Discovery BoxGenesis 35:3 
Context35:3 Let us go up at once 1 to Bethel. Then I will make 2 an altar there to God, who responded to me in my time of distress 3 and has been with me wherever I went.” 4
Genesis 35:15-16
Context35:15 Jacob named the place 5 where God spoke with him Bethel. 6
35:16 They traveled on from Bethel, and when Ephrath was still some distance away, 7 Rachel went into labor 8 – and her labor was hard.
1 tn Heb “let us arise and let us go up.” The first cohortative gives the statement a sense of urgency.
2 tn The cohortative with the prefixed conjunction here indicates purpose or consequence.
3 tn Heb “day of distress.” See Ps 20:1 which utilizes similar language.
4 tn Heb “in the way in which I went.” Jacob alludes here to God’s promise to be with him (see Gen 28:20).
5 sn Called the name of the place. In view of the previous naming of Bethel in Gen 28:19, here Jacob was confirming or affirming the name through an official ritual marking the fulfillment of the vow. This place now did become Bethel, the house of God.
6 tn The name Bethel means “house of God” in Hebrew.
map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.
7 tn Heb “and there was still a stretch of the land to go to Ephrath.”
8 tn Normally the verb would be translated “she gave birth,” but because that obviously had not happened yet, it is better to translate the verb as ingressive, “began to give birth” (cf. NIV) or “went into labor.”
