Genesis 35:4

35:1-5 Beth-el was forgotten. But as many as God loves, he will remind of neglected duties, one way or other, by conscience or by providences. When we have vowed a vow to God, it is best not to defer the payment of it; yet better late than never. Jacob commanded his household to prepare, not only for the journey and removal, but for religious services. Masters of families should use their authority to keep up religion in their families, Jos 24:15. They must put away strange gods. In families where there is a face of religion, and an altar to God, yet many times there is much amiss, and more strange gods than one would suppose. They must be clean, and change their garments. These were but outward ceremonies, signifying the purifying and change of the heart. What are clean clothes, and new clothes, without a clean heart, and a new heart? If Jacob had called for these idols sooner, they had parted with them sooner. Sometimes attempts for reformation succeed better than we could have thought. Jacob buried their images. We must be wholly separated from our sins, as we are from those that are dead and buried out of sight. He removed from Shechem to Beth-el. Though the Canaanites were very angry against the sons of Jacob for their barbarous usage of the Shechemites, yet they were so kept back by Divine power, that they could not take the opportunity now offered to avenge them. The way of duty is the way of safety.

Whether in the hands of his servants or of the captives taken at Shechem, or in the hands of his sons, who had them along with the spoil they took there; so the Targum of Jonathan,"they delivered, into the hand of Jacob all the idols of the people which were in their hands, which they had took of the idols of Shechem:" and all their earrings which were in their ears; not the earrings that women wore in common, such as Abraham's servant gave to Rebekah, and which Jacob's wives might wear, for such were not unlawful; but either which were worn in the ears of the strange gods or idols; for such used, it seems, according to some writers, to be decorated and ornamented after that manner; or rather in the ears of the idolaters themselves, worn by them in a superstitious way, having the images of these idols on them: so the Targum of Jonathan,"and the earrings which were in the ears of the inhabitants of the city of Shechem, in which were formed the likeness of their idols:" and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem; that is, the idols, which, after he had broke to pieces, perhaps, he dug a hole under an oak, and there buried them, that they might be no more made use of in an idolatrous way; and he chose to put them under an oak, because it is a tree which often stands many years before it is cut down, and besides was used for religious purposes, and had in great veneration, and therefore seldom felled.

Genesis 35:4 . They gave unto Jacob all the strange gods — Rather, the gods of the stranger; and all their ear-rings — Either because they had been abused to idolatry and superstition, and were therefore to be destroyed, (Deuteronomy 7:57 and Deuteronomy 12:3 ,) or for fear they should be so abused. For the Holy Scriptures insinuate, and other writers expressly affirm, that divers heathen nations did wear ear-rings for the honour of their idols, and with the representations or ensigns of their idols engraven upon them, such as the rings and vessels mentioned by Maimonides, marked with the image of the sun and moon. Jacob hid them under the oak — In a place only known to himself. It is probable they were first melted or broken.

(4) Earrings. —Earrings seem to have been worn not so much for ornament as for superstitious purposes, being regarded as talismans or amulets. Hence it was from their earrings that Aaron made the golden calf ( Exodus 32:2-4 ). The oak.—Not Abraham’s oak-grove (Genesis 12:6), referred to probably in Judges 9:6; Judges 9:37—the Hebrew word in these three places being êlôn—but that under which Joshua set up his pillar of witness (Joshua 24:26), the tree being in both these places called allâh, or êlâh, a terebinth.

4 . in their hand ] i.e. in their possession. the rings … ears ] The rings mentioned were probably not simple earrings as in Genesis 24:22 , but rings worn as charms, and amulets, having symbols of heathen deities. Cf. Hosea 2:13 . the oak ] R.V. marg. terebinth . It is noteworthy that Joshua, under the same “oak” of Shechem ( Joshua 24:26 ), testified against the primitive worship of strange gods; cf. Joshua 24:2 ; Joshua 24:14 ; Joshua 24:23 . For the “terebinth,” cf. Genesis 12:6 . The same sacred tree is possibly mentioned in Jdg 9:6 .

And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their {c} earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. (e) For in this was some sign of superstition, as in tablets and Agnus deis (a cake of wax, stamped with a lamb bearing a cross or flag, that has been blessed by the Pope).

Either because they had been abused to idolatry and superstition at Shechem, or elsewhere, and therefore were to be destroyed according to God’s command, now signified to Jacob, and afterwards delivered to his posterity, Deu 7:5 12:3 ; or for fear they should be so abused. For the Scripture seems to insinuate, and other writers expressly affirm, that divers heathen people did wear earrings for the honour of their idols, and with the representations or ensigns of their idols engraven upon them. See Judges 8:24 . After he had melted or broken them, (which seems probable from parallel instances, as Exodus 32:20 2 Kings 18:4 ), Jacob hid them under a certain oak, though not known to his family which it was. He chose that place, either as most proper to put monuments of idolatry under those trees which were so much and so generally abused to idolatry, as oaks especially were, Isaiah 1:29 ; or as the safest place, where they were likely to remain longest hid, because the heathen had a veneration for oaks, and therefore would not cut them down, nor dig them up, nor do any thing which had a tendency that way.

4. they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods … and earrings—Strange gods, the "seraphim" (compare Ge 31:30), as well, perhaps, as other idols acquired among the Shechemite spoil—earrings of various forms, sizes, and materials, which are universally worn in the East, and, then as now, connected with incantation and idolatry (compare Ho 2:13). The decided tone which Jacob now assumed was the probable cause of the alacrity with which those favorite objects of superstition were surrendered. Jacob hid them under the oak—or terebinth—a towering tree, which, like all others of the kind, was a striking object in the scenery of Palestine; and beneath which, at Shechem, the patriarch had pitched his tent. He hid the images and amulets, delivered to him by his Mesopotamian dependents, at the root of this tree. The oak being deemed a consecrated tree, to bury them at its root was to deposit them in a place where no bold hand would venture to disturb the ground; and hence it was called from this circumstance—"the plain of Meonenim"—that is, "the oak of enchantments" (Jud 9:37); and from the great stone which Joshua set up—"the oak of the pillar" (Jud 9:6).

Verse 4. - And they gave mate Jacob all the strange gods - Rosenmüller thinks these must have been many, since the historian would not otherwise have used the term כֹּל - which were in their hand ( i.e. which they possessed), and all their earrings which were in their ears ; - i.e. those employed for purposes of idolatrous worship, which were often covered with allegorical figures and mysterious sentences, and supposed to be endowed with a talismanic virtue ( Judges 8:21 ; Isaiah 3:20 ; Hosea 2:13 ) - and Jacob hid them - having probably first destroyed them, since they do not appear to have been ever after sought for or resumed by the parties who gave them up (Hughes) - under the oak which was by Shechem. Whether the oak, or terebinth, under which Abraham once pitched his tent ( Genesis 12:6 ), that beneath whose shade Joshua afterwards erected his memorial pillar ( Joshua 24:26 ), the oak of the sorcerers ( Judges 9:37 ), and the oak of the pillar at Shechem ( Judges 9:6 ) were all the tree under which Jacob buried the images and earrings cannot with certainty be determined, though the probability is that they were. Genesis 35:4