God Calls & Blesses

Genesis 35:1-15 (NRSV)

God calls and blesses Jacob

God said to Jacob, "Arise, go up to
Bethel, and settle there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you
when you fled from your brother Esau." So Jacob said to his household and to all
who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods that are among you, and purify
yourselves, and change your clothes; then come, let us go up to Bethel, that I
may make an altar there to the God who answered me in the day of my distress and
has been with me wherever I have gone." So they gave to Jacob all the foreign
gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears; and Jacob hid them
under the oak that was near Shechem. As they journeyed, a terror from
God fell upon the cities all around them, so that no one pursued them. Jacob
came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the
people who were with him, and there he built an altar and called the place El
bethel, because it was there that God had revealed himself to him when he fled
from his brother. And Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died, and she was buried under
an oak below Bethel. So it was called Allon bacuth. God appeared to
Jacob again when he came from Paddan aram, and he blessed him. God said to him,
"Your name is Jacob; no longer shall you be called Jacob, but Israel shall be
your name." So he was called Israel. God said to him, "I am God Almighty: be
fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall come from you,
and kings shall spring from you. The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I
will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you." Then
God went up from him at the place where he had spoken with him. Jacob set up a
pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone; and he
poured out a drink offering on it, and poured oil on it. So Jacob called the
place where God had spoken with him Bethel.