Genesis 35:2 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Genesis 35:2
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:
a dress · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Exodus 19:14 And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes.
Exodus 19:10 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes,
Ezekiel 18:31 Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O…
James 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
Genesis 18:19 For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and ju…
Joshua 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were…
Joshua 24:23 Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the LORD God of Israel.
Ezekiel 36:25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 35:1-5
Here, I. God reminds Jacob of his vow at Beth-el, and sends him thither to perform it, Gen 35:1. Jacob had said in the day of his distress, If I come again in peace, this stone shall be God's house, Gen 28:22. 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 (Gen 33:19, Gen 33:20); but still Beth-el is…
Then Jacob said unto his household . . . Put away the strange gods that are among you--Hebrew, "gods of the stranger," of foreign nations. Jacob had brought, in his service, a number of Mesopotamian retainers, who were addicted to superstitious practices; and there is some reason to fear that the same high testimony as to the religious superintendence of his household could not have been borne of him as was done of Abraham (Gen 18:19). He might have been too negligent hitherto in winking at these evils in his servants; or, perhaps, it was not till his arrival in Canaan, that he had learnt, for the first time, that one nearer and dearer to him was secretly infected with the same corruption (G…
Put away the strange gods - אלהי הנכר elohey hannechar, the gods of the foreigners, which were among them. Jacob's servants were all Syrians, and no doubt were addicted less or more to idolatry and superstition. These gods might belong to them, or, as some have conjectured, they were the teraphim which Rachel stole; but these have already been supposed to be astrological tables, or something of this kind, called by Laban his gods, because by them he supposed he could predict future events, and that they referred to certain astral and planetary intelligences, by whose influences sublunary things were regulated. But it is more natural to suppose that these gods found now in Jacob's family were…
The Church Fathers
AMULETS OF IDOLS. — Jacob, when he went up to Bethel, where he was commanded to build an altar, says to those in his house and to all those who went with him, Remove the strange gods that are with you from the midst of you , and so forth." Then he said, And they gave to Jacob the strange gods, which were in their hands, and the earrings, which were in their ears . We can ask why they also gave the earrings, which if they were objects of adornment, had no relation to idolatry. The reason has to be that they were amulets of strange gods, because Scripture testifies that Rebekah received earrings from Abraham's servant (Cf. Gen. 24:22-30), which would not have happened had they not been allowed to wear earrings for personal adornment. Therefore, those earrings that were given with the idols, as was said, were amulets of idols. [
After he was called by God, Jacob ascends to Bethel, that is, to the house of God (this is how the name Bethel is interpreted), offers sacrifices to God and is declared chief and master of the holy rites. He teaches his successors and descendants how they must enter the house of God. He orders the foreign gods to be rejected like dung and filth and to change the garments. It is fitting for us to do likewise when we are called before God, or enter the divine temple, especially in the time of the holy baptism. We, as if we drive away the foreign gods and part from such error, must assert, "I refuse you, Satan, and all your pomp and all your worship." We also must change completely our garment by stripping off "the old self that is corrupt through deceitful lusts" and by clothing ourselves with "the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to image of its Creator." The women who were with Jacob took off their earrings. And in fact women by entering the house of God without wearing any carnal ornament and with loose hair remove from their head any accusation of pride. That is why, I believe, those women took off the precious stones they wore in their ears.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Bethel — House of God. (1.) A place in Central Palestine, about 10 miles north of Jerusalem, at the head of the pass of Michmash and Ai. It was originally the royal Canaanite city of Luz (Gen. 28:19). The…
Altar · Built by Jacob — Built by Jacob
Beth-El · .And builds an altar at — .And builds an altar at
Families · Good — Exemplified: Jacob — Good — Exemplified: Jacob
Family · .Jacob — .Jacob
Garments · Were often changed — Were often changed
Holiness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Iconoclasm · .Jacob — .Jacob
Idolatry · Incompatible with the service of God — Incompatible with the service of God
Masters · Should, with their households: Put away idols — Should, with their households: Put away idols
Patriarchal Government · Exercised in: Acting as priests — Exercised in: Acting as priests
Polytheism · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Prayer, Social And Family · Exemplified: Jacob — Exemplified: Jacob
Then Jacob said unto his household,.... His wives and children:
and to all that were with him; his menservants and maidservants, and such as remained with him of the captives of Shechem, who might choose to continue with him:
put away the strange gods that are among you; meaning not the teraphim or images of Laban's, which Rachel had stolen from him; for it can hardly be thought that these should be retained so many years in Jacob's family, and used in an idolatrous manner; but rather such as might be among the Canaanitish servants that had been lately taken into Jacob's service, or that were among the captives of Shechem, or taken along with the spoil of that city; and so the Targum of Jo…
Then Jacob said unto his household. The prompt obedience of Jacob is here described. For when he heard the voice of God, he neither doubted nor disputed with himself respecting what was necessary to be done: but, as he was commanded, he quickly prepared himself for his journey. But to show that he obeyed God, he not only collected his goods, but also purified his house from idols. For if we desire that God should be propitious to us, all hindrances are to be removed, which in any way separate him from us. Hence also we perceive to what point the theft of Rachel tended. For, (as we have said,) she neither wished to draw her father away from superstition, but rather followed him in his fault;…
Jacob had vowed wholehearted devotion to the Lord (28:20-22); establishing this required that his family remove all pagan idols and cease their devotion to other gods. God permits no rivals; only the Lord was to be their God (cp. Josh 5:1-9).
Rashi on Genesis 35:2
הנכר [PUT AWAY] THE STRANGE [GODS] —which you have in your possession from the spoil of Shechem.
ותטהרו AND PURIFY YOURSELVES of idol-worship.
והחליפו שמלותיכם AND CHANGE YOUR GARMENTS — lest you have in your possession a vestment that has been employed in idolatrous worship (Genesis Rabbah 81:3).
Purification · SCRIPTURES RELATING TO — SCRIPTURES RELATING TO
Teraphim · Con — Con
Worship · Of Jacob — Of Jacob
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
