Bible Strands
Genesis 35:8
Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel. So Jacob named it Allon-bacuth.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator addresses the reader at the conclusion of Jacob’s return from Paddan-aram, immediately after Jacob dedicates an altar at Bethel and before God appears to him again. The moment records the death and burial of Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, in that specific location.
The words — The Hebrew mei.Ne.ket (suckling-nurse) identifies Deborah’s role, while Allon-bacuth (oak of weeping) names the burial site beneath the tree. These terms anchor the event in both familial service and physical geography.
The thread — The narrative connects to earlier family movements where Rebekah’s nurse traveled with her from Abraham’s household (Genesis 24:59) and to later biblical patterns of interring the dead beneath trees (1 Samuel 31:13). The site becomes a fixed landmark in Jacob’s lineage.
Why it lands — The text records a factual transition in Jacob’s journey, showing how ordinary deaths and place-naming intersect with covenant history. It asks the reader to observe how personal loss and geographical markers are documented without embellishment within the broader narrative.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Genesis 24:59 So they sent their sister Rebekah on her way, along with her nurse and Abraham’s servant and his men.
- 1 Samuel 31:13 Then they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.
- Judges 2:1 Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land that I had promised to your fathers, and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you,
- Judges 2:5 So they called that place Bochim and offered sacrifices there to the LORD.