Genesis 35

God sent Jacob back to Bethel.

Jacob has to tell his household, who have each seen and experienced God’s power first-hand, that they have to get rid of their foreign gods. These people are just stupid! Why did the creator of the entire universe pick them?

Jacob disposes of the gods and off they go to Lulz (Bethel) in Canaan. Bethel is where God spoke to Jacob when he was running from Esau.

God renames Jacob Israel. Bethel is also where He renamed Abram to Abraham. God seems to repeat himself a lot. Oddly, the narrative doesn’t use the new name going forward like it did for Abraham.

Jacob builds yet another altar. His 2nd making it the 3rd altar to God.

Rachel dies in childbirth. As she dies she names her new-born son Ben-Oni, but fuck that, Jacob calls him Benjamin, because who cares about a dying woman’s wish, right? Jacob is again on the move after burying Rachel.

For exactly 2 verses, the narrative calls Jacob Israel. These describe how his son Reuban had sex with “Israel’s” concubine and he heard of it. No other context for this story.

A list of Jacob’s sons is helpful at this point at Gen 35:23-26 .

Finally Jacob heads home to where Abraham and Isaac lived and buried Isaac at the age of 180.