Genesis 35:1 God said to Jacob, “Get up! Go to Bethel and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”
2 So Jacob said to his family and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your clothes. 3 We must get up and go to Bethel. I will build an altar there to the God who answered me in my day of distress. He has been with me everywhere I have gone.”
Jacob is obeying the command of God by returning to Bethel and building an alter. He has commanded his whole family to give up their idols and purify themselves before they make the journey.
Genesis 35:4 Then they gave Jacob all their foreign gods and their earrings, and Jacob hid them under the oak near Shechem. 5 When they set out, a terror from God came over the cities around them, and they did not pursue Jacob’s sons. 6 So Jacob and all who were with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan. 7 Jacob built an altar there and called the place God of Bethel because it was there that God had revealed Himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.
God was protecting Jacob's sons, even though they had done such a horrible thing. It was through these sinful sons that God was building his chosen people.
Genesis 35:8 Deborah, the one who had nursed and raised Rebekah, died and was buried under the oak south of Bethel. So Jacob named it Oak of Weeping.
9 God appeared to Jacob again after he returned from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him. 10 God said to him:
Your name is Jacob;
you will no longer be named Jacob,
but your name will be Israel.
So He named him Israel. 11 God also said to him:
I am God Almighty.
Be fruitful and multiply.
A nation, indeed an assembly of nations,
will come from you,
and kings will descend from you.
12 I will give to you the land
that I gave to Abraham and Isaac.
And I will give the land
to your future descendants.
13 Then God withdrew from him at the place where He had spoken to him.
14 Jacob set up a marker at the place where He had spoken to him—a stone marker. He poured a drink offering on it and anointed it with oil. 15 Jacob named the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.
Again God reiterated the promise to Abraham and Isaac and now to Jacob. All of these promises to Jacob were fulfilled. He was very fruitful, having 12 sons and at least one daughter. An assembly of nations would come from him, namely Israel and Judah. Kings will descend from him, David and his line as well as the other kings mentioned over Judah and Israel since they are all Jewish. And after the Exodus, his offspring again lived and possessed the land of Canaan.
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