The Lord God now appeared to Jacob for a fourth direct revelation. He told him to , Arise, go up to Beth-el, and dwell there. He also told him to make there an altar unto God. It was there that he fled from Esau and where the Abrahamic Covenant was confirmed to him. Jacob had been in Shechem for ten years. This was not how he should have complied with the solemn vow he made to God (Genesis 28: 20-22) to return to Bethel his father’s home. The tragic incident with Dinah’s rape was probably the consequence of his failure to accommodate his debt to God. Apparently since he was in Shechem for so long he had no intention of going the fifteen miles to Bethel to fulfill his vow to Jehovah God. Perhaps Jacob still did not realize that the situation with Dinah was the divine retribution for his failure to keep his vow. The God of the universe did not forget and made the situation at Shechem such that he could no longer stay there. God was now commanding him to go and build an altar in Bethel to Him. Periodically the Patriarchs would build altars on their own to God.
