Text -- Genesis 33:1-13 (NET)

Jacob Meets Esau

33:1 Jacob looked up and saw that Esau was coming along with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two female servants. 33:2 He put the servants and their children in front, with Leah and her children behind them, and Rachel and Joseph behind them. 33:3 But Jacob himself went on ahead of them, and he bowed toward the ground seven times as he approached his brother. 33:4 But Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, hugged his neck, and kissed him. Then they both wept. 33:5 When Esau looked up and saw the women and the children, he asked, “Who are these people with you?” Jacob replied, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.” 33:6 The female servants came forward with their children and bowed down. 33:7 Then Leah came forward with her children and they bowed down. Finally Joseph and Rachel came forward and bowed down. 33:8 Esau then asked, “What did you intend by sending all these herds to meet me?” Jacob replied, “To find favor in your sight, my lord.” 33:9 But Esau said, “I have plenty, my brother. Keep what belongs to you.” 33:10 “No, please take them,” Jacob said. “If I have found favor in your sight, accept my gift from my hand. Now that I have seen your face and you have accepted me, it is as if I have seen the face of God. 33:11 Please take my present that was brought to you, for God has been generous to me and I have all I need.” When Jacob urged him, he took it. 33:12 Then Esau said, “Let’s be on our way! I will go in front of you.” 33:13 But Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are young, and that I have to look after the sheep and cattle that are nursing their young. If they are driven too hard for even a single day, all the animals will die.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Gen 33:1

¹ tn Heb “and Jacob lifted up his eyes.”

² tn Or “and look, Esau was coming.” By the use of the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”), the narrator invites the reader to view the scene through Jacob’s eyes.

NET Notes: Gen 33:2

¹ sn This kind of ranking according to favoritism no doubt fed the jealousy over Joseph that later becomes an important element in the narrative. It must have been painful to the family to see that they were expendable.

NET Notes: Gen 33:3

¹ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “until his drawing near unto his brother.” The construction uses the preposition with the infinitive construct to express a temporal clause.

NET Notes: Gen 33:5

¹ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “lifted up his eyes.”

³ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴ tn The Hebrew verb means “to be gracious; to show favor”; here it carries the nuance “to give graciously.”

NET Notes: Gen 33:6

¹ tn Heb “and the female servants drew near, they and their children and they bowed down.”

NET Notes: Gen 33:8

¹ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “Who to you?”

³ tn Heb “all this camp which I met.”

⁴ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

NET Notes: Gen 33:10

¹ tn Heb “and Jacob said, ‘No, please.’” The words “take them” have been supplied in the translation for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse rearranged for stylistic reasons.

² tn The form is the perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive, expressing a contingent future nuance in the “then” section of the conditional sentence.

³ tn The verbal form is the preterite with a vav (ו) consecutive, indicating result here.

⁴ tn Heb “for therefore I have seen your face like seeing the face of God and you have accepted me.”

sn This is an allusion to the preceding episode (32:22-31) in which Jacob saw the face of God and realized his prayer was answered.

NET Notes: Gen 33:11

¹ tn Heb “blessing.” It is as if Jacob is trying to repay what he stole from his brother twenty years earlier.

² tn Or “gracious,” but in the specific sense of prosperity.

³ tn Heb “all.”

⁴ tn Heb “and he urged him and he took.” The referent of the first pronoun in the sequence (“he”) has been specified as “Jacob” in the translation for clarity.

NET Notes: Gen 33:12

¹ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “let us travel and let us go.” The two cohortatives are used in combination with the sense, “let’s travel along, get going, be on our way.”

NET Notes: Gen 33:13

¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “weak.”

³ tn Heb “and the sheep and the cattle nursing [are] upon me.”