Genesis 33

Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two servant women.

1And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids.

NoteFour hundred men is a fighting force, not a traveling party; Jacob had been told in the previous chapter that Esau was coming with them, and he had good reason to fear his brother, whose birthright and blessing he had taken years earlier.

2He put the servant women and their children in front, Leah and her children behind them, and Rachel and Joseph last of all.

2And he put the handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindermost.

NoteThe two servant women are Bilhah and Zilpah, given to Jacob as secondary wives by Rachel and Leah; between them they are the mothers of four of his sons. Placing Rachel and Joseph last puts the wife and child he loves most at the greatest distance from Esau.

3He himself went on ahead of them, and he bowed to the ground seven times as he came near to his brother.

3And he passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

NoteBowing to the ground seven times was the formal approach of a subject to a king. Letters from Canaanite rulers of this era to the Egyptian court use the same gesture as a set phrase of submission. Jacob is treating his brother as a sovereign.

4Esau ran to meet him. He hugged him, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him, and they both cried.

4And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept.

5Esau looked up and saw the women and the children, and he said, "Who are these with you?" Jacob said, "They are the children God has kindly given to me, your servant."

5And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, Who are those with thee? And he said, The children which God hath graciously given thy servant.

NoteCalling Esau "my lord" and himself "your servant" is the courtesy language an inferior used to a superior throughout the ancient Near East; it does not mean Jacob has become Esau's property. He keeps it up through the whole conversation.

6Then the servant women came near with their children, and they bowed down.

6Then the handmaidens came near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves.

7Leah also came near with her children, and they bowed down. After that Joseph and Rachel came near, and they bowed down.

7And Leah also with her children came near, and bowed themselves: and after came Joseph near and Rachel, and they bowed themselves.

8Esau said, "What did you mean by all this company I met on the way?" Jacob said, "They are so that I may find favor with you, my lord."

8And he said, What meanest thou by all this drove which I met? And he said, These are to find grace in the sight of my lord.

NoteThe company Esau met was the large gift of goats, sheep, camels, cattle and donkeys that Jacob had sent ahead in separate droves in the previous chapter, hoping to soften Esau before they met.

9Esau said, "I have plenty, my brother. Keep what you have for yourself."

9And Esau said, I have enough, my brother; keep that thou hast unto thyself.

10Jacob said, "No, please. If I have found favor with you, then take this gift from my hand. For I have seen your face, as though I had seen the face of God, and you were pleased with me.

10And Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my present at my hand: for therefore I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me.

Note"Seeing the face" of someone is the idiom for being admitted to the presence of a king and received favorably. There is also a play on the previous chapter, where Jacob wrestled at a place he named Peniel, "the face of God," saying he had seen God face to face and lived.

11Please take the gift that has been brought to you, because God has been kind to me, and because I have plenty." Jacob kept urging him, and Esau took it.

11Take, I pray thee, my blessing that is brought to thee; because God hath dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough. And he urged him, and he took it.

NoteThe word translated "gift" here is the Hebrew word for a blessing, which could be used of a present given as a token of goodwill. It is the same word used of the blessing Jacob took from Esau by deceit, and Jacob is now pressing a "blessing" back into his hands.

12Then Esau said, "Let us set out and go, and I will travel ahead of you."

12And he said, Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before thee.

13Jacob said to him, "My lord knows that the children are weak, and that the sheep and cattle with me are nursing their young. If they are driven too hard for even one day, the whole flock will die.

13And he said unto him, My lord knoweth that the children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me: and if men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die.

14Please let my lord go on ahead of his servant. I will move along slowly, at the pace the animals in front of me and the children can manage, until I come to my lord at Seir."

14Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant: and I will lead on softly, according as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure, until I come unto my lord unto Seir.

NoteSeir is the hill country south-east of the Dead Sea, the territory later known as Edom, where Esau had settled. Jacob promises to follow him there, though the narrative never records him going.

15Esau said, "Then let me leave some of the people who are with me here with you." Jacob said, "Why do that? Only let me find favor with my lord."

15And Esau said, Let me now leave with thee some of the folk that are with me. And he said, What needeth it? let me find grace in the sight of my lord.

16So that day Esau went back on his way to Seir.

16So Esau returned that day on his way unto Seir.

17And Jacob traveled to Succoth. There he built himself a house and made shelters for his animals. That is why the place is named Succoth.

17And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built him an house, and made booths for his cattle: therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.

NoteSuccoth is Hebrew for "shelters" or "booths", the name records what Jacob built there. It lay east of the Jordan, so he has not yet crossed into Canaan proper. Ancient place names were often explained this way, by the sound of a word in the story.

18Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padan-aram, and he set up his tent in front of the city.

18And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padanaram; and pitched his tent before the city.

NoteThe Hebrew word rendered "Shalem" also means "safe" or "in one piece," so the line can be read either as a place name, as the King James takes it, or as "Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem", the reading most modern translations prefer. Padan-aram is the region around Haran in upper Mesopotamia, where Laban lived and where Jacob had spent twenty years.

19He bought the piece of field where he had put up his tent from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, for a hundred pieces of money.

19And he bought a parcel of a field, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for an hundred pieces of money.

NoteShechem is both the name of the city and the name of Hamor's son, who appears in the next chapter. "Sons of Hamor" here means his clan or family, the group holding title to the land. The unit translated "pieces of money" is the Hebrew qesitah, a weight or value that occurs only three times in the whole Hebrew Bible; its size is unknown. Buying land outright mattered: it gave Jacob a legal foothold in Canaan rather than mere grazing rights, and this plot is one of only two pieces of ground the patriarchs are said to have purchased.

20There he set up an altar, and he called it El-elohe-Israel.

20And he erected there an altar, and called it EleloheIsrael.

NoteEl-elohe-Israel means "God, the God of Israel." Israel is the new name Jacob was given in the previous chapter, so he is naming the altar after the God who is his own God. Naming an altar, rather than simply building one, marks a claim about whose worship the site belongs to.