Seder 32/33: Gen 35---Promises Affirmed, Deaths Mourned

 At some point God called upon Jacob to appear before him at Bethel and carry out the vow that he had made before leaving Canaan many years before (Gen 35:1; 28:20-22).  

As part of an appropriate purification in preparation for this divine encounter, Jacob asked his household to get rid of any idols they possessed (v 2).  This would have certainly included the household gods that Rachel had taken from Laban.  

Verse 4 reports, "So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears."  There is some pronoun ambiguity in this verse.  Were the rings in the ears of the people or the idols?  A good case can be made for the latter interpretation, since idols often did have earrings made of precious metals.  Burying those items would mean that they couldn't be used to make more idols.

Verse 8 mentions that on the trip, Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died.  There are two interesting pieces of information in this verse.  First, the name of Rebekah's nurse had not been mentioned in Gen 24:59, where we learn that she accompanied Rebekah on her trip to Canaan to marry Isaac.  Second, we have not previously heard that Deborah was with Jacob rather than with Rebekah.  

There have been a number of speculations about when Deborah might have joined Jacob.  Perhaps Rebekah had sent her to Jacob at Haran with the news that it was safe to return to Canaan, as she had said she would send someone to do (Gen 27:45). Or perhaps Rebekah had sent her to Jacob after he returned to Canaan.  Or perhaps Rebekah had died, and Deborah then joined Jacob's family.     

In any case, there was a time of mourning for Jacob and the family after Deborah's death.

At Bethel God appeared to Jacob and affirmed both Jacob's new name and the blessing imparted by Isaac (Gen 28:3-4) that the Abrahamic promises would continue through Jacob (Gen 35:9-12).  

Genesis 35 goes on to record that Jacob's beloved wife Rachel died not far from Bethlehem while giving birth to her son Benjamin (vv16-21).  Her grave was not far from a road on which, much later, descendants of Judah and Benjamin would travel on their way to exile in Babylon.  Jeremiah pictures Rachel weeping for her descendants at that point (Jer 31;15).  Jeremiah goes on to prophecy an eventual return from exile (vv 16-17).  

Jeremiah's prophecy was later recalled by Matthew when he reported the murder of infants in Bethlehem by the ruthless Herod the Great (Matt 2:16-18).  Herod, of course, failed in his goal to kill the infant Jesus, whose family had already fled to Egypt (vv 13-15).  

Genesis 35 concludes by mentioning Isaac's death at age 180 (vv 27-29), twelve years after Joseph was sold into slavery and 23 years after Jacob's return to Canaan. Chapters 34-35 give just a few snapshots of Jacob's life during those 23 years and raise lots of questions for readers.  For example, when did Rebekah die?  Did she see Jacob again?  What kind of interaction did Jacob have with his parents and with Esau during those years?  The text does not tell us, and later writers have imagined different answers.  The Book of Jubilees (second century BC), which emphasizes the piety of the patriarchs, pictures Jacob in regular contact with his parents (Jubilees 29:15-20).