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Genesis 35:15

in Genesis 35

Jacob called the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Beth-el.

KJV

And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Beth–el.

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This verse in Genesis 35

Commentary

5 notes on this verse

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

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.

This site's exposition

God went up from the place

on Genesis 35:13-15

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.

This site's exposition

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.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel. He confirmed the name he had before given it, when he went to Mesopotamia, and now upon his return renews and establishes it; or he gave this name more especially to that particular spot where God conversed with him, and on which he erected a pillar, and consecrated it to religious worship, and so made it God's house, as he promised he would, Gen 28:22, both building an altar for sacrifice, and setting up a pillar, which was beginning an house for God.

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

We may suppose Jacob had soon a tent up, convenient enough for her reception. She had hard labour, harder than usual: this was the effect of sin, ch. iii. Note, Human life begins with sorrow, and the roses of its joy are surrounded with thorns.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

On the verses either side of this one

Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra explained it as meaning: “And Jacob had previously. See above,:18; also Ramban, ibid., Verse. set up a pillar, and now he poured out a drink-offering thereon, and poured oil thereon.” This is correct.
Ramban: Spain, 1194–1270 · Ramban on Genesis 35:14:1, via Sefaria, Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

12 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיִּקְרָ֨אand he called

    vaiyikra'H7121 →733 times

  • יַעֲקֹ֜בJacob

    yaakoH3290 →350 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • שֵׁ֣ם[the] name of

    shemH8034 →864 times

  • הַמָּק֗וֹםthe place

    hamakomH4725 →401 times

  • אֲשֶׁר֩where

    ʾasherH834 →5497 times

  • דִּבֶּ֨רhe had spoken

    diberH1696 →1141 times

  • אִתּ֥וֹwith him

    ʾitoH854 →929 times

  • שָׁ֛םthere

    shamH8033 →834 times

  • אֱלֹהִ֖יםGod

    ʾelohimH430 →2601 times

  • בֵּֽית־Beth-

    beit-H1008 →142 times

  • אֵֽל׃-el

    ʾelH1008 →142 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

3 in all, six open

The walk

5 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Genesis 28:19

    and he called that place Bethel, though previously the city had been named Luz.

    it leads to

    • Genesis 35:1

      Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”

    • Hosea 12:4–5

      Yes, he struggled with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought His favor; he found Him at Bethel and spoke with Him there—

    • Genesis 48:3

      Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there He blessed me

    • Judges 1:22–26

      The house of Joseph also attacked Bethel, and the LORD was with them.

    • 1 Kings 12:29

      One calf he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan.

Where this verse is studied

About Genesis

The Tower of Babel, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1563. Public domain.
The Tower of Babel, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1563. Public domain.
Genesis: the study guide →Read Genesis 35 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Genesis 35 →