And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.
God said unto Jacob, Arise, ... This command was given as seasonably in point of time, as tenderly in respect of language. The disgraceful and perilous events that had recently taken place in the patriarch's family must have produced in him a strong desire to remove without delay from the vicinity of Shechem. Borne down by an overwhelming sense of the criminality of his two sons-of the offence they had given to God, and the dishonour they had brought on the true faith-distracted, too, with anxiety about the probable consequences which their outrage might bring upon himself and family, should the Canaanite people combine to extirpate such a band of robbers and murderers-he must have felt this call as affording a great relief to his afflicted feelings. At the same time it conveyed a tender rebuke.
Go up to Beth-el, ... Beth-el was about thirty miles south of Shechem; and was an ascent from a low to a highland country. There, he would not only be released from the painful associations of the latter place, but be established on a spot, that would revive the most delightful and sublime recollections. The pleasure of revisiting it, however, was not altogether unalloyed.
Make ... an altar unto God that appeared. It too frequently happens that early impressions are effaced through lapse of time-that promises made in seasons of distress are forgotten; or, if remembered on the return of health and prosperity, there is not the same alacrity and sense of obligation felt to fulfill them. Jacob was lying under that charge. He had fallen into spiritual indolence. It was now eight or ten years since his return to Canaan. He had effected a comfortable settlement; and had acknowledged the divine mercies by which that return and settlement had been signally distinguished (cf. Genesis 33:20).
But for some unrecorded reason, his early vow at Beth-el (see the note at Genesis 28:22), made 30 years before, in a great; crisis of his life, remained unperformed. The Lord appeared now, to remind him of his neglected duty-in terms, however, so mild, as awakened less the memory of his fault, than of the kindness of his heavenly Guardian; and how much Jacob felt the touching nature of the appeal to that memorable scene at Beth-el, appears in the immediate preparations he made to arise and go up there (Psalms 66:13).