Genesis 35:1-8
Genesis 35:1-8 TPT
God said to Jacob, “Arise, go at once to Bethel, and settle there. Build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.” So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of every foreign god you have, purify yourselves, and change your clothes. Then come with me; let us go up to Bethel. I will build an altar there to God who answered my prayer when I was in distress and whose presence has been with me wherever I have gone.” Then they surrendered all the foreign gods they had as well as their earrings. Jacob buried them under the oak tree near Shechem. As they made their way to Bethel, a tremendous fear of God fell upon all the cities around them, and no one dared pursue them. Jacob and all the people who were with him arrived in the land of Canaan at Luz, now known as Bethel. He built an altar there and named it El-Bethel, because it was the place that God had unveiled himself when Jacob was running from his brother. During that time, Rebekah’s nurse Deborah died. They buried her under an oak tree near Bethel, and they named the place Weeping Oak.