אלוהי הנכר, which they had looted from Shechem.

ויקרא למקום, which was outside Luz, where he had erected a monument 34 years earlier when he was on his way from his home El Bet El.

Originally, he had called the town known as Luz merely Bet El. Now he named the site where he had had the dream with the ladder El Bet El. This site was outside the town previously known as Luz. He added the word El, seeing that during all the intervening years G’d had stood by him.

אלון בכות, this is mentioned only because all the locations at which Yaakov stopped on his return from Lavan and which were mentioned in the Torah were mentioned because of something that happened there. They were: Pnuel, Sukkot, El Elo-hey Yisrael, Shalem, the city of Shechem. Luz(ah), El Bet El, Alon Bachut, the second Bet El, Bet Lechem (Efrat), Migdal Eder.

וירא אלוקים אל יעקב עוד, after he had moved on from Luz, called now Bet El, he named a second place Bet El, as will be explained forthwith.

המקום אשר דבר אתו. This precise expression has been repeated several times in our paragraph, seeing that in each instance the place where G’d spoke to Yaakov was in the middle of the path, not while he was in a town.

כברת, a word which is similar to Job 34,24ירוע כבירים, “He breaks the mighty ones.” In our context it means something similar to הרבה, a considerable amount. The reason why Rachel was buried at that spot was because it was still a considerable distance from Efrat, and it would not have been dignified to transport her without a coffin for such a distance.

ותקש, this means the same as if it had said vatekashe. We have similar constructions such as ותצו as alternative for vatetzaveh, or ותכס, vatechasseh.

אל תראי כי גם זה לך בן, in accordance with Rachel’s prayer at the time Joseph was born (30,24) when she asked G’d to grant her another son. The midwife reassured Rachel that G’d did not mean to kill her but that He had accepted her prayer. She wanted to calm Rachel‘s fear for her life.

BINYAMIN. Son of [my] old age [z'kunim]. Son of a long time [yamim]. As in (Dan. 12:13), "the end of days" [l'ketz hayamin], like "hayamim."

היא מצבת קבורת רחל, the one Samuel referred to after the latter departed from him, having been anointed king over Israel. (Samuel I 10,2)

למגדל העדר, close to Bethlehem as mentioned in Michah 5,1 as well as in chapter 4,8 there.

וישמע ישראל, this matter has been reported only so that we can understand why Yaakov passed over his firstborn son Reuven when in his blessings before his death he referred to him as פחז כמים אל תותר כי עלית על משכבי אביך (49,4). “the one who was as unrestrained as water when you mounted the bed of your father, does not deserve the privileges associated with the birthright.” [These privileges were allocated by Yaakov in part to Yehudah, commencing with the reign of David, and in part to Joseph, as the firstborn son of Rachel. The latter was accorded two tribal heads, (Ephrayim and Menashe) among the twelve tribes. Ed.]

ויהיו בני יעקב שנים עשר. Now that Binyamin had been born the total number of Yaakov’s son amounted to 12. This verse has been delayed in order not to break the sequence of the narrative.

עשו ויעקב, they are mentioned in this order, a) because Esau was the firstborn, and, b) Yaakov deferred to him according him this honour. When the Torah described Avraham’s funeral, Yitzchok, the younger, was mentioned first seeing that Yishmael was the son of a slave-woman.