Canaan, Gen 35:16, Gen 35:17. It is well known that Padan-aram is the same as Mesopotamia, and hence the Septuagint translate Μεσοποταμια της Συριας, Mesopotamia of Syria. The word signifies between the two rivers, from μεσος the midst, and ποταμος, a river. It is situated between the Euphrates and Tigris, having Assyria on the east, Arabia Deserta, with Babylonia, on the south, Syria on the west, and Armenia on the north.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 35:27-29
Jacob returned to his father Isaac at Mamre: Jacob reaches his father at Mamre near Hebron, where the cave Abraham bought stands. Genesis records nothing of the meeting, though the last words between these two were a stolen blessing and a brother's threat to kill. Isaac lives 180 years, and Esau and Jacob bury him together. Gill works out that Isaac was alive twelve years after Joseph was sold, so the death is reported here to close the account.
Genesis 35:27
“The city of Arbah, (which is Hebron) - See Gen 23:2. It has been conjectured that Jacob must have paid a visit to his father before this time, as previously to this he had been some years in Canaan; but now, as he was approaching to his end, Jacob is supposed to have gone to live with and comfort him in his declining days.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 35:27
“Probably he did this now upon the death of Rebekah, by which Isaac was left solitary, and not disposed to marry again. The age and death of Isaac are here recorded, though it appears, by computation, that he died not till many years after Joseph was sold into Egypt, and much about the time that he was preferred there.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Isaac lived 180 years: Abraham died at 175 at Genesis 25:7, and Jacob will die at 147 at Genesis 47:28. Isaac lives longest of the three. He had spoken as an old man near death at Genesis 27:2, long before it came.
Genesis 35:28
“And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years. He lived, forty years after he had made his will, and blessed his two sons. Jacob was now one hundred and twenty years of age, being born when his father was sixty; and Joseph was now twenty nine years of age, so that Isaac lived twelve years after the selling of Joseph into Egypt; he was five years older than his father Abraham was when he died.”
was gathered to his people: The same phrase is used of Abraham at Genesis 25:8, who lay in a grave far from his fathers, and it points past burial to the dead joined to their own. Genesis 49:31 places Isaac in the cave at Machpelah beside Rebekah.
Genesis 35:29
“Isaac gave up the ghost - and was gathered unto his people - See Clarke on Gen 25:8 (note). Esau and Jacob buried him - See Gen 25:9. Esau, as we have seen Genesis 33, was thoroughly reconciled to his brother Jacob, and now they both join in fraternal and filial affection to do the last kind office to their amiable father.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: A narrative of return and vow paid, carrying a covenant speech and closing as a register of deaths and of sons, as Henry classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Get rid of them, purify yourselves, change your garments | The order at verse 2 runs in three steps, and it is the preparation Israel is given at Exodus 19:10 before God comes down on the mountain. Adam Clarke reads the earrings handed over with the gods as charms consecrated to them. Jacob buries the lot under the oak near Shechem.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 35:2 to 4. | Genesis 35:2, Genesis 35:4 |
| The pillar set up twice on one spot | Jacob set a stone up as a pillar at Bethel on the night he fled and poured oil on it at Genesis 28:18. He sets a pillar up on the same spot here and pours a drink offering on it as well as oil, which is the first drink offering in Scripture. The vow made at the first pillar is paid at the second.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Genesis 35:13 to 15. | Genesis 35:14, Genesis 35:15 |
| Son of my sorrow, son of the right hand | Rachel names the child with her last breath and Jacob renames him in the same verse, which is the one time in Genesis a father overturns a mother's name. Ben-oni is her word for sorrow and Benjamin is son of the right hand.John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on Genesis 35:16 to 18. | Genesis 35:18 |
| Firstborn, kept as a title after the act that cost it | Reuben lies with his father's concubine at verse 22 and the whole recorded response is that Israel heard about it. Three verses later the list of the twelve opens by calling him the firstborn of Jacob. The rank stands in the list while the birthright has gone, and Genesis 49:4 tells him he will no longer excel.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Genesis 35:23 to 26. | Genesis 35:22, Genesis 35:23 |
The historical value
12 more paragraphs on the patterns
The chapter records the first drink offering in Scripture, poured on the pillar at verse 14 alongside the oil.
It records the burial of household gods and earrings under an oak near Shechem, and Adam Clarke reads the earrings as charms consecrated to a god rather than ornaments. The gods are the teraphim Rachel had taken from her father at Genesis 31:19.
It also fixes the place of Rachel's tomb on the road that runs into Bethlehem, with Jacob's pillar still marking it when Genesis was written.
The debated concept
Why the name Israel is given twice is the chapter's question. It is spoken at the ford in Genesis 32:28 and again here at verse 10. Jerome takes the first as promise and this as fulfilment, so the second is the confirming of what was given in the dark. A second reading treats the two as one giving reported in the two places the book needed it, once at the wrestling and once in the covenant scene that matches Genesis 17. The text supports the first by the wording at verse 10, where God says the name shall be Israel, and supports the second by the shape of the covenant scene around it.
The second question is Reuben at verse 22. Genesis reports the act and then reports only that Israel heard about it, with no speech and no penalty. The account is completed at Genesis 49:4 and at 1 Chronicles 5:1, which says the birthright went to the sons of Joseph because Reuben defiled his father's bed.
The New Testament's use
Matthew 2:18 quotes Jeremiah 31:15, where a voice is heard in Ramah and Rachel is weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, and puts that line over the children killed at Bethlehem. The mother weeping in that verse is the Rachel buried on this road at verse 19.
Micah 5:2 names Bethlehem Ephrathah as the town the ruler of Israel comes from, and verse 19 says the road Rachel died on runs into Ephrath, that is Bethlehem.
Micah 4:8 addresses the tower of the flock as the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, and verse 21 has Jacob pitch his tent beyond the Tower of Eder. Jerome reports that the Hebrews placed that spot where the temple was later built.
The divine connection
The chapter makes one claim in its own voice that the reader can weigh. Jacob had said at Genesis 34:30 that his household would be destroyed if the land united against him, and verse 5 says a terror from God fell over the surrounding cities so that they did not pursue. At the Evidence Standard that is a stated cause rather than an inference, and Genesis gives no other explanation for a small household walking out of Shechem unharmed after what Genesis 34 records.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis, c. 390, on Genesis 35:10; John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis, 1554, on Genesis 35:11 and 12; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Genesis 35:27 to 29 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Genesis 35.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis; John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.