3 We will leave here and go to Bethel. There I will build an altar to God, who has helped me during my time of trouble. He has been with me everywhere I have gone.”
4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had, and the earrings they were wearing, and he hid them under the great tree near the town of Shechem.
5 Then Jacob and his sons left there. But God caused the people in the nearby cities to be afraid, so they did not follow them.
6 And Jacob and all the people who were with him went to Luz, which is now called Bethel, in the land of Canaan.
7 There Jacob built an altar and named the place Bethel, after God, because God had appeared to him there when he was running from his brother.
8 Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak tree at Bethel, so they named that place Oak of Crying.
9 When Jacob came back from Northwest Mesopotamia, God appeared to him again and blessed him.