Genesis 35King James Version
God tells Jacob to return to Bethel. He buries the foreign gods his household has carried and builds an altar where God first appeared to him. Rachel goes into hard labor on the road to Bethlehem and dies giving birth to Benjamin. Jacob buries her by the road. Isaac dies at one hundred and eighty years old, and Esau and Jacob bury him together.
God tells Jacob to go to Bethel and build an altar. Jacob tells his household to put away their foreign gods. They go; terror falls on the surrounding cities and no one pursues them. At Bethel God appears, confirms the name Israel, and renews the covenant. Rachel goes into labor on the road south, gives birth to Benjamin, and dies. Jacob buries her and sets up a pillar. They move on; Reuben sleeps with Bilhah. The chapter closes with Isaac's death at 180 and his burial by Esau and Jacob.
The journey back to Bethel is a renewal of the original vow, but it costs Rachel her life, and the household arrives at their covenant destination carrying fresh grief.
19: "And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem." Two things at once: the birth of the twelfth son and the death of the woman Jacob loved most. The chapter does not separate them.
Ephrath, later identified as Bethlehem, is about 10 kilometers south of Jerusalem. Rachel's pillar is referenced in 1 Samuel. The road Jacob travels south toward Hebron and Isaac passes through the area that will become the heartland of the tribe of Judah. Every piece of this journey is land that Israel will claim and name and remember.
Jacob/Israel, returning to the altar of his vow; Rachel, who dies giving birth to Benjamin; Benjamin, whose birth costs his mother; Reuben, whose act of sleeping with Bilhah is noted without explanation; Isaac, who dies at the end.
Rachel's tomb near Bethlehem is still a pilgrimage site. Her death in childbirth and her burial 'on the way' is referenced in Jeremiah as an image of national mourning: Rachel weeping for her children. Benjamin, born from her death, becomes the father of Israel's first king, Saul. Reuben's act with Bilhah will cost him the birthright in chapter 49.
For when good things and terrible things happen in the same moment. Jacob buries Rachel and names the son she died to give birth to. He calls him Benjamin, son of the right hand, changing the name she gave him, son of my sorrow. Both names are true.
1And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.
2Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:
3And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.
4And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.
5And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.
6So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him.
7And he built there an altar, and called the place Elbethel: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother.
8But Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth.
9And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him.
10And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.
11And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;
12And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.
13And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him.
14And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon.
15And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel.
16And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour.
17And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also.
18And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.
19And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.
20And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day.
21And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar.
22And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine: and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:
23The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun:
24The sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin:
25And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali:
26And the sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid; Gad, and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padanaram.
27And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned.
28And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years.
29And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.