Genesis 35:2

Jacob Goes Back To Bethel

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.”

Foreign Gods

Purify Yourselves

Put on

Turn Aside

Be Clean

Strange Gods

Jacob

Genesis 18:19

For I have chosen him so that he will command his children and his house after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just. This is how the Lord will fulfill to Abraham what He promised him.”

Genesis 31:19

When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.

Exodus 19:10

And the Lord told Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. They must wash their clothes

Joshua 24:15

But if it doesn’t please you to worship Yahweh, choose for yourselves today the one you will worship: the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my family, we will worship Yahweh.”

Exodus 19:14

Then Moses came down from the mountain to the people and consecrated them, and they washed their clothes.

Genesis 31:34

Now Rachel had taken Laban’s household idols, put them in the saddlebag of the camel, and sat on them. Laban searched the whole tent but found nothing.

Joshua 24:23

“Then get rid of the foreign gods that are among you and offer your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”

1 Samuel 7:3

Samuel told them, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, get rid of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths that are among you, dedicate yourselves to the Lord, and worship only Him. Then He will rescue you from the hand of the Philistines.”

Genesis 34:2

When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, a prince of the region, saw her, he took her and raped her.

Genesis 34:24-25

All the able-bodied men listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and all the able-bodied men were circumcised.

Genesis 35:22

While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it.

Jacob had 12 sons:

Exodus 20:3-4

Do not have other gods besides Me.

Exodus 23:13

“Pay strict attention to everything I have said to you. You must not invoke the names of other gods; they must not be heard on your lips.

Leviticus 15:5

Anyone who touches his bed is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening.

Leviticus 17:16

But if he does not wash his clothes and bathe himself, he will bear his punishment.”

Numbers 31:24

On the seventh day wash your clothes, and you will be clean. After that you may enter the camp.”

Deuteronomy 5:7

Do not have other gods besides Me.

Deuteronomy 6:14

Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you,

Deuteronomy 7:25

You must burn up the carved images of their gods. Don’t covet the silver and gold on the images and take it for yourself, or else you will be ensnared by it, for it is abhorrent to the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 11:28

and a curse, if you do not obey the commands of the Lord your God and you turn aside from the path I command you today by following other gods you have not known.

Deuteronomy 32:16

They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods;
they enraged Him with detestable practices.

Joshua 23:7

and so that you do not associate with these nations remaining among you. Do not call on the names of their gods or make an oath to them; do not worship them or bow down to them.

Joshua 24:2

Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods.

Joshua 24:20

If you abandon the Lord and worship foreign gods, He will turn against you, harm you, and completely destroy you, after He has been good to you.”

Judges 10:16

So they got rid of the foreign gods among them and worshiped the Lord, and He became weary of Israel’s misery.

Ruth 1:15

Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. Follow your sister-in-law.”

2 Samuel 7:23

And who is like Your people Israel? God came to one nation on earth in order to redeem a people for Himself, to make a name for Himself, and to perform for them great and awesome acts, driving out nations and their gods before Your people You redeemed for Yourself from Egypt.

2 Kings 5:10

Then Elisha sent him a messenger, who said, “Go wash seven times in the Jordan and your flesh will be restored and you will be clean.”

2 Kings 5:12-13

Aren’t Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and left in a rage.

2 Kings 17:29

But the people of each nation were still making their own gods in the cities where they lived and putting them in the shrines of the high places that the people of Samaria had made.

1 Chronicles 16:26

For all the gods of the peoples are idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.

Job 1:5

Whenever a round of banqueting was over, Job would send for his children and purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought: Perhaps my children have sinned, having cursed God in their hearts. This was Job’s regular practice.

Psalm 51:2

Wash away my guilt
and cleanse me from my sin.

Psalm 51:7

Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Psalm 101:2-7

I will pay attention to the way of integrity.
When will You come to me?
I will live with a heart of integrity in my house.

Ecclesiastes 5:1

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Better to draw near in obedience than to offer the sacrifice as fools do, for they ignorantly do wrong.

Isaiah 1:16

“Wash yourselves. Cleanse yourselves.
Remove your evil deeds from My sight.
Stop doing evil.

Isaiah 52:11

Leave, leave, go out from there!
Do not touch anything unclean;
go out from her, purify yourselves,
you who carry the vessels of the Lord.

Jeremiah 5:7

Why should I forgive you?
Your children have abandoned Me
and sworn by those who are not gods.
I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery;
they gashed themselves at the prostitute’s house.

Jeremiah 13:27

Your adulteries and your lustful neighing,
your heinous prostitution
on the hills, in the fields—
I have seen your detestable acts.
Woe to you, Jerusalem!
You are unclean—
for how long yet?

Jeremiah 16:20

Can one make gods for himself?
But they are not gods.

Ezekiel 18:31

Throw off all the transgressions you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, house of Israel?

Ezekiel 20:7

I also said to them: Each of you must throw away the detestable things that are before your eyes and not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.

Ezekiel 36:25

I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols.

Daniel 5:4

They drank the wine and praised their gods made of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

John 13:10-11

“One who has bathed,” Jesus told him, “doesn’t need to wash anything except his feet, but he is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you.”

Acts 19:26

You both see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this man Paul has persuaded and misled a considerable number of people by saying that gods made by hand are not gods!

1 Corinthians 10:7

Don’t become idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to play.

2 Corinthians 6:15-17

What agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

2 Corinthians 7:1

Therefore, dear friends, since we have such promises, let us cleanse ourselves from every impurity of the flesh and spirit, completing our sanctification in the fear of God.

Galatians 4:8

But in the past, when you didn’t know God, you were enslaved to things that by nature are not gods.

Hebrews 10:22

let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water.

James 4:8

Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, double-minded people!

1 Peter 2:1-2

So rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander.

Jude 1:23

save others by snatching them from the fire; have mercy on others but with fear, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.