Genesis 35 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

God said to Jacob, "Get up and go to Bethel and settle there. Build an altar there to God -- the one who appeared to you when you were running from your brother Esau."

So Jacob told his household and everyone with him, "Get rid of any foreign gods you have with you. Purify yourselves and change your clothes."

"Then let's get moving and go up to Bethel. I'm going to build an altar there to the God who answered me in my darkest hour and has been with me everywhere I've gone."

So they handed over to Jacob all the foreign gods they had, along with the rings in their ears. Jacob buried them under the oak tree near Shechem.

Then they set out, and a terror from God fell on the towns all around them, so that no one pursued Jacob's family.

Jacob arrived at Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan -- he and everyone with him.

He built an altar there and called the place El Bethel, because that was where God had revealed himself to him when he was running from his brother.

Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died and was buried below Bethel under the oak tree. They named it Allon Bakuth.

God appeared to Jacob again after he came back from Paddan-aram and spoke good over him.

God said to him, "Your name is Jacob, but you won't be called Jacob anymore. Your name will be Israel." So he named him Israel.

And God said to him, "I am El Shaddai. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation -- even a whole assembly of nations -- will come from you, and kings will descend from you."

"The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I'm giving to you. And to your descendants after you, I'm giving this land."

Then God went up from him at the place where he had spoken with him.

Jacob set up a stone marker at the place where God had spoken with him. He poured a drink offering on it and also poured oil over it.

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

They moved on from Bethel, and while they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor -- and her labor was brutal.

When her labor was at its worst, the midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid -- you have another son."

As her life was slipping away -- she was dying -- she named him Ben-oni. But his father named him Benjamin.

Rachel died and was buried on the road to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).

Jacob set up a stone marker over her grave. That marker on Rachel's tomb is still there to this day.

Israel moved on and pitched his tent beyond Migdal Eder.

While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went and slept with Bilhah, his father's concubine -- and Israel heard about it. Jacob had twelve sons.

The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob's firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.

The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

The sons of Bilhah, Rachel's servant: Dan and Naphtali.

The sons of Zilpah, Leah's servant: Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram.

Jacob came home to his father Isaac at Mamre, near Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had lived as outsiders.

Isaac lived to be a hundred and eighty years old.

Then Isaac breathed his last and died. He was gathered to his people, old and full of years. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.