CHAPTER 35

35:1-29 And God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to the place, Baethel, and dwell there; and make there an altar to the God that appeared to thee, when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. 2 And Jacob said to his house, and to all that were with him, Remove the strange gods that are with you from the midst of you, and purify yourselves, and change your clothes. 3 And let us rise and go up to Baethel, and let us there make an alter to God who hearkened to me in the day of calamity, who was with me, and preserved me throughout in the journey, by which I went. 4 And they gave to Jacob the strange gods, which were in their hands, and the ear-rings which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the turpentine tree which is in Secima, and destroyed them to this day. 5 So Israel departed from Secima, and the fear of God was upon the cities round about them, and they did not pursue after the children of Israel. 6 And Jacob came to Luza, which is in the land of Chanaan, which is Baethel, he and all the people that were with him. 7 And he built there an altar, and called the name of the place Baethel; for there God appeared to him, when he fled from the face of his brother Esau. 8 And Deborrha, Rebecca’s nurse, died, and was buried below Baethel under the oak; and Jacob called its name, The Oak of Mourning. 9 And God appeared to Jacob once more in Luza, when he came out of Mesopotamia of Syria, and God blessed him. 10 And God said to him, Thy name shall not be called Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name; and he called his name Israel. 11 And God said to him, I am thy God; increase and multiply; for nations and gatherings of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins. 12 And the land which I gave to Abraam and Isaac, I have given it to thee; and it shall come to pass that I will give this land also to thy seed after thee. 13 And God went up from him from the place where he spoke with him. 14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where God spoke with him, even a pillar of stone; and offered a libation upon it, and poured oil upon it. 15 And Jacob called the name of the place in which God spoke with him, Baethel. 16 [[And Jacob removed from Baethel, and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Gader,]]and it came to pass when he drew nigh to Chabratha, to enter into Ephratha, Rachel travailed; and in her travail she was in hard labour. 17 And it came to pass in her hard labour, that the midwife said to her, Be of good courage, for thou shalt also have this son. 18 And it came to pass in her giving up the ghost (for she was dying), that she called his name, The son of my pain; but his father called his name Benjamin. 19 So Rachel died, and was buried in the way of the course of Ephratha, this is Bethleem. 20 And Jacob set up a pillar on her tomb; this is the pillar on the tomb of Rachel, until this day. 21 And it came to pass when Israel dwelt in that land, that Ruben went and lay with Balla, the concubine of his father Jacob; and Israel heard, and the thing appeared grievous before him. 22 And the sons of Jacob were twelve. 23 The sons of Lea, the first-born of Jacob; Ruben, Symeon, Levi, Judas, Issachar, Zabulon. 24 And the sons of Rachel; Joseph and Benjamin. 25 And the sons of Balla, the hand-maid of Rachel; Dan and Nephthalim. 26 And the sons of Zelpha, the hand-maid of Lea; Gad and Aser. These are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Mesopotamia of Syria. 27 And Jacob came to Isaac his father to Mambre, to a city of the plain; this is Chebron in the land of Chanaan, where Abraam and Isaac sojourned. 28 And the days of Isaac which he lived were an hundred and eighty years. 29 And Isaac gave up the ghost and died, and was laid to his family, old and full of days; and Esau and Jacob his sons buried him.

AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO. (Gen. 35:1). APPEARANCES OF GOD TO JACOB. — God said to Jacob, Arise and go up to the place of Bethel and live there and make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from the presence of your brother Esau. Why does he not say: and make there an altar for me, that I have appeared to you, but it is God who says: Make there an altar to the God who appeared to you? Did the Son appear there, and God the Father said this? Or is it attributed to some special type of expression? [Question 110]

(Gen. 35:2-4). AMULETS OF IDOLS. — Jacob, when he went up to Bethel, where he was commanded to build an altar, says to those in his house and to all those who went with him, Remove the strange gods that are with you from the midst of you, and so forth." Then he said, And they gave to Jacob the strange gods, which were in their hands, and the earrings, which were in their ears. We can ask why they also gave the earrings, which if they were objects of adornment, had no relation to idolatry. The reason has to be that they were amulets of strange gods, because Scripture testifies that Rebekah received earrings from Abraham's servant (Cf. Gen. 24:22-30), which would not have happened had they not been allowed to wear earrings for personal adornment. Therefore, those earrings that were given with the idols, as was said, were amulets of idols. [Question 111]

(Gen. 35:5). HOW GOD ACTS ON THE MINDS OF MEN. — And the fear of God was upon the cities round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Israel. Let us begin by noting how God acts in the minds of men. For whom to attribute the fear of God spread over these cities, if not to the one who showed himself faithful to his promises to Jacob and his children? [Question 112]

(Gen. 35:6). CHANGE OF NAMES. — Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, which is Bethel. Let us recall that three names of this city have already appeared: Ulammaus, a name which it had before Jacob reached Mesopotamia, passing by earlier; Bethel, a name which Jacob himself gave it, which means "house of God"; And Luz, just mentioned right now. This is not surprising, as it happens in many other passages, both in terms of cities and rivers, and in any place on earth, because it happens in many countries, and for different reasons, that rivers, other objects, and men themselves, add to their names, or take new ones. [Question 113]

(Gen. 35:10). ON THE NAME OF ISRAEL GIVEN TO JACOB. — God appeared again to Jacob in Luz and said to him: Your name shall not be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name. It is for the second time that God addresses these words to Jacob, blessing him, and thus confirms it. It is striking that those who once received a name are no longer called as they were called, but are given a new name, without ever calling them again their first name. From now on they are called by the new name. Instead, Jacob was called Jacob all his life and after he died, even though God had said to him, Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name (Gen. 32:28). Thus it is perfectly understood that this name belongs to that promise by which God will be seen as not seen before by the patriarchs. There the old name will no longer exist. Nothing will remain, not even in the old reality itself, and the vision of God will be the supreme reward. [Question 114]

(Gen. 35:11). WHAT DOES IT MEAN: FOR NATIONS AND GATHERINGS OF NATIONS? — Among the promises made to Jacob is the following: for nations and gatherings of nations shall be of you. Are "nations" according to the flesh, and "gatherings of nations" according to faith, or both by the faith of the Gentiles, if the nations cannot be called a single nation of Israel according to the flesh? [Question 115]

(Gen. 35:13-15). DID JACOB IMITATE IDOLATERS BY ERECTING MONUMENTS? — And God went up from him from the place where he spoke with him. And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where God spoke with him, a pillar of stone; and offered a sacrifice upon it, and poured oil upon it. And Jacob called the name of the place in which God spoke with him, Bethel.  Did this happen again in the same place where it had happened before? Or is it mentioned again? Whatever it was, Jacob offered a sacrifice, but not on the stone. He did not act, then, as idolaters do, who erect altars in front of the stone and offer a sacrifice as if they were gods. [Question 116]

(Gen. 35:26). WAS BENJAMIN BORN IN MESOPOTAMIA? — When the twelve sons who were born to Israel are mentioned, it is said: These are the sons of Israel, who were born to him in Mesopotamia. Now Benjamin was born long afterwards, when Bethel had already passed and they were approaching Bethlehem. Some interpreters strive unnecessarily to decide this question, saying that one should not read: nati sunt, as most Latin copies do, but facti sunt, according to the Greek text εγενοντο, pretending to understand also Benjamin would not have been born in Mesopotamia, but there he had come, since he was already begotten in the womb of his mother, for it is thought that Rachel had come out of there pregnant. In this way, although it was read, they were born to him, it could be said that he was already born in the womb, since he had already been conceived. As an example, what was said to Joseph about the Virgin Mary is indicated, “For what has been born in her is of the Holy Spirit (Mt. 1:20).”  But there is another reason that prevents this solution of the problem. For if Benjamin had been conceived there, the sons of Jacob, who had come out of that place and grown up, could scarcely be twelve years old. For Jacob spent twenty years there. Of these twenty, the first seven years without being married, hoping to marry serving Laban. Assuming that the year he was married was born a child, the oldest could be about twelve, when they left. Therefore, if Benjamin had already been conceived, all that journey had to take place within ten months, and all that was written about Jacob in the journey. It follows that their children, such small children, would have carried out such a large slaughter on the occasion of their sister Dina, would have killed a large number of men and thus have taken possession of the city. Two of them, Simeon and Levi, who with sword in hand, were the first to reach these men, and killed them, were age eleven and the other ten years. Their mother would have had without interruption, a child every year. But it is unbelievable that children of this age could have done all this, when Dina herself was barely six years old. Therefore, we must find another solution to this problem so that we correctly understand what was said about the twelve children mentioned. These are the sons of Jacob, who came to him in Mesopotamia of Syria. Because among all those children, who were so many, there was one who was not born there, but who had reason to be born in that place, since his mother had married there with his father. But this solution of the problem must be confirmed by some example of another similar expression. There is no easier solution to this question than recourse to a synecdoche (A figure of speech that uses the name of a part of something to represent the whole). Thus, when in one part is greater or more important, it is usually also designated by its name that which does not belong to the name itself. For example, the case of Judas, who no longer belonged to the twelve apostles, because he had already died when the Lord rose from the dead (Cf. 1 Cor. 15:5), and yet the Apostle keeps in his letter the number of twelve when he says that the Lord Appeared to the twelve. The Greek codices have this word with an article, so that no twelve persons can be understood, but those known by that number. I think that this same type of expression belongs to what the Lord said, “Have I not chosen you, the twelve? And one of you is a devil.” And he says so that it does not appear that he too belongs to the elect. It is not easy to speak of the elect with reference to evil, except when the bad ones are chosen by other bad ones. But if we thought that Judas was also chosen so that through his betrayal the Lord's passion would be realized, that is, if we thought his wickedness was chosen for something, since God uses good even of bad things, let us pay attention to these other words, I do not mean all of you; I know who I chose (Jn. 6:70). Here he declares that only the good belong to the elect. And so, that which the Lord said, “I chose you twelve,” he said it through a synecdoche, so that under the name of the greater part and better understood also what does not belong to the name itself. This way of expressing itself is in this same book when Emmor goes to speak with Jacob in favor of his son Shechem to obtain that he married Dina, the daughter of Jacob. And the sons of Jacob, which were absent, came, and Emmor said unto them all, My son Shechem is fond of your daughter; Give her then for a wife (Gen. 34:8).” As the person of the father was the most important, in saying, by synecdoche, your daughter, also understands under that name the brothers, of whom Dina was not a daughter. To this same type also belongs the expression: Go to the sheep and bring me from there two kids. For they grazed the sheep and the goats at the same time. And since the sheep are more important, under that name it also included goats. Now as the eleven number of the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Mesopotamia, was the most important, when he mentioned the Scripture to them, he also understood Benjamin, who was not born there. And he said, These are the sons of Jacob, who came to him in Mesopotamia of Syria. [Question 117]

JEROME OF STRIDON. 35:21 ISRAEL DEPARTED; AND SPREAD HIS TENT BEYOND IT OF THE TOWER OF ADER. — The Hebrews uphold this place to be the same where the temple was later; that the tower of Ader signifies a tower of the flock, that is to say, of the congregation and the assembly, which the prophet Micah attests in these words: "And you, the nebulous tower of the flock, the daughter of Zion (Mic. 4:8),” and the rest, and in that time Jacob had his tent above the place where the temple rose later. But if we follow the successive points of Ader is the place of the shepherds, near Bethlehem, where the king of the angels sang at the birth of the Lord; Jacob, perhaps, called it this, because he was feeding his flocks; or more probably it contained, in a sort of prophecy, from the primitive times, the mystery to come. [Hebrew Questions on Genesis]

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM OF CONSTANTINOPLE. Arise and go up to Bethel to live there. (Gen. 35:1) Since you fear the inhabitants of this country, go away and go and dwell in Bethel. Lift up there an altar to the Lord, whom you saw, when you fled from the face of Esau, your brother. And Jacob said to his family and to all who were with him, Make the strange gods of the midst of you depart, and purify and change your garments; let us go up, go up to Bethel, raise an altar there to the Lord, who listened to me in the day of the tribulation; he was with me and saved me on my journey. (Ibid 1-3) Still consider the obedience and piety of this righteous man. When he heard this command: go up to Bethel, raise an altar there, he calls all his children and says to them: make the gods disappear. What gods, will anyone tell me? for nowhere is it seen that he had had gods: from the first days of his life he was a pious servant of the true God. Perhaps he heard by these words the gods of Laban whom Rachel had stolen; so he says: Since we will render thanksgiving to the true God, who has always given me his protection, make the idols that you may have disappear. Purify yourself and change your clothes; So let us go to this city and find ourselves there together, purified outside and inside. Do not show yourself pure only by the brightness of your garments, but purify the thoughts of your spirit by making your idols disappear, and thus go up to Bethel. And they gave to Jacob, says the text, the foreign gods, for it was not their gods, and the earrings they wore. (Ibid. 4) These were perhaps idolatrous symbols relating to these gods; so they bring them to their father with the idols. And Jacob hid them under the oak of Shechem, and made them disappear unto this day. He hid them, says the text, And he made them disappear, so that the slaves of misguidance themselves were removed from this misguidance and no one henceforth received any damage.

After this righteous man had done all this, he left the land of Shechem and set out for Bethel. But see again the care that God takes from him, and how the Scripture clearly instructs us. The righteous having departed, the fear of God was spread abroad in the cities round about, and they did not pursue the children of Israel. (Ibid. 5) Have you seen how great is this providence, and how manifest is its help? Fear seized the inhabitants, and they did not pursue them. Because this righteous had dreaded him and said: We are in very small numbers and we will be crushed, the Scripture teaches us that the fear that seizes the inhabitants prevented this pursuit. God, when he wishes to lend his assistance, makes the weak stronger than the powerful, the small number more powerful than the great number, and nothing can be happier than the one who has obtained the assistance of above.

And Jacob, saith the scripture, came to Luzon, which is in the land of Chanaan, and is called Bethel, and all the tribe with him. There he raised an altar and called this place Bethel, for it was there that God appeared to him as he fled from the face of his brother Esau. (Ibid. 6-7) When he arrived there, he fulfilled the Lord's command by raising an altar, and gave this place the name of Bethel. Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died and was buried beneath Bethel under the oak tree; and Jacob called him the oak of mourning. (Ibid. 8) As you can see, he gave the places names derived from the events in order to preserve their memory. And how, you say, was Rebekah's nurse to be with him, newly arrived from Mesopotamia, and having not yet seen her father again? It is not difficult to answer that she had wanted to accompany Jacob, when he returned from Laban, to see Rebecca again, after such a long separation, and that before meeting her, she died at Bethel.

Today, please, we will resume the rest of our last speech, and do the instruction by continuing to explain the same text. For even today the story of Jacob can teach us how great God's benevolence was to him, and how he reaffirmed it by his promises, to reward him for his virtue. The Scripture, after having told us in the preceding verses, how Jacob, at the command of God, left Sécime because of the crimes that his sons had committed there and went to Luzan, adds: And there he builds an altar, and he called this place Bethel; for it was there that God appeared to him when he fled from before his brother Esau. After having given such an order to this righteous man, and having delivered him from fear, which he had been seized because of the slaughter of the Secimites, God, says the Scripture, struck the inhabitants of these cities with terror, and prevented them to continue it. See what is the providence of God, with what care he watches over Jacob. He filled with terror, says the Scripture, the spirits of those who dwelt in the neighboring towns, and prevented them from pursuing him; for they would probably avenge the Secimites. But as the blood had been shed despite the will of this righteous man, and Simeon and Levi had committed this crime to avenge the outrage done to their sister, he not only delivered him and his sons from the fear that agitated them, but he still stops the impetuosity of the neighboring peoples by sowing terror among them. Do you feel how important it is to enjoy divine assistance? When God has benevolence for us, He removes all affliction from our souls. For if he has given courage to this just, he has frozen his enemies with fright. As he is the Sovereign Master, he directs events as he pleases, and he makes his wisdom and omnipotence manifest in all things. There is nothing stronger than the man who has been able to obtain the help of God, just as there is nothing weaker than the one who is deprived of it. See this righteous, his helpers are easy to count and very few, but he is protected by the hand of God, and he has regained confidence and he has escaped the plot hatched against him; those, on the contrary, although they had assembled in considerable numbers, and had been in agreement in their enterprise, could not even put their plans into execution. For, says the Scripture, God struck with terror the cities around them. After this righteousness has been delivered from all fear and persecution of the inhabitants of this land, see how great is the affection which God again testifies to him; God, says the Scripture, appeared to him a second time to Luza. Why does Scripture add this word: a second time? This is not without reason: it is to teach us that God has already appeared to him once in this same place, when he was fleeing his brother and heading for Mesopotamia. This is what Scripture wants to make: Just as God appeared to him at the moment of his flight, so today he shows himself to him in the same place, at the moment of his return; he renews to him the promises he made to her when he went away, and by that he wants this righteous person to trust his word, and that he does not doubt it because of the long space of time which has passed in the meantime. And he blessed him, and said unto him, Thou shalt no longer call yourself Jacob: henceforth thy name shall be Israel. Although he had already called him by that name, when Jacob went through Jaboch, he now wants to give greater assurance to his son, and he gave him the same blessing, and he said to him, "Your name shall be Israel; increases and multiplies. Nations and multitudes of nations will be born of you, even kings will come out of your race. See the greatness of this blessing. He predicts not only that his race will multiply, but that it will be illustrated. Kings will be born of your race; he thus reveals to him from that day the glory of his descendants. I give you the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac, and I will give it to your seed after you.

After Simeon and Levi had slain the Secimites, Jacob said, We are few; and they will assemble against me, and they will smite me, and they will destroy me and my house; and in all his words, he showed his pusillanimity, and the violent fear that possessed him: today therefore the Lord full of benevolence for this righteous, says to him Since you cried out: we are in small numbers, learn that your The race will grow and multiply, and it will be so illustrious, that from it will emerge a multitude of nations, and even kings; not only will you not be destroyed, but you and your race will inherit. this whole country. And after making these promises, God, says the Scripture, went up from him from the place where he had spoken to him. See how Holy Scripture, in its language, descends to the level of human nature. God, she says, came back from him: she does not give us to understand that God can be limited in space, but she wants to show us the extent of her goodness: for the Holy Spirit is lowered at the level of human weakness to tell us all things. These words, come down and go up, can not suit God; but as this is the greatest proof that he can give us of his ineffable goodness, that to use such terms for our instruction, he resorts to human language; It would be impossible for man's ears to understand the sublimity of his language, if it were related to the dignity of the Lord.

If we make this reflection, far from insisting on the meanness of the terms, we will admire the ineffable goodness of God who does not disdain to lower himself thus, because of the weakness of our nature. But see what just testify his gratitude again. Jacob, says the Scripture, raised a pillar of stone in the place where God had spoken to him, and sprinkled on it, and sprinkled oil on it, and gave the name of Rethel instead of God. spoken. See how this righteous, by the name he gives to this place, makes imperishable the memory of the vision of which he was favored, and passes the memory to the following generations: And Jacob departed, and he pitched his tent beyond the citadel of Gader. Thus, this righteous pursues his path again, and gradually hastens to arrive in the place where Isaac lived. And Scripture adds: When he approached Ephrath, Rachel bore, and she was in great labor. And as she was having a hard time giving birth, the midwife told her, "Take courage, for you have a son. Do not be afraid, she says, for you will give birth to a son. Though you are torn with pain, yet you will give birth to a son. And when she died, she called him the son of my sorrows; but his father gave him the name of Benjamin. The latter consecrates, by the name she gives to her son, the evil she had felt; but his father called him Benjamin. And when she had borne, she died, says the Scripture, she was buried in the way of Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. And Jacob raised a monument on his grave. The birth of this child calmed the sorrow Rachel's death caused Jacob, and helped him to bear Rachel's loss. It was then that Reuben was guilty of a great crime: He came, says the Scripture, and slept with his father's concubine, Balla, and Israel was warned, and the crime was proved in his presence. But that was a big crime. So, in the following, Moses forbade in his laws that the father and the son should trade with the same woman. In the fear that this fact is gradually becoming a habit, the legislator hastens to declare that he who is guilty of such a crime deserves punishment. However, Jacob, overcome by paternal love, was indulgent to his son's fault. But later on, when he was about to leave life, he stigmatized Reuben, wrote down his crime, and cursed him, so that this punishment might serve as an example to posterity. Then Blessed Moses records the number of the sons of Jacob, and by his words he tells us what was the virtue of this righteous man. And do not think it was at random and without reason that he had business with Rachel, Lia, and the two servants. Scripture, on the contrary, shows us that Jacob obeyed the secret counsels of Providence, and that he lived with these women, so that the twelve tribes might come out of him: So the Scripture does not say that another his son was born to him, so that everyone could learn that it was not an unforeseen and fortuitous fact. There were twelve sons of Jacob.

Then the Scripture names separately the children of Lia and Rachel, and those of the two servants, and she adds: These are the sons who were born to Jacob in Mesopotamia. And yet Benjamin was born in the environs of Bethlehem. Why then does the scripture say, These are the children who were born to Jacob in Mesopotamia? Perhaps Rachel had conceived her before she left. And Jacob came to Isaac his father. See here again, God's highness, in his goodness, wanted to inspire full confidence in these just. The coming of Jacob to his father, after so many years, was for both of them a sweet consolation: for Jacob, because he saw his father, and for Isaac, because he could contemplate the richness of his son, and the great shadow of children who had come out of him. It is then, says the Scripture, that Isaac died, aged and full of days. If, in fact, at the moment when Jacob surprised his father's blessing, Isaac's eyes were already heavy (and this explains why he could have been deceived), consider what his old age should be, since so many years had passed in the meantime. Esau and Jacob, says the Scripture, buried him. But after the death of Isaac, Esau took his wives, his sons, all the persons of his house, and all the goods which he had acquired in the land of Chanaan, and departed. For the land which they inhabited as strangers could not contain them, because of the great quantity of their goods. And he lived on Mount Seir. The Holy Scripture then enumerates the children who were born to Esau and the nations that came out of him, and she adds: As for Jacob, he remained in the land where his father had lived as a stranger, that is to say in the land of Chanaan. [Homilies on Genesis]