Genesis 35

Ge 35:1-15.

REMOVAL TO

BETHEL.

1. God said unto Jacob, Arise, &c.--This command was given

seasonably in point of time and tenderly in respect of language. The

disgraceful and perilous events that had recently taken place in the

patriarch's family must have produced in him a strong desire to remove

without delay from the vicinity of Shechem. Borne down by an

overwhelming sense of the criminality of his two sons--of the offense

they had given to God and the dishonor they had brought on the true

faith; distracted, too, with anxiety about the probable consequences

which their outrage might bring upon himself and family, should the

Canaanite people combine to extirpate such a band of robbers and

murderers; he must have felt this call as affording a great relief to

his afflicted feelings. At the same time it conveyed a tender rebuke.

go up to Beth-el--Beth-el was about thirty miles south of

Shechem and was an ascent from a low to a highland country. There, he

would not only be released from the painful associations of the latter

place but be established on a spot that would revive the most

delightful and sublime recollections. The pleasure of revisiting it,

however, was not altogether unalloyed.

make there an altar unto God, that appeared--It too frequently

happens that early impressions are effaced through lapse of time, that

promises made in seasons of distress, are forgotten; or, if remembered

on the return of health and prosperity, there is not the same alacrity

and sense of obligation felt to fulfil them. Jacob was lying under that

charge. He had fallen into spiritual indolence. It was now eight or ten

years since his return to Canaan. He had effected a comfortable

settlement and had acknowledged the divine mercies, by which that

return and settlement had been signally distinguished (compare

Ge 33:19).

But for some unrecorded reason, his early vow at Beth-el

[Ge 28:20-22],

in a great crisis of his life, remained unperformed. The Lord appeared

now to remind him of his neglected duty, in terms, however, so mild, as

awakened less the memory of his fault, than of the kindness of his

heavenly Guardian; and how much Jacob felt the touching nature of the

appeal to that memorable scene at Beth-el, appears in the immediate

preparations he made to arise and go up thither

(Ps 66:13).

2. Then Jacob said unto his household . . . Put away the

strange gods that are among you--Hebrew, "gods of the

stranger," of foreign nations. Jacob had brought, in his service, a

number of Mesopotamian retainers, who were addicted to superstitious

practices; and there is some reason to fear that the same high

testimony as to the religious superintendence of his household could

not have been borne of him as was done of Abraham

(Ge 18:19).

He might have been too negligent hitherto in winking at these evils in

his servants; or, perhaps, it was not till his arrival in Canaan, that

he had learnt, for the first time, that one nearer and dearer to him

was secretly infected with the same corruption

(Ge 31:34).

Be that as it may, he resolved on an immediate and thorough reformation

of his household; and in commanding them to put away the strange gods,

he added,

be clean, and change your garments--as if some defilement, from

contact with idolatry, should still remain about them. In the law of

Moses, many ceremonial purifications were ordained and observed by

persons who had contracted certain defilements, and without the

observance of which, they were reckoned unclean and unfit to join in

the social worship of God. These bodily purifications were purely

figurative; and as sacrifices were offered before the law, so also were

external purifications, as appears from the words of Jacob; hence it

would seem that types and symbols were used from the fall of man,

representing and teaching the two great doctrines of revealed

truth--namely, the atonement of Christ and the sanctification of our

nature.

4. they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods . . . and

earrings--Strange gods, the "seraphim" (compare

Ge 31:30),

as well, perhaps, as other idols acquired among the Shechemite

spoil--earrings of various forms, sizes, and materials, which are

universally worn in the East, and, then as now, connected with

incantation and idolatry (compare

Ho 2:13).

The decided tone which Jacob now assumed was the probable cause of the

alacrity with which those favorite objects of superstition were

surrendered.

Jacob hid them under the oak--or terebinth--a towering tree,

which, like all others of the kind, was a striking object in the

scenery of Palestine; and beneath which, at Shechem, the patriarch had

pitched his tent. He hid the images and amulets, delivered to him by

his Mesopotamian dependents, at the root of this tree. 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).

5. the terror of God was upon the cities--There was every reason

to apprehend that a storm of indignation would burst from all quarters

upon Jacob's family, and that the Canaanite tribes would have formed

one united plan of revenge. But a supernatural panic seized them; and

thus, for the sake of the "heir of the promise," the protecting shield

of Providence was specially held over his family.

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. The name of

Beth-el, which would, of course, be confined to Jacob and his family,

did not supersede the original one, till long after. It is now

identified with the modern Beitin and lies on the western slope of the

mountain on which Abraham built his altar

(Ge 12:8).

7. El-Beth-el--that is, "the God of Beth-el."

8. Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died--This event seems to have

taken place before the solemnities were commenced. 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. Old nurses, like her, were not

only honored, but loved as mothers; and, accordingly, her death was the

occasion of great lamentation. She was buried under the

oak--hence called "the terebinth of tears" (compare

1Ki 13:14).

God was pleased to make a new appearance to him after the solemn rites

of devotion were over. By this manifestation of His presence, God

testified His acceptance of Jacob's sacrifice and renewed the promise

of the blessings guaranteed to Abraham and Isaac

[Ge 35:11, 12];

and the patriarch observed the ceremony with which he had formerly

consecrated the place, comprising a sacramental cup, along with the oil

that he poured on the pillar, and reimposing the memorable name

[Ge 35:14].

The whole scene was in accordance with the character of the patriarchal

dispensation, in which the great truths of religion were exhibited to

the senses, and "the world's grey fathers" taught in a manner suited to

the weakness of an infantile condition.

13. God went up from him--The presence of God was indicated in

some visible form and His acceptance of the sacrifice shown by the

miraculous descent of fire from heaven, consuming it on the altar.

Ge 35:16-27.

BIRTH OF

BENJAMIN--DEATH OF

RACHEL, &c.

16. And they journeyed from Beth-el--There can be no doubt that

much enjoyment was experienced at Beth-el, and that in the religious

observances solemnized, as well as in the vivid recollections of the

glorious vision seen there, the affections of the patriarch were

powerfully animated and that he left the place a better and more

devoted servant of God. When the solemnities were over, Jacob, with his

family, pursued a route directly southward, and they reached Ephrath,

when they were plunged into mourning by the death of Rachel, who sank

in childbirth, leaving a posthumous son

[Ge 35:18].

A very affecting death, considering how ardently the mind of Rachel had

been set on offspring (compare

Ge 30:1).

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.

19. Ephrath, which is Beth-lehem--The one, the old name; the

other, the later name, signifying "house of bread."

20. and Jacob set a pillar on her grave . . . unto this

day--The spot still marked out as the grave of Rachel exactly

agrees with the Scriptural record, being about a mile from Beth-lehem.

Anciently it was surmounted by a pyramid of stones, but the present

tomb is a Mohammedan erection.

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. (See

Mt 19:28;

Joh 20:24;

Heb 11:13).

Here is an example, for Benjamin was born in Canaan

[Ge 35:16-18].

Ge 35:28, 29.

DEATH OF

ISAAC.

29. Isaac gave up the ghost--The death of this venerable

patriarch is here recorded by anticipation for it did not take place

till fifteen years after Joseph's disappearance. Feeble and blind

though he was, he lived to a very advanced age; and it is a pleasing

evidence of the permanent reconciliation between Esau and Jacob that

they met at Mamre to perform the funeral rites of their common

father.