Outline
God commands Jacob to go to Beth-el, He puts away idols from his family. (Verse 1-5.)
Jacob builds an altar, Death of Deborah, God blesses Jacob. (Verse 6-15.)
Death of Rachel. (Verse 16-20.)
Reuben’s crime, The death of Isaac. (Verse 21-29.)
1 And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.
[Gen 27:43]
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:
[1st Sam 7:3, Exod 19:10]
3 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.
[Gen 32:7, Psa 107:6]
4 And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.
[Josh 24:26]
5 And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.
[Genesis 35:5, Exod 15:16, Exod 23:27, Deut 11:25, Josh 2:9, Josh 5:1, 1st Sam 14:15, 2nd Chron 14:14]
6 So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him.
[Gen 25:15]
7 And he built there an altar, and called the place Elbethel: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother.
[Elbethel = another name for Bethel]
8 But Deborah Rebekah’s nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth.
[Gen 24:59]
[Allonbachuth = oak of weeping]
9 And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him.
10 And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.
[Hosea 12:5]
[Israel = have power with God]
11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;
[Gen 17:1, Gen 48:3, Exod 6:3, Gen 48:4]
12 And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.
13 And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him.
14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon.
[Gen 28:18, Gen 31:13]
15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel.
[Ephrath = fruitfulness, another name for Bethlehem]
16 And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour.
17 And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also.
18 And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.
[“Benoni” means “son or my sorrow” and “Benjamin” means “son of my right hand” ]
Note that at death the soul departs from the body; some groups such as the Seventh Day Adventists, the Jehovah’s Witnesses and others believe in “soul sleep” – that upon death you simply go into the grave and await the resurrection – such people usually pull two or three verses such as Eccl. 9:5 out of context in an attempt to prove their point; however, we know from (I Thess. 5:23) you are composed of three parts (body, soul and spirit). Upon death, it is obvious from Gen. 35:18 that the soul leaves the body. In Luke 16:19-31 Jesus gave the account of two men who died and they were certainly not asleep in any grave awaiting the resurrection – there is not even the slightest indication that this account from Luke was a parable – if it was, then it was the only untrue, unfactual parable Jesus ever gave. The sum of the matter is that upon death, a person’s body is buried or burned, but their soul and spirit leave their body; since the resurrection of Christ, if they are saved they go where Christ is (ie. heaven ); if they are unsaved, they await the resurrection. and final judgment in hell (Luke 16:19:31; Rev. 20:13). – Study Questions
What does James 2:26 say is also missing from your body at death?
What does II Cor. 5:8 say about death?
19 And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.
[Gen 48:7, Ruth 1:2, Ruth 4:11, Micah 5:2]
20 And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave unto this day.
[1st Samuel 10:2]
this pillar was still a well-known landmark 700 years later
21 And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar.
22 And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine: and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:
[Gen 49:4, 1st Chron 5:1, Gen 30:4]
this act of fornication cost Reuben his birthright
23 The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun:
[Gen 46:8, Exod 1:2]
24 The sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin:
25 And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali:
26 And the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid; Gad, and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padanaram.
27 And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned.
[Gen 13:18, Joshua 14:15]
28 And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years.
“hundred and fourscore years” = 180 years
29 And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
[Gen 25:8, Gen 49:33, Acts 13:36]
Isaac was buried in the cave of Macpela along with his wife and his parents Abraham and Sarah.
Commentary by Matthew Henry, 1710.
Verse 1-5 – Beth-el was forgotten. But as many as God loves, he will remind of neglected duties, one way or other, by conscience or by providences. When we have vowed a vow to God, it is best not to defer the payment of it; yet better late than never. Jacob commanded his household to prepare, not only for the journey and removal, but for religious services. Masters of families should use their authority to keep up religion in their families, Joshua 24:15. They must put away strange gods. In families where there is a face of religion, and an altar to God, yet many times there is much amiss, and more strange gods than one would suppose. They must be clean, and change their garments. These were but outward ceremonies, signifying the purifying and change of the heart. What are clean clothes, and new clothes, without a clean heart, and a new heart? If Jacob had called for these idols sooner, they had parted with them sooner. Sometimes attempts for reformation succeed better than we could have thought. Jacob buried their images. We must be wholly separated from our sins, as we are from those that are dead and buried out of sight. He removed from Shechem to Beth-el. Though the Canaanites were very angry against the sons of Jacob for their barbarous usage of the Shechemites, yet they were so kept back by Divine power, that they could not take the opportunity now offered to avenge them. The way of duty is the way of safety. When we are about God’s work, we are under special protection; God is with us, while we are with him; and if He be for us, who can be against us? God governs the world more by secret terrors on men’s minds than we are aware of.
Verse 6-15 – The comfort the saints have in holy ordinances, is not so much from Beth-el, the house of God, as from El-beth-el, the God of the house. The ordinances are empty things, if we do not meet with God in them. There Jacob buried Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse. She died much lamented. Old servants in a family, that have in their time been faithful and useful, ought to be respected. God appeared to Jacob. He renewed the covenant with him. I am God Almighty, God all-sufficient, able to make good the promise in due time, and to support thee and provide for thee in the mean time. Two things are promised; that he should be the father of a great nation, and that he should be the master of a good land. These two promises had a spiritual signification, which Jacob had some notion of, though not so clear and distinct as we now have. 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.
Verse 16-20 – Rachel had passionately said, Give me children, or else I die; and now that she had children, she died! The death of the body is but the departure of the soul to the world of spirits. When shall we learn that it is God alone who really knows what is best for his people, and that in all worldly affairs the safest path for the Christian is to say from the heart, It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good. Here alone is our safety and our comfort, to know no will but his. Her dying lips called her newborn son Ben-oni, the son of my sorrow; and many a son proves to be the heaviness of her that bare him. Children are enough the sorrow of their mothers; they should, therefore, when they grow up, study to be their joy, and so, if possible, to make them some amends. But Jacob, because he would not renew the sorrowful remembrance of the mother’s death every time he called his son, changed his name to Benjamin, the son of my right hand: that is, very dear to me; the support of my age, like the staff in my right hand.
Verse 21-29 – What a sore affliction Reuben’s sin was, is shown, ” and Israel heard it.” No more is said, but that is enough. Reuben thought that his father would never hear of it; but those that promise themselves secrecy in sin, are generally disappointed. The age and death of Isaac are recorded, though he died not till after Joseph was sold into Egypt. Isaac lived about forty years after he had made his will, chap. 27:2. We shall not die an hour the sooner, but much the better, for timely setting our hearts and houses in order. Particular notice is taken of the agreement of Esau and Jacob at their father’s funeral, to show how God had wonderfully changed Esau’s mind. It is awful to behold relations, sometimes for a little of this world’s goods, disputing over the graves of their friends, while they are near going to the grave themselves.