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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
G E N E S I S
CHAP. XXXV.
In this chapter we have three communions and three funerals.
I. Three communions between God and Jacob.
1. God ordered
Jacob to Beth-el; and, in obedience to that order, he purged his
house of idols, and prepared for that journey,
2. Jacob built an altar at Beth-el, to the honour of God that had
appeared to him, and in performance of his vow,
3. God appeared to him again, and confirmed the change of his
name and covenant with him
(ver. 9-13),
of which appearance
Jacob made a grateful acknowledgment,
II. Three funerals.
1. Deborah’s,
2. Rachel’s,
3. Isaac’s,
Here is also Reuben’s incest
(ver. 22),
and an account of Jacob’s sons,
| Jacob Summoned to Bethel; Jacob’s Journeys towards Bethel. | B. C. 1732. |
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1 And God said unto Jacob, Arise,
go up to Beth-el, and dwell there:
and make there an altar unto God,
that appeared unto thee when thou
fleddest from the face of Esau thy
brother.
2 Then Jacob said unto his
household, and to all that were with
him, Put away the strange gods that
are among you, and be
clean, and change your garments:
3 And let us
arise, and go up to Beth-el; and I
will make there an altar unto God,
who answered me in the day of my
distress, and was with me in the way
which I went.
4 And they gave unto
Jacob all the strange gods which were
in their hand, and all their earrings
which were in their ears; and Jacob
hid them under the oak which was by
Shechem.
5 And they journeyed: and
the terror of God was upon the cities
that were round about them, and they
did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.
Here,
I. God reminds Jacob of his vow at
Beth-el, and sends him thither to perform it,
v. 1.
Jacob had said in the day of his distress,
If I come again in peace, this stone shall
be God’s house,
ch. xxviii. 22.
God had performed
his part of the bargain, and had given
Jacob more than bread to eat and raiment to
put on–he had got an estate, and had become
two bands; but, it should seem, he had forgotten
his vow, or at least had too long deferred
the performance of it. Seven or eight
years it was now since he came to Canaan;
he had purchased ground there, and had built
an altar in remembrance of God’s last appearance
to him when he called him Israel
but still Beth-el is forgotten.
Note, Time is apt to wear out the
sense of mercies and the impressions made
upon us by them; it should not be so, but
so it is. God had exercised Jacob with a
very sore affliction in his family
(ch. xxxiv.),
to see if this would bring his vow to his
remembrance, and put him upon the performance
of it, but it had not this effect;
therefore God comes himself and puts him
in mind of it: Arise, go to Beth-el. Note,
1. As many as God loves he will remind of neglected
duties, one way or other, by conscience
or by providences.
2. When we have
vowed a vow to God, it is best not to defer
the payment of it
(Eccles. v. 4),
yet better late than never. God bade him go to Beth-el
and dwell there, that is, not only go himself,
but take his family with him, that they might
join with him in his devotions. Note, In
Beth-el, the house of God, we should desire
to dwell,
That should be our
home, not our inn. God reminds him not
expressly of his vow, but of the occasion of
it: When thou fleddest from the face of Esau.
Note, The remembrance of former afflictions
should bring to mind the workings of our
souls under them,
II. Jacob commands his household to prepare
for this solemnity; not only for the
journey and remove, but for the religious
services that were to be performed,
Note, 1. Before solemn ordinances, there
must be solemn preparation. Wash you,
make you clean, and then come, and let us
reason together,
Isa. i. 16-18.
2. Masters
of families should use their authority for the
promoting of religion in their families. Not
only we, but our houses also, should serve
the Lord,
Observe the commands
he gives his household, like Abraham,
(1.) They must put away the
strange gods. Strange gods in Jacob’s family!
Strange things indeed! Could such
a family, that was taught the good knowledge
of the Lord, admit them? Could such a
master, to whom God had appeared twice,
and oftener, connive at them? Doubtless this
was his infirmity. Note, Those that are good
themselves cannot always have those about
them so good as they should be. In those
families where there is a face of religion, and
an altar to God, yet many times there is much
amiss, and more strange gods than one would
suspect. In Jacob’s family, Rachel had her
teraphim, which, it is to be feared, she
secretly made some superstitious use of. The
captives of Shechem brought their gods along
with them, and perhaps Jacob’s sons took
some with the plunder. However they came
by them, now they must put them away.
(2.) They must be clean, and change their garments;
they must observe a due decorum,
and make the best appearance they could.
Simeon and Levi had their hands full of
blood, it concerned them particularly to wash,
and to put off their garments that were so
stained. These were but ceremonies, signifying
the purification and change of the heart.
What are clean clothes, and new clothes,
without a clean heart, and a new heart? Dr.
Lightfoot, by their being clean, or washing
themselves, understands Jacob’s admission
of the proselytes of Shechem and Syria into
his religion by baptism, because circumcision
had become odious.
3. They must go with
him to Beth-el,
v. 3.
Note, Masters of families,
when they go up to the house of God,
should bring their families with them.
III. His family surrendered all they had
that was idolatrous or superstitious,
v. 4.
Perhaps, if Jacob had called for them sooner,
they would sooner have parted with them,
being convicted by their own consciences of
the vanity of them. Note, Sometimes attempts
for reformation succeed better than
one could have expected, and people are not
so obstinate against them as we feared. Jacob’s
servants, and even the retainers of his
family, gave him all the strange gods, and
the ear-rings they wore, either as charms or
to the honour of their gods; they parted with
all. Note, Reformation is not sincere if it
be not universal. We hope they parted with
them cheerfully, and without reluctance, as
Ephraim did, when he said, What have I to
do any more with idols?
(Hos. xiv. 8),
or that
people that said to their idols, Get you hence,
Isa. xxx. 22.
Jacob took care to bury their
images, we may suppose in some place unknown
to them, that they might not afterwards
find them and return to them. Note,
We must be wholly separated from our sins,
as we are from those that are dead and buried
out of our sight, cast them to the moles and
the bats,
Isa. ii. 20.
IV. He removes without molestation from Shechem to Bethel,
v. 5.
The terror of God
was upon the cities. Though the Canaanites
were much exasperated against the sons of
Jacob for their barbarous usage of the Shechemites,
yet they were so restrained by a
divine power that they could not take this
fair opportunity, which now offered itself,
when they were upon their march, to avenge
their neighbours’ quarrel. Note, The way
of duty is the way of safety. While there
was sin in Jacob’s house, he was afraid of his
neighbours; but now that the strange gods
were put away, and they were all going together
to Bethel, his neighbours were afraid
of him. When we are about God’s work, we
are under special protection. God is with us,
while we are with him; and, if he be for us,
who can be against us? See
No man shall desire thy land, when thou goest
up to appear before the Lord. God governs
the world more by secret terrors on men’s
minds than we are aware of.
| Jacob’s Arrival at Bethel. | B. C. 1732. |
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6 So Jacob came to Luz, which is
in the land of Canaan, that is, Beth-el,
he and all the people that were with
him.
7 And he built there an altar,
and called the place El-Beth-el: because
there God appeared unto him,
when he fled from the face of his brother.
8 But Deborah Rebekah’s nurse
died, and she was buried beneath
Beth-el under an oak: and the name
of it was called Allon-bachuth.
9 And God appeared unto Jacob again,
when he came out of Padan-aram, and
blessed him.
10 And God said unto
him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name
shall not be called any more Jacob,
but Israel shall be thy name: and he
called his name Israel.
11 And God
said unto him, I am God Almighty:
be fruitful and multiply; a nation and
a company of nations shall be of thee,
and kings shall come out of thy loins;
12 And the land which I gave Abraham
and Isaac, to thee I will give it,
and to thy seed after thee will I give
the land.
13 And God went up from
him in the place where he talked with
him.
14 And Jacob set up a pillar
in the place where he talked with him,
even a pillar of stone: and he poured
a drink offering thereon, and he poured
oil thereon.
15 And Jacob called the
name of the place where God spake
with him, Beth-el.
Jacob and his retinue having safely arrived
at Beth-el, we are here told what passed there.
I. There he built an altar
(v. 7),
and no
doubt offered sacrifice upon it, perhaps the
tenth of his cattle, according to his vow, I
will give the tenth unto thee. With these sacrifices
he joined praises for former mercies,
particularly that which the sight of the place
brought afresh to his remembrance; and he
added prayers for the continuance of God’s
favour to him and his family. And he called
the place (that is, the altar) El-beth-el, the
God of Bethel. As, when he made a thankful
acknowledgment of the honour God had
lately done him in calling him Israel, he worshipped
God by the name of El-elohe Israel;
so, now that he was making a grateful recognition
of God’s former favour to him at
Bethel, he worships God by the name of El-beth-el,
the God of Beth-el, because there God
appeared to him. Note, The comfort which
the saints have in holy ordinances is not so
much from Bethel, the house of God, as from
El-beth-el, the God of the house. The ordinances
are but empty things if we do not meet
with God in them.
II. There he buried Deborah, Rebekah’s
nurse,
v. 8.
We have reason to think that
Jacob, after he came to Canaan, while his
family dwelt near Shechem, went himself (it
is likely, often) to visit his father Isaac at
Hebron. Rebekah probably was dead, but
her old nurse (of whom mention is made
survived her, and Jacob took
her to his family, to be a companion to his
wives, her country-women, and an instructor
to his children; while they were at Bethel,
she died, and died lamented, so much lamented
that the oak under which she was
buried was called Allon-bachuth, the oak of
weeping. Note, 1. Old servants in a family,
that have in their time been faithful and useful,
ought to be respected. Honour was
done to this nurse, at her death, by Jacob’s
family, though she was not related to them,
and though she was aged. Former services,
in such a case, must be remembered.
2. We
do not know where death may meet us; perhaps
at Beth-el, the house of God. Therefore
let us be always ready.
3. Family-afflictions
may come even when family-reformation
and religion are on foot. Therefore
rejoice with trembling.
III. There God appeared to him
(v. 9),
to own his altar, to answer to the name by which
he had called him, The God of Beth-el
(v. 7),
and to comfort him under his affliction,
v. 8.
Note, God will appear to those in a way of
grace that attend on him in a way of duty.
Here,
1. He confirmed the change of his
name,
It was done before by the
angel that wrestled with him
and here it was ratified by the divine Majesty,
or Shechinah, that appeared to him. There
it was to encourage him against the fear of
Esau, here against the fear of the Canaanites.
Who can be too hard for Israel, a prince with
God? It is below those who are thus dignified
to droop and despond.
2. He renewed
and ratified the covenant with him, by the
name El-shaddai. I am God Almighty, God
all-sufficient
(v. 11),
able to make good the
promise in due time, and to support thee and
provide for thee in the mean time. Two
things are promised him which we have met
with often before:–
(1.) That he should be
the father of a great nation, great in number–a
company of nations shall be of thee (every
tribe of Israel was a nation, and all the
twelve a company of nations), great in honour
and power–kings shall come out of thy loins.
(2.) That he should be the master of a good
land
(v. 12),
described by the grantees, Abraham
and Isaac, to whom it was promised,
not by the occupants, the Canaanites in whose
possession it now was. The land that was
given to Abraham and Isaac is here entailed
on Jacob and his seed. He shall not have
children without an estate, which is often the
case of the poor, nor an estate without children,
which is often the grief of the rich; but
both. These two promises had a spiritual
signification, of which we may suppose Jacob
himself had some notion, though not so clear
and distinct as we now have; for, without doubt,
Christ is the promised seed, and heaven is the
promised land; the former is the foundation,
and the latter the top-stone, of all God’s
favours.
3. He then went up from him, or
from over him, in some visible display of glory,
which had hovered over him while he talked
with him,
Note, The sweetest communions
the saints have with God in this
world are short and transient, and soon have
an end. Our vision of God in heaven will
be everlasting; there we shall be ever with
the Lord; it is not so here.
IV. There Jacob erected a memorial of
this,
1. He set up a pillar. When he
was going to Padan-aram, he set up for a pillar
that stone on which he had laid his head.
This was agreeable enough to his low condition
and his hasty flight; but now he took
time to erect one more stately, more distinguishable
and durable, probably placing that
stone in it. In token of his intending it for
a sacred memorial of his communion with
God, he poured oil and the other ingredients
of a drink-offering upon it. His vow was,
This stone shall be God’s house, that is, shall
be set up for his honour, as houses to the
praise of their builders; and here he performs
it, transferring it to God by anointing
it.
2. He confirmed the name he had formerly
given to the place
(v. 15),
Beth-el, the
house of God. Yet this very place afterwards
lost the honour of its name, and became
Beth-aven, a house of iniquity; for here it
was that Jeroboam set up one of his calves.
It is impossible for the best man to entail
upon a place so much as the profession and
form of religion.
| Death of Rachel. | B. C. 1732. |
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16 And they journeyed from Beth-el;
and there was but a little way to
come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed,
and she had hard labour.
17 And it came to pass, when she was in
hard labour, that the midwife said
unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have
this son also.
18 And it came to pass,
as her soul was in departing, (for she
died) that she called his name Ben-oni:
but his father called him Benjamin.
19 And Rachel died, and was buried
in the way to Ephrath, which is Beth-lehem.
20 And Jacob set a pillar
upon her grave: that is the pillar of
Rachel’s grave unto this day.
We have here the story of the death of
Rachel, the beloved wife of Jacob.
1. She
fell in travail by the way, not able to reach to
Bethlehem, the next town, though they were
near it; so suddenly does pain sometimes
come upon a woman in travail, which she
cannot escape, or put off. We may suppose
Jacob had soon a tent up, convenient enough
for her reception.
2. Her pains were violent.
She had hard labour, harder than usual: this
was the effect of sin,
Note, Human
life begins with sorrow, and the roses of
its joy are surrounded with thorns.
3. The midwife encouraged her,
No doubt she
had her midwife with her, ready at hand, yet
that would not secure her. Rachel had said,
when she bore Joseph, God shall add another
son, which now the midwife remembers, and
tells her her words were made good. Yet
this did not avail to keep up her spirits; unless
God command away fear, no one else
can. He only says as one having authority,
Fear not. We are apt, in extreme perils, to
comfort ourselves and our friends with the
hopes of a temporal deliverance, in which we
may be disappointed; we had better found
our comforts on that which cannot fail us,
the hope of eternal life.
4. Her travail was
to the life of the child, but to her own death.
Note, Though the pains and perils of childbearing
were introduced by sin, yet they
have sometimes been fatal to very holy
women, who, though not saved in childbearing,
are saved through it with an everlasting
salvation. Rachel had passionately
said, Give me children, or else I die; and now
that she had children (for this was her second)
she died. Her dying is here called the
departing of her soul. Note, The death of
the body is but the departure of the soul to
the world of spirits.
5. Her dying lips called
her new-born son Ben-oni, The son of my sorrow.
And many a son, not born in such
hard labour, yet proves the son of his
parent’s sorrow, and the heaviness of her that
bore him. Children are enough the sorrow
of their poor mothers in the breeding, bearing,
and nursing of them; they should therefore,
when they grow up, study to be their
joy, and so, if possible, to make them some
amends. But Jacob, because he would not
renew the sorrowful remembrance of the
mother’s death every time he called his son
by his name, changed his name, and called
him Benjamin, The son of my right hand;
that is, “very dear to me, set on my right
hand for a blessing, the support of my age,
like the staff in my right hand.”
6. Jacob
buried her near the place where she died.
As she died in child-bed, it was convenient
to bury her quickly; and therefore he did
not bring her to the burying-place of his family.
If the soul be at rest after death, it
matters little where the body lies. In the
place where the tree falls, there let it be.
No mention is made of the mourning that
was at her death, because that might easily
be taken for granted. Jacob, no doubt, was
a true mourner. Note, Great afflictions
sometimes befal us immediately after great
comforts. Lest Jacob should be lifted up
with the visions of the Almighty with which
he was honoured, this was sent as a thorn in
the flesh to humble him. Those that enjoy
the favours peculiar to the children of God
must yet expect the troubles that are common
to the children of men. Deborah, who,
had she lived, would have been a comfort to
Rachel in her extremity, died but a little before.
Note, When death comes into a family,
it often strikes double. God by it speaks
once, yea, twice. The Jewish writers
say, “The death of Deborah and Rachel was
to expiate the murder of the Shechemites,
occasioned by Dinah, a daughter of the family.”
7. Jacob set up a pillar upon her
grave, so that it was known, long after, to be
Rachel’s sepulchre
(1 Sam. x. 2),
and Providence
so ordered it that this place afterwards
fell in the lot of Benjamin. Jacob
set up a pillar in remembrance of his joys
(v. 14),
and here he sets up one in remembrance
of his sorrows; for, as it may be of
use to ourselves to keep both in mind, so it
may be of use to others to transmit the memorials
of both: the church, long afterwards,
owned that what God said to Jacob at Bethel,
both by his word and by his rod, he intended
for their instruction
(Hos. xii. 4),
There he spoke with us.
| The Disgrace of Reuben. | B. C. 1716. |
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21 And Israel journeyed, and spread
his tent beyond the tower of Edar.
22 And it came to pass, when Israel
dwelt in that land, that Reuben went
and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine:
and Israel heard it. Now the
sons of Jacob were twelve:
23 The
sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn,
and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah,
and Issachar, and Zebulun:
24 The sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin:
25 And the sons of Bilhah,
Rachel’s handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali:
26 And the sons of Zilpah,
Leah’s handmaid; Gad, and Asher:
these are the sons of Jacob, which
were born to him in Padan-aram.
27 And Jacob came unto Isaac his
father unto Mamre, unto the city of
Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham
and Isaac sojourned.
28 And
the days of Isaac were an hundred and
fourscore years.
29 And Isaac gave
up the ghost, and died, and was gathered
unto his people, being old and
full of days: and his sons Esau and
Jacob buried him.
Here is,
1. Jacob’s removal,
He also,
as his fathers, sojourned in the land of promise
as in a strange country, and was not
long in a place. Immediately after the story
of Rachel’s death he is here called Israel
(v. 21, 22),
and not often so afterwards: the
Jews say, “The historian does him this honour
here because he bore that affliction with
such admirable patience and submission to
Providence.” Note, Those are Israels indeed,
princes with God, that support the government
of their own passions. He that
has this rule over his own spirit is better than
the mighty. Israel, a prince with God, yet
dwells in tents; the city is reserved for him
in the other world.
2. The sin of Reuben.
A piece of abominable wickedness it was that
he was guilty of
(v. 22),
that very sin which
the apostle says
is not so much
as named among the Gentiles, that one should
have his father’s wife. It is said to have been
when Israel dwelt in that land; as if he were
then absent from his family, which might be
the unhappy occasion of these disorders.
Though perhaps Bilhah was the greater criminal,
and it is probable was abandoned by
Jacob for it, yet Reuben’s crime was so provoking
that, for it, he lost his birthright and
blessing,
The first-born is not
always the best, nor the most promising.
This was Reuben’s sin, but it was Jacob’s
affliction; and what a sore affliction it was is
intimated in a little compass, and Israel heard
it. No more is said–that is enough; he
heard it with the utmost grief and shame,
horror and displeasure. Reuben thought to
conceal it, that his father should never hear
of it; but those that promise themselves secresy
in sin are generally disappointed; a
bird of the air carries the voice. 3. A complete
list of the sons of Jacob, now that Benjamin
the youngest was born. This is the
first time we have the names of these heads
of the twelve tribes together; afterwards we
find them very often spoken of and
enumerated, even to the end of the Bible,
4. The visit which Jacob made
to his father Isaac at Hebron. We may suppose
he had visited him before since his return,
for he sorely longed after his father’s
house; but never, till now, brought his family
to settle with him, or near him,
Probably he did this now upon the death of
Rebekah, by which Isaac was left solitary,
and not disposed to marry again.
5. The
age and death of Isaac are here recorded,
though it appears, by computation, that
he died not till many years after Joseph was sold
into Egypt, and much about the time that
he was preferred there. Isaac, a mild quiet
man, lived the longest of all the patriarchs,
for he was 180 years old; Abraham was but
175. Isaac lived about forty years after he
had made his will,
We shall not
die an hour the sooner, but abundantly the
better, for our timely setting our heart and
house in order. Particular notice is taken of
the amicable agreement of Esau and Jacob,
in solemnizing their father’s funeral
(v. 29),
to show how wonderfully God had changed
Esau’s mind since he vowed his brother’s
murder immediately after his father’s death,
Note, God has many ways of
preventing bad men from doing the mischief
they intended; he can either tie their hands
or turn their hearts.
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