1 And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, and with him four hundred men. And he distributed the children to Leah, and to Rachel, and to the two maidservants: 2 and he put the maidservants and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindmost. 3 And he passed on before them, and bowed to the earth seven times, until he came near to his brother. 4 And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him; and they wept. 5 And he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children, and said, Who are these with thee? And he said, The children that God has graciously given thy servant. 6 And the maidservants drew near, they and their children, and they bowed. 7 And Leah also, with her children, drew near, and they bowed. And lastly Joseph drew near, and Rachel, and they bowed. 8 And he said, What [meanest] thou by all the drove which I met? And he said, To find favour in the eyes of my lord. 9 And Esau said, I have enough, my brother; let what thou hast be thine. 10 And Jacob said, No, I pray thee; if now I have found favour in thine eyes, then receive my gift from my hand; for therefore have I seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou hast received me with pleasure. 11 Take, I pray thee, my blessing which has been brought to thee; because God has been gracious to me, and because I have everything. And he urged him, and he took [it]. 12 And he said, Let us take our journey, and go on, and I will go before thee. 13 And he said to him, My lord knows that the children are tender, and the suckling sheep and kine are with me; and if they should overdrive them only one day, all the flock would die. 14 Let my lord, I pray thee, pass on before his servant, and I will drive on at my ease according to the pace of the cattle that is before me, and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord, to Seir. 15 And Esau said, Let me now leave with thee [some] of the people that are with me. And he said, What need? Let me find favour in the eyes of my lord. 16 And Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. 17 And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built himself a house, and for his cattle he made booths. Therefore the name of the place was called Succoth. 18 And Jacob came safely [to the] city Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padan-Aram; and he encamped before the city. 19 And he bought the portion of the field where he had spread his tent, of the hand of the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, for a hundred kesitahs. 20 And there he set up an altar, and called it El-Elohe-Israel.
Genesis 33 Darby Translation
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Hamor
A Hivite, the prince of the region and father of Shechem, from whose sons Jacob bought the plot where he pitched his tent; he and Shechem agreed to circumcision in order to…
Cited in the guide: Genesis 33:19; Genesis 34:2; Genesis 34:6
Jacob
He wrestled with God through the night and rose as Israel, father of twelve tribes.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 25–35; 46–49
Rachel
Jacob's beloved wife, mother of Joseph and Benjamin, who died in childbirth.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 29-35
Cross references (16)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Genesis 32:6–7; Genesis 27:41–42; Genesis 32:16
- 2 Malachi 3:17; Genesis 30:22–24; Genesis 37:3; Genesis 29:30
- 3 Genesis 42:6; Luke 14:11; Genesis 18:2; Genesis 43:26; Ecclesiastes 10:4
- 4 Genesis 45:14–15; Psalm 34:4; Luke 15:20; Genesis 32:28; Genesis 45:2
- 5 Psalm 127:3; Isaiah 8:18; Genesis 48:9; 1 Chronicles 28:5; 1 Samuel 1:27
- 8 Genesis 32:5; Genesis 39:5; Genesis 32:13–20; Esther 2:17
- 9 Genesis 27:39; Philemon 7; Proverbs 16:7; Acts 9:17; Judges 20:23
- 10 Job 33:26; Revelation 22:4; Genesis 32:30; Jeremiah 31:2; Exodus 33:12–13
- 11 Philippians 4:18; 1 Samuel 25:27; Genesis 33:9; 2 Kings 5:23; Genesis 30:43
- 13 Isaiah 40:11; Ezekiel 34:15–16; John 21:15–17; 1 Chronicles 22:5; Proverbs 12:10
- 14 Isaiah 40:11; Genesis 32:3; Romans 15:1; Ezekiel 35:2–3; Mark 4:33
- 15 Ruth 2:13; Genesis 34:11; Genesis 47:25; 1 Samuel 25:8; 2 Samuel 16:4
- 17 Psalm 60:6; Judges 8:5; Joshua 13:27; Judges 8:8; Judges 8:16
- 18 Judges 9:1; Joshua 24:1; Acts 7:16; John 4:5; Genesis 25:20
- 19 Acts 7:16; John 4:5; Joshua 24:32; Genesis 34:2–31; Genesis 23:17–20
- 20 Genesis 35:7; Genesis 21:33; Genesis 32:28; Genesis 8:20; Genesis 12:7–8
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… to have so come to pass; for those blessings which say, "Be lord over thy brother, and let thy father's sons worship thee," had no accomplishment in himself (how could they, he being in fear and trembling, and worshipping his brother over and over again? ), but in his offspring they had.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
… threescore and fifteen souls," he says, "Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he and our fathers, and were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem." (v.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 11 (1889)