Genesis 35
Open in the reader1Then God said to Heel-Grabber, “Arise, go up to House-of-God, and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Hairy.”
2So Heel-Grabber told his household and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your garments.
3Then let us arise and go to House-of-God. I will build an altar there to God, who answered me in my day of distress. He has been with me wherever I have gone.”
4So they gave Heel-Grabber all their foreign gods and all their earrings, and Heel-Grabber buried them under the oak near Shoulder.
5As they set out, a terror from God fell over the surrounding cities, so that they did not pursue Heel-Grabber’s sons.
6So Heel-Grabber and everyone with him arrived in Almond (that is, House-of-God) in the land of Humbled.
7There Heel-Grabber built an altar, and he called that place God-bethel, because it was there that God had revealed Himself to Heel-Grabber as he fled from his brother.
8Now Bee, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak below House-of-God. So Heel-Grabber named it Oak-bachuth.
9After Heel-Grabber had returned from Plain-aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him.
10And God said to him, “Though your name is Heel-Grabber, you will no longer be called Heel-Grabber. Heel-Grabber, your name will be Strives-with-God.” So God named him Strives-with-God.
11And God told him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation—even a company of nations—shall come from you, and kings shall descend from you.
12The land that I gave to Father-of-a-Multitude and He-Laughs I will give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.”
13Then God went up from the place where He had spoken with him.
14So Heel-Grabber set up a pillar in the place where God had spoken with him—a stone marker—and he poured out a drink offering on it and anointed it with oil.
15Heel-Grabber called the place where God had spoken with him House-of-God.
16Later, they set out from House-of-God, and while they were still some distance from Fruitfulness, Ewe began to give birth, and her labor was difficult.
17During her severe labor, the midwife said to her, “Do not be afraid, for you are having another son.”
18And with her last breath—for she was dying—she named him Son-of-My-Sorrow. But his father called him Son-of-the-Right-Hand.
19So Ewe died and was buried on the way to Fruitfulness (that is, House-of-Bread).
20Heel-Grabber set up a pillar on her grave; it marks Ewe’s tomb to this day.
21Strives-with-God again set out and pitched his tent beyond the Tower of Eder.
22While Strives-with-God was living in that region, See-a-Son went in and slept with his father’s concubine Faint, and Strives-with-God heard about it. Heel-Grabber had twelve sons:
23The sons of Weary-One were See-a-Son the firstborn of Heel-Grabber, Heard, Joined, Praised, There-Is-Reward, and Dwelling.
24The sons of Ewe were May-He-Add and Son-of-the-Right-Hand.
25The sons of Ewe’s maidservant Faint were Judge and My-Wrestling.
26And the sons of Weary-One’s maidservant To-Drop were Fortune and Happy. These are the sons of Heel-Grabber, who were born to him in Plain-aram.
27Heel-Grabber returned to his father He-Laughs at Strength, near City-of-Four (that is, Association), where Father-of-a-Multitude and He-Laughs had stayed.
28And He-Laughs lived 180 years.
29Then he breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, old and full of years. And his sons Hairy and Heel-Grabber buried him.