Jacob Was Named Israel

Jacob Is Israel

Jacob named Israel

God said to Jacob, “Go to Bethel at once, and live there.  Build an altar there to me, the God who appeared to you when you were running away from your brother Esau.”

So Jacob said to his family and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that you have; purify yourselves and put on clean clothes.  We are going to leave here and go to Bethel, where I will build an altar to the God who helped me in the time of my trouble and who has been with me everywhere I have gone.”  So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods that they had and also the earrings that they were wearing.  He buried then beneath them beneath the oak tree near Shechem.

When Jacob and his sons started to leave, great fear fell on the people of the nearby towns, and they did not pursue them.  Jacob came with all his people to Luz, which is now known as Bethel, in the land of Canaan.  He built an altar there and named the place for the God of Bethel, because God had revealed himself to him there when he was running away from his brother.

When Jacob returned to Mesopotamia, God appeared to him again and blessed him.  God said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but from now on it will be Israel.” So God name him Israel.  And God said to him, “I am Almighty God.  Have many children.  Nations will be descended from you, and you will be the ancestor of kings.  I will give you the land which I gave to Abraham and to Isaac, and I will also give it to your descendants after you.”  Then God left him.  There, where God has spoken to him, Jacob set up a memorial stone and consecrated it by pouring wine and olive oil on it.  He named the place Bethel.

(Pasugo, God’s Message: Quoted from Genesis 35:1-7, 9-15 - Today’s English Version)