Genesis 35:3, commentary and pictures

Jacob's words are a remembrance that God had answered him in the day of his distress and had been with him in the way he went. He called his household to go to Bethel in gratitude for that past care and in renewed commitment to God. Before going to that sacred place he required them to humble themselves and prepare for worship.

The call was spoken when Jacob was in danger after his sons carried out a violent and cruel revenge on the Shechemites. They had acted without God's approval and without Jacob's prior knowledge, and Jacob reproved them, fearing that the surrounding peoples would hate him and destroy him and his house. In that peril he ordered his household to arise and go up to Bethel, where he would make an altar unto God and worship Him there.

The preparation required putting away all false gods and idolatrous earrings, becoming clean, changing their clothes, and laying aside ornaments. He humbled his family and sought God's mercy by making atonement for his family's sins through sacrifice, so that God would show them favor and not abandon them to destruction. The household gave up every idol and earring, which Jacob buried under the oak by Shechem where they were never found again. God accepted Jacob's work to clear wrong from his family, laid terror on the surrounding cities so that none pursued them, appeared to Jacob, blessed him, and renewed the promise to him.