5. As they moved on, God made the people of the cities that were all around them terrified so that no one pursued them.
6. Jacob and all the people who were with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan.
7. He built an altar there and called that place El Bethel [God of the House of God]. That’s where God had revealed himself to Jacob when he was fleeing from his brother.
8. Rebekah’s nurse Deborah died and was buried under the oak tree outside Bethel. So Jacob called it the Tree of Crying.
9. Then God appeared once more to Jacob after he came back from Paddan Aram, and he blessed him.
10. God said to him, “Your name is Jacob. You will no longer be called Jacob, but your name will be Israel.” So he named him Israel.
11. God also said to him, “I am God Almighty. Be fertile, and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from you.
12. I will give you the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac. I will also give this land to your descendants.”
13. Then God went up from him at the place where he had spoken with him.
14. So Jacob set up a memorial, a stone marker, to mark the place where God had spoken with him. He poured a wine offering and olive oil on it.
15. Jacob named the place where God had spoken with him Bethel [House of God].