Genesis 33

Jacob and Esau Meet

Jacob bows seven times, and Esau runs to him and weeps. Jacob presses his gift on his brother, saying that Esau’s face is “as though I had seen the face of God,” and the two part. Jacob settles at Succoth and Shechem, buys a field, and builds an altar he calls El-elohe-Israel.

Genesis chaptersChapter 33 of 50

The return from Haran, after twenty years away (Gen. 31:41). The text gives no year. Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

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Background

Jacob is coming home after twenty years in Laban’s house (Gen. 31:41).

Jacob is coming home after twenty years in Laban’s house (Gen. 31:41). He left Canaan because his brother Esau had said in his heart, “then will I slay my brother Jacob” (Gen. 27:41). On the road back, messengers told him that Esau was coming to meet him with four hundred men (Gen. 32:6); he prayed, sent a large present ahead, and spent the night wrestling at the ford of the Jabbok (Gen. 32:22–24). This chapter is the meeting that all of that was preparing for, and reconciling with Esau was “one way Israel demonstrated his transformation.”

The chapter has three parts: the meeting and the gift (verses 1–11), the brothers parting (12–16), and Jacob’s journey to Succoth and then across the Jordan to Shechem, where he buys a field and builds an altar (17–20). Esau goes back to Seir; the story next brings the two brothers together when they bury their father (Gen. 35:29). Jacob’s camp at Shechem leads straight into the next chapter, the story of Dinah and Shechem the son of Hamor (Gen. 34:1–2). The field is remembered later, when Joseph’s bones are buried in “a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor” (Josh. 24:32).

The thread through the chapter

Genesis 33 answers chapter 32 with one word, grace. In his first message to Esau, Jacob said he had sent “that I may find grace in thy sight” (Gen. 32:5).

Genesis 33 answers chapter 32 with one word, grace. In his first message to Esau, Jacob said he had sent “that I may find grace in thy sight” (Gen. 32:5). In this chapter the Hebrew noun for that favor, chen, comes back three times as Jacob’s request (verses 8, 10, 15: “find grace in the sight of my lord”). The verb it comes from, chanan, “be gracious,” comes twice, both times with God as the giver: the children God “hath graciously given” (verse 5) and “God hath dealt graciously with me” (verse 11). The King James Version renders all five with “grace” or “graciously.” One root carries both what Jacob hopes for from his brother and what he credits to God, and in verse 10 the two come together in a phrase that recalls Peniel, “the face of God” (Gen. 32:30).

From there the chapter turns from the meeting to a place to live. The gift is pressed on Esau until he takes it (verses 9–11), and the brothers part with courtesy (12–16). Jacob settles at Succoth and then comes shalem, “safe,” to Shechem (verse 18), a word that answers the “in peace” of his vow at Bethel (Gen. 28:21). There he buys land and builds an altar, and he gives it the new name he received at Peniel (Gen. 32:28): El-elohe-Israel (verse 20).

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–3

Jacob goes out to meet Esau

In plain words

Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming with four hundred men. He divided his children among Leah, Rachel, and the two maidservants. He put the maidservants and their children in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last. He himself went ahead of them all and bowed down to the ground seven times as he came near his brother.

1 And 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.

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

Context #

Why the family is in a line

Jacob lines up his household from the handmaids to Rachel and Joseph, and the text does not say why.

Jacob lines up his household from the handmaids to Rachel and Joseph, and the text does not say why. Two readings are possible. One is protection: Jacob put “those foremost whom he least esteemed, that if the foremost met with any evil, those who were behind might escape.” He had already split his camp for that reason, so that if Esau struck one company, “the other company which is left shall escape” (Gen. 32:8), and he had prayed that Esau would not “smite me, and the mother with the children” (Gen. 32:11).

The other is display. Some have faulted Jacob for putting the handmaids in the most dangerous place, but it “would be a natural thing … in the Middle East for a clan leader to show off his family and possessions in such a way that the best and most highly favored is saved until last.” On that reading Jacob meant “to keep his choicest treasure to the last.” The line is never tested, because Esau runs to Jacob (verse 4).

Sources: Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible … with a Commentary and Critical Notes, Online at Bible Hub (Clarke's Commentary). Genesis 24–36: The Covenant Line Continues with Isaac and Jacob, Old Testament Student Manual: Genesis–2 Samuel (Church Educational System, 2003). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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

Context #

The sevenfold bow

Jacob’s seven bows were “a sign of respect for his older brother,” and an attempt to win him over: by them Jacob sought “to propitiate him; for the cause of the quarrel had been…

Jacob’s seven bows were “a sign of respect for his older brother,” and an attempt to win him over: by them Jacob sought “to propitiate him; for the cause of the quarrel had been Jacob’s usurpation of Esau’s right of precedence as the first born.” The number has a parallel in court etiquette. A letter from a Canaanite king to the king of Egypt, preserved among the Tel-el-Amarna tablets, says, “At the feet of the king, my lord, seven times and seven times do I fall.”

Jacob goes ahead of his family to do it (verse 3), and then his household follows him: the handmaids, Leah, and then Joseph and Rachel each come and bow in turn (verses 6–7).

Sources: David H. Madsen, “Jacob and Esau”, Ensign, Jan. 2002, 42. Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers: Genesis, Read on Bible Hub. Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1921); read on Bible Hub.

Verses 4–7

The embrace

In plain words

Esau ran to meet him, threw his arms around him, and kissed him, and they both wept. Esau looked up, saw the women and children, and asked, “Who are these with you?” Jacob answered, “The children God has graciously given your servant.” The maidservants and their children came forward and bowed down. Leah and her children came and bowed down. Last of all Joseph and Rachel came forward and bowed down.

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

Latter-day Prophets #

Esau had changed too

Latter-day teaching reads this meeting as Esau’s generosity as much as Jacob’s humility.

Latter-day teaching reads this meeting as Esau’s generosity as much as Jacob’s humility. Elder Neal A. Maxwell, speaking of how to teach “the principle of generosity in human relationships,” pointed to these chapters: Jacob “is anxious and assembles many gifts, but he had no reason to fear, for ‘Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept.’” He went on: “Notice how not only Jacob but Esau has grown. Though Jacob’s anxiety was understandable, generous Esau soon relieved him of his concern.” He linked the scene to Joseph’s later generosity toward his brothers (see Gen. 50:19–21). Jacob’s humble approach was not “lost on Esau,” and after the embrace the brothers “now knew they could be friends.”

The text does not say what Esau meant to do when he set out with four hundred men, and it does not make him the hero of the story: it is “fruitless to attempt to depict Esau as the hero,” because “the biblical text just does not portray him that way.” But “there were not any permanent hard feelings,” and at the end of the story the two brothers joined together to bury their father (see Gen. 35:29).

Sources: Neal A. Maxwell, “Teaching Opportunities from the Old Testament”, Ensign, Apr. 1981, 56. David H. Madsen, “Jacob and Esau”, Ensign, Jan. 2002, 42. Aaron P. Schade, “Isaac and Jacob: Succession Narratives, Birthrights, and Blessings”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 335–84. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Language #

Dots over a kiss

In the Hebrew Bible, the word “kissed him” (vayishaqehu) has a dot over every letter.

In the Hebrew Bible, the word “kissed him” (vayishaqehu) has a dot over every letter. The dots belong to the Masoretic text, the traditional Hebrew text of the Old Testament, and a Masoretic note says of this word, “All of it punctuated.” Marks like these are called puncta extraordinaria, “extraordinary dots.” Why they were put here is not known; one likely explanation is that “the text was at an early date uncertain.”

Later Jewish readers took the dots opposite ways. One rabbinic explanation said Esau came “not to kiss him, but to bite him,” a tradition that grew out of “the Israelite hatred of Edom.” Others held that the dots draw attention “to the change that had taken place in Esau, and the sincerity with which he received his brother Jacob.” Nothing in the verse supports the suspicious reading: Esau runs, embraces, and kisses, and both brothers weep.

5 And 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.

Language #

Who gave the children

Jacob answers “Who are those with thee?” by crediting God. “Hath graciously given” is one Hebrew verb, chanan, “shew favour, be gracious,” which is used of God “in the bestowal of favours.”

Jacob answers “Who are those with thee?” by crediting God. “Hath graciously given” is one Hebrew verb, chanan, “shew favour, be gracious,” which is used of God “in the bestowal of favours.” Here it takes two objects: God has “graciously given” Jacob his children. The Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation, reads “The children with which God has mercifully blessed thy servant.” Jacob uses the same verb of God again in verse 11, “God hath dealt graciously with me” (see the thread above).

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint. Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb.

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

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

Verses 8–11

The gift

In plain words

Esau asked, “What did you mean by all these droves I met?” Jacob said, “To find favor in my lord’s eyes.” Esau answered, “I have plenty, my brother. Keep what is yours.” But Jacob said, “No, please. If I have found favor in your eyes, take my gift from my hand. To see your face is like seeing the face of God, and you have received me kindly. Please take my blessing that has been brought to you, because God has been gracious to me and I have everything.” He urged him, and Esau took it.

8 And 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.

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

Language #

Two kinds of “enough”

The KJV gives Esau and Jacob the same words, but the Hebrew does not. Esau says yesh-li rav, “I have much” (verse 9).

The KJV gives Esau and Jacob the same words, but the Hebrew does not. Esau says yesh-li rav, “I have much” (verse 9). BDB lists rav here as “abundant, enough,” and the Septuagint reads “I have much.” Jacob says yesh-li kol, “I have all” (verse 11). BDB lists it under kol for “all things,” and the Septuagint reads “I have all things.”

Esau’s “much” fits his later life: it appears “that Isaac’s blessing upon Esau had come to pass and that he enjoyed an abundance of material possessions,” and later Genesis says of the two brothers, “their riches were more than that they might dwell together” (Gen. 36:7). Jacob’s “all” is a different claim. One reading is that “in the kindness of Esau he has everything,” perhaps also with an allusion to the blessing he had received at Peniel the night before (Gen. 32:29).

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint. Aaron P. Schade, “Isaac and Jacob: Succession Narratives, Birthrights, and Blessings”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 335–84. Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1921); read on Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

10 And 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.

Language #

A brother’s face like God’s

Jacob says that Esau’s welcome is like seeing God’s face. The Hebrew is kir’ot penei Elohim, “as one sees the face of God.”

Jacob says that Esau’s welcome is like seeing God’s face. The Hebrew is kir’ot penei Elohim, “as one sees the face of God.” It sounds like Peniel (“face of God”), the name Jacob gave the place of the wrestle the night before (Gen. 32:30), and the phrase very likely holds “a side allusion to the name of the locality, Peniel.” Read one way, it is “an elaborate compliment,” like the words used to David, “as an angel of God” (1 Sam. 29:9; 2 Sam. 14:17). Read another, it is a recognition: in his brother’s face Jacob has “been met with divine (heavenly) friendliness.”

“Thou wast pleased with me” is the verb ratsah, “be pleased with, accept favourably,” a verb used of God’s favor and, in this verse, of a brother’s. The wrestle at Peniel “helped prepare him to meet his brother.” Here is the meeting, and Jacob describes it in words that echo that night. What the Hebrew does not decide is whether he means a compliment or a recognition.

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1921); read on Bible Hub. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Genesis 24–33, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

11 Take, 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.

Language #

A gift called a blessing

Jacob calls his gift “my blessing,” and the word is an ordinary one for a gift.

Jacob calls his gift “my blessing,” and the word is an ordinary one for a gift. Berakah, “blessing,” can mean “a gift, present,” and this verse is the first listed for that sense; others are Josh. 15:19 and 2 Kgs. 5:15. Abigail, bringing provisions to David, calls them “this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought unto my lord” (1 Sam. 25:27). Before the meeting, Jacob had meant to “appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face” (Gen. 32:20).

Esau first refuses it, and Jacob “urged him, and he took it” (verse 11). Taking it mattered: “according to custom, the acceptance of the gift signified a reliable friendship had been formed.” Until Esau accepted, Jacob could not be sure of his welcome.

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. David H. Madsen, “Jacob and Esau”, Ensign, Jan. 2002, 42. Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible … with a Commentary and Critical Notes, Online at Bible Hub (Clarke's Commentary). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 12–16

The brothers part

In plain words

Esau said, “Let us set out, and I will go ahead of you.” Jacob said, “My lord knows that the children are young and that the flocks and herds are nursing their young. If they are driven hard for even one day, all the animals will die. Let my lord go on ahead of his servant, and I will follow slowly, at the pace of the livestock and the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.” Esau offered to leave some of his men with him, but Jacob said, “Why? Let me only find favor in my lord’s eyes.” That day Esau started back toward Seir.

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

13 And 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.

14 Let 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.

Context #

Did Jacob mean to go to Seir?

Jacob promises to follow Esau “unto Seir” but never goes there in the story, and a reader may ask whether he deceived his brother.

Jacob promises to follow Esau “unto Seir” but never goes there in the story, and a reader may ask whether he deceived his brother. His stated reason for traveling separately is practical: “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” (verse 13), and he declines Esau’s offer of men (verse 15).

The text does not say whether he meant it. One reading is that “Jacob was perfectly sincere in his expressed purpose of visiting Esau at Seir,” but that “circumstances afterwards occurred that rendered it either improper or impracticable.” The narrative follows Jacob instead to Succoth and then to Shechem (verses 17–18).

Sources: Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible … with a Commentary and Critical Notes, Online at Bible Hub (Clarke's Commentary).

15 And 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.

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

Verses 17–20

Succoth and Shechem

In plain words

Jacob traveled to Succoth, built himself a house there, and made shelters for his livestock, which is why the place is called Succoth, “booths.” After he came from Paddan-aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan and camped in front of the city. He bought the piece of land where he had pitched his tent from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of money. There he set up an altar and called it El-elohe-Israel.

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

Context #

A house at Succoth

Jacob stops at Succoth and builds more than a camp. Sukkot means “booths,” which the verse gives as the reason for the place’s name.

Jacob stops at Succoth and builds more than a camp. Sukkot means “booths,” which the verse gives as the reason for the place’s name. What Jacob built for himself was “not a ‘tent’ or a ‘booth,’ but a ‘house,’ as a sign of the more permanent character of his sojourn in the land.” How long he stayed is not said.

The site “is not yet identified with any certainty,” but the passage implies “that it lay on the east of the Jordan, and south of the Jabbok.” Joshua puts Succoth “on the other side Jordan eastward” (Josh. 13:27), and Gideon crosses the Jordan to reach the men of Succoth (Judg. 8:4–5). That matters for verse 18: Jacob has not yet crossed back into Canaan, and in that verse he is “suddenly transferred from the east to the west side of the Jordan.”

Sources: Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1921); read on Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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

Language #

A city called Shalem, or “safely”?

The KJV takes Shalem as the name of a city, but the NIV, ESV, and NRSVUE take it as a word meaning “safely.”

The KJV takes Shalem as the name of a city, but the NIV, ESV, and NRSVUE take it as a word meaning “safely.” The Septuagint reads “Salem, a city of Secima,” as a place-name. BDB, however, lists this verse under the adjective shalem, “safe, unharmed, of person,” and says that it is “not proper name, of a location as Vrss” (the ancient versions), noting that the Samaritan Pentateuch reads shalom, “peace,” and comparing the “in peace” (beshalom) of Gen. 28:21. The NIV has Jacob “arrived safely,” and the ESV and NRSVUE “came safely.”

On that reading, the verse answers Jacob’s vow at Bethel, “So that I come again to my father’s house in peace” (Gen. 28:21): “What Jacob had asked for in his vow at Bethel … was now fulfilled.”

Sources: The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. New International Version, Biblica, 2011; on BibleGateway. English Standard Version, Crossway, 2016; on BibleGateway. New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, National Council of Churches, 2021; on BibleGateway. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

19 And 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.

Context #

The field at Shechem

Jacob pays for the ground under his tent, and that field stays in Israel’s story.

Jacob pays for the ground under his tent, and that field stays in Israel’s story. The Hebrew coin word is qesitah, a “unit of (unknown) value, perhaps weight,” found only here, in Josh. 24:32, and in Job 42:11. The Septuagint reads “a hundred lambs”; Joshua calls the price “pieces of silver.”

Abraham had bought a burial cave (Gen. 23:16–20); Jacob buys the ground he lives on. One reading is that the purchase “showed that Jacob, in reliance upon the promise of God, regarded Canaan as his own home and the home of his seed.” Later, Joseph’s bones were buried there, and the field “became the inheritance of the children of Joseph” (Josh. 24:32).

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

20 And he erected there an altar, and called it El-elohe-Israel.

Language #

El, the God of Israel

Jacob names the altar with his new name, and the name is a confession.

Jacob names the altar with his new name, and the name is a confession. El-elohe-Israel means “El (God) is the God of Israel,” and BDB lists it among the uses of El as a divine name. “Israel” is the name Jacob received at the Jabbok (Gen. 32:28), so the altar says that the God who changed his name is his God.

The name also keeps a promise. At Bethel Jacob had vowed, “then shall the LORD be my God” (Gen. 28:21), and with this altar he gives glory to “the God of Israel” “according to his vow.” In building it he does what Abraham had done at Sichem when he first entered Canaan (Gen. 12:6–7). The Septuagint reads the verse differently: Jacob “called on the God of Israel,” with no name for the altar. At Bethel, later, Jacob again names a place for God: El-beth-el (Gen. 35:7).

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint.

Seeing Christ in Genesis 33

Reconciling estranged brothers is the kind of healing the Savior gives: “He is the great Mediator, and He is able to soften hearts and heal wounds. He knows how to bring people to a unity of heart and mind.”

The field in verse 19 comes up in the Gospels too. John sets Jesus’s meeting with the Samaritan woman “near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph,” where “Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well” (John 4:5–6). By tradition, the field Jacob bought is the plain where Jacob’s well is still pointed out.

Worth exploring next

The night before. Gen. 32:3–32: the message, the present, the prayer, and the wrestle.
The brothers elsewhere. Gen. 35:27–29 (they bury Isaac), Gen. 36:6–8 (Esau moves to Seir), and Gen. 50:19–21 (Joseph forgives his brothers, the scene Elder Maxwell links to this one).
The priestly blessing. Num. 6:24–26 uses the same verb chanan, “be gracious,” as verses 5 and 11, together with “face.”
A Church article on the whole story. “Jacob and Esau,” Ensign, January 2002, follows the brothers from birth to the burial of Isaac.

Sources & further reading

The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb.
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint.
New International Version, Biblica, 2011; on BibleGateway.
English Standard Version, Crossway, 2016; on BibleGateway.
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, National Council of Churches, 2021; on BibleGateway.
Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1921); read on Bible Hub.
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers: Genesis, Read on Bible Hub.
Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible … with a Commentary and Critical Notes, Online at Bible Hub (Clarke's Commentary).
Genesis 24–36: The Covenant Line Continues with Isaac and Jacob, Old Testament Student Manual: Genesis–2 Samuel (Church Educational System, 2003).
Genesis 24–33, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025).
Aaron P. Schade, “Isaac and Jacob: Succession Narratives, Birthrights, and Blessings”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 335–84.
Neal A. Maxwell, “Teaching Opportunities from the Old Testament”, Ensign, Apr. 1981, 56.
David H. Madsen, “Jacob and Esau”, Ensign, Jan. 2002, 42.

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