Vayishlach

So, Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Rid yourselves of the alien gods in your midst, purify yourselves, and change your clothes. Come, let us go up to Bethel, and I will build an altar there to the God who answered me when I was in distress and who has been with me wherever I go.

35:2-3

Jacob was intent to remove any trace of idols that had been part of the loot his sons had taken from the city of Shechem and Chamor, and to remove any impurity acquired through contact with such idols. To this end, he instructed all his people to change their garments. Of course, the exhortation included the order to desist from any idolatrous practices that might have been picked up by his sons due to their contact with the idol worshipers.

Akedat Yitzchak (15^th Century)

In spite of the fact that such artifacts were permissible for use by people prior to the Torah having been given seeing that they had undergone a process of involuntary abandonment by their owners which disqualified them from further use as idols…Jacob based himself on a concept found in Kohelet 4:17: “Watch your step when you are on the way to the House of the Lord…”

Rabbeinu Bachya (14^th Century)

Man must make an effort to return to God wholeheartedly at all times, and to remove from his home all alien and forbidden objects, foods, etc. Anything that is displeasing in the eyes of God is called “Avodah Zara,” a form of alien deity. We must keep our homes pure so as to conform with the Torah’s command to the Jewish soldier, “ensure that your camp is holy” (Deut. 23:15).

Isaiah Horowitz ((16^th Century)

Jacob’s life among the inhabitants of Canaan had endangered his family. Jacob probably should not have settled in such proximity to the natives of Canaan. He should have gone, first of all to the place wehre…his parents and grandparents before him had found suitable for the undisturbed development of the Abrahamite way of family life…The journey to Bethel, the place where God had been revealed to their father, was as significant for the family of Jacob as the assembly at Mount Sinai was to be for their descendents

Samson Raphael Hirsch (19^th Century)

It is a defect in the worship of God that when a man comes to thank the Lord for His past beneficence, his words will express thanks while in his thoughts he will be asking for the future. Here, on the other hand, it is stressed by Jacob that the altar will serve solely for expressing thanks for the past…The purpose indeed of many Mitzvot in the Torah is remembrance of the exodus from Egypt and the wonders that took place there.

Malbim (19^th Century)