Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.”
Genesis 35:3
God tells Jacob, also known as Israel, to return to the land of his father and to Bethel, where he will build an altar and worship God. The verse reads, “Then God said to Jacob, ‘Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.'” This verse is part of a larger narrative in which Jacob, who had fled from his brother Esau years earlier, is returning to the land of his ancestors and consolidating his family under God’s protection.