Genesis 33:1-20

Jacob Meets Esau

33:1 Jacob looked up ¹  and saw that Esau was coming ²  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. ³  33:3 But Jacob ⁴  himself went on ahead of them, and he bowed toward the ground seven times as he approached ⁵  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 ⁶  looked up ⁷  and saw the women and the children, he asked, “Who are these people with you?” Jacob ⁸  replied, “The children whom God has graciously given ⁹  your servant.” 33:6 The female servants came forward with their children and bowed down. ¹⁰  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 ¹¹  then asked, “What did you intend ¹²  by sending all these herds to meet me?” ¹³  Jacob ¹⁴  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. ¹⁵  “If I have found favor in your sight, accept ¹⁶  my gift from my hand. Now that I have seen your face and you have accepted me, ¹⁷  it is as if I have seen the face of God. ¹⁸  33:11 Please take my present ¹⁹  that was brought to you, for God has been generous ²⁰  to me and I have all I need.” ²¹  When Jacob urged him, he took it. ²² 

33:12 Then Esau ²³  said, “Let’s be on our way! ²⁴  I will go in front of you.” 33:13 But Jacob ²⁵  said to him, “My lord knows that the children are young, ²⁶  and that I have to look after the sheep and cattle that are nursing their young. ²⁷  If they are driven too hard for even a single day, all the animals will die. 33:14 Let my lord go on ahead of his servant. I will travel more slowly, at the pace of the herds and the children, ²⁸  until I come to my lord at Seir.”

33:15 So Esau said, “Let me leave some of my men with you.” ²⁹  “Why do that?” Jacob replied. ³⁰  “My lord has already been kind enough to me.” ³¹ 

33:16 So that same day Esau made his way back ³²  to Seir. 33:17 But ³³  Jacob traveled to Succoth ³⁴  where he built himself a house and made shelters for his livestock. That is why the place was called ³⁵  Succoth. ³⁶ 

33:18 After he left Paddan Aram, Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan, and he camped near ³⁷  the city. 33:19 Then he purchased the portion of the field where he had pitched his tent; he bought it ³⁸  from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of money. ³⁹  33:20 There he set up an altar and called it “The God of Israel is God.” ⁴⁰ 

Genesis 5:9

5:9 When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenan.

Genesis 22:18

22:18 Because you have obeyed me, ⁴¹  all the nations of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another ⁴²  using the name of your descendants.’”

Genesis 15:5

15:5 The Lord ⁴³  took him outside and said, “Gaze into the sky and count the stars – if you are able to count them!” Then he said to him, “So will your descendants be.”

Matthew 7:24-25

Hearing and Doing

7:24 “Everyone ⁴⁴  who hears these words of mine and does them is like ⁴⁵  a wise man ⁴⁶  who built his house on rock. 7:25 The rain fell, the flood ⁴⁷  came, and the winds beat against that house, but it did not collapse because it had been founded on rock.

Romans 1:5

1:5 Through him ⁴⁸  we have received grace and our apostleship ⁴⁹  to bring about the obedience ⁵⁰  of faith ⁵¹  among all the Gentiles on behalf of his name.

Romans 6:17

6:17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you obeyed ⁵²  from the heart that pattern ⁵³  of teaching you were entrusted to,

Romans 10:16

10:16 But not all have obeyed the good news, for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” ⁵⁴ 

Romans 10:2

10:2 For I can testify that they are zealous for God, ⁵⁵  but their zeal is not in line with the truth. ⁵⁶ 

Colossians 1:5

1:5 Your faith and love have arisen ⁵⁷  from the hope laid up ⁵⁸  for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel ⁵⁹ 

James 2:14-16

Faith and Works Together

2:14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, ⁶⁰  if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can this kind of faith ⁶¹  save him? ⁶²  2:15 If a brother or sister ⁶³  is poorly clothed and lacks daily food, 2:16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm and eat well,” but you do not give them what the body needs, ⁶⁴  what good is it?

James 2:1

Prejudice and the Law of Love

2:1 My brothers and sisters, ⁶⁵  do not show prejudice ⁶⁶  if you possess faith ⁶⁷  in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. ⁶⁸ 

James 1:22

1:22 But be sure you live out the message and do not merely listen to it and so deceive yourselves.

James 3:1

The Power of the Tongue

3:1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, ⁶⁹  because you know that we will be judged more strictly. ⁷⁰ 

James 4:17

4:17 So whoever knows what is good to do ⁷¹  and does not do it is guilty of sin. ⁷² 

[33:1]  ¹ tn Heb “and Jacob lifted up his eyes.”

[33:1]  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.

[33:2]  ³ 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.

[33:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “until his drawing near unto his brother.” The construction uses the preposition with the infinitive construct to express a temporal clause.

[33:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “lifted up his eyes.”

[33:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:5]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew verb means “to be gracious; to show favor”; here it carries the nuance “to give graciously.”

[33:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and the female servants drew near, they and their children and they bowed down.”

[33:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:8]  ¹² tn Heb “Who to you?”

[33:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “all this camp which I met.”

[33:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:10]  ¹⁵ 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.

[33:10]  ¹⁶ 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.

[33:10]  ¹⁷ tn The verbal form is the preterite with a vav (ו) consecutive, indicating result here.

[33:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “for therefore I have seen your face like seeing the face of God and you have accepted me.”

[33:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “blessing.” It is as if Jacob is trying to repay what he stole from his brother twenty years earlier.

[33:11]  ²⁰ tn Or “gracious,” but in the specific sense of prosperity.

[33:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “all.”

[33:11]  ²² 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.

[33:12]  ²³ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:12]  ²⁴ 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.”

[33:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:13]  ²⁶ tn Heb “weak.”

[33:13]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and the sheep and the cattle nursing [are] upon me.”

[33:14]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and I, I will move along according to my leisure at the foot of the property which is before me and at the foot of the children.”

[33:15]  ²⁹ tn The cohortative verbal form here indicates a polite offer of help.

[33:15]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and he said, ‘Why this?’” The referent of the pronoun “he” (Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[33:15]  ³¹ tn Heb “I am finding favor in the eyes of my lord.”

[33:16]  ³² tn Heb “returned on his way.”

[33:17]  ³³ tn The disjunctive clause contrasts Jacob’s action with Esau’s.

[33:17]  ³⁴ sn But Jacob traveled to Succoth. There are several reasons why Jacob chose not to go to Mt. Seir after Esau. First, as he said, his herds and children probably could not keep up with the warriors. Second, he probably did not fully trust his brother. The current friendliness could change, and he could lose everything. And third, God did tell him to return to his land, not Seir. But Jacob is still not able to deal truthfully, probably because of fear of Esau.

[33:17]  ³⁵ tn Heb “why he called.” One could understand “Jacob” as the subject of the verb, but it is more likely that the subject is indefinite, in which case the verb is better translated as passive.

[33:17]  ³⁶ sn The name Succoth means “shelters,” an appropriate name in light of the shelters Jacob built there for his livestock.

[33:18]  ³⁷ tn Heb “in front of.”

[33:19]  ³⁸ tn The words “he bought it” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text v. 19 is one long sentence.

[33:19]  ³⁹ tn The Hebrew word קְשִׂיטָה (qÿsitah) is generally understood to refer to a unit of money, but the value is unknown. (However, cf. REB, which renders the term as “sheep”).

[33:20]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “God, the God of Israel.” Rather than translating the name, a number of modern translations merely transliterate it from the Hebrew as “El Elohe Israel” (cf. NIV, NRSV, REB). It is not entirely clear how the name should be interpreted grammatically. One option is to supply an equative verb, as in the translation: “The God of Israel [is] God.” Another interpretive option is “the God of Israel [is] strong [or “mighty”].” Buying the land and settling down for a while was a momentous step for the patriarch, so the commemorative naming of the altar is significant.

[22:18]  ⁴¹ tn In the Hebrew text this causal clause comes at the end of the sentence. The translation alters the word order for stylistic reasons.

[22:18]  ⁴² tn Traditionally the verb is taken as passive (“will be blessed”) here, as if Abraham’s descendants were going to be a channel or source of blessing to the nations. But the Hitpael is better understood here as reflexive/reciprocal, “will bless [i.e., pronounce blessings on] themselves/one another” (see also Gen 26:4). Elsewhere the Hitpael of the verb “to bless” is used with a reflexive/reciprocal sense in Deut 29:18; Ps 72:17; Isa 65:16; Jer 4:2. Gen 12:2 predicts that Abram will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae. For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11. Earlier formulations of this promise (see Gen 12:2; 18:18) use the Niphal stem. (See also Gen 28:14.)

[15:5]  ⁴³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:24]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “Therefore everyone.” Here οὖν (oun) has not been translated.

[7:24]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “will be like.” The same phrase occurs in v. 26.

[7:24]  ⁴⁶ tn Here and in v. 26 the Greek text reads ἀνήρ (anhr), while the parallel account in Luke 6:47-49 uses ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") in vv. 48 and 49.

[7:25]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “the rivers.”

[1:5]  ⁴⁸ tn Grk “through whom.”

[1:5]  ⁴⁹ tn Some interpreters understand the phrase “grace and apostleship” as a hendiadys, translating “grace [i.e., gift] of apostleship.” The pronoun “our” is supplied in the translation to clarify the sense of the statement.

[1:5]  ⁵⁰ tn Grk “and apostleship for obedience.”

[1:5]  ⁵¹ tn The phrase ὑπακοὴν πίστεως has been variously understood as (1) an objective genitive (a reference to the Christian faith, “obedience to [the] faith”); (2) a subjective genitive (“the obedience faith produces [or requires]”); (3) an attributive genitive (“believing obedience”); or (4) as a genitive of apposition (“obedience, [namely] faith”) in which “faith” further defines “obedience.” These options are discussed by C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans (ICC), 1:66. Others take the phrase as deliberately ambiguous; see D. B. Garlington, “The Obedience of Faith in the Letter to the Romans: Part I: The Meaning of ὑπακοὴ πίστεως (Rom 1:5; 16:26),” WTJ 52 (1990): 201-24.

[6:17]  ⁵² tn Grk “you were slaves of sin but you obeyed.”

[6:17]  ⁵³ tn Or “type, form.”

[10:16]  ⁵⁴ sn A quotation from Isa 53:1.

[10:2]  ⁵⁵ tn Grk “they have a zeal for God.”

[10:2]  ⁵⁶ tn Grk “in accord with knowledge.”

[1:5]  ⁵⁷ tn Col 1:3-8 form one long sentence in the Greek text and have been divided at the end of v. 4 and v. 6 and within v. 6 for clarity, in keeping with the tendency in contemporary English toward shorter sentences. Thus the phrase “Your faith and love have arisen from the hope” is literally “because of the hope.” The perfect tense “have arisen” was chosen in the English to reflect the fact that the recipients of the letter had acquired this hope at conversion in the past, but that it still remains and motivates them to trust in Christ and to love one another.

[1:5]  ⁵⁸ tn BDAG 113 s.v. ἀπόκειμαι 2 renders ἀποκειμένην (apokeimenhn) with the expression “reserved” in this verse.

[1:5]  ⁵⁹ tn The term “the gospel” (τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, tou euangeliou) is in apposition to “the word of truth” (τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀληθείας, tw logw th" alhqeia") as indicated in the translation.

[2:14]  ⁶⁰ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[2:14]  ⁶¹ tn Grk “the faith,” referring to the kind of faith just described: faith without works. The article here is anaphoric, referring to the previous mention of the noun πίστις (pisti") in the verse. See ExSyn 219.

[2:14]  ⁶² sn The form of the question in Greek expects a negative answer.

[2:15]  ⁶³ tn It is important to note that the words ἀδελφός (adelfos) and ἀδελφή (adelfh) both occur in the Greek text at this point, confirming that the author intended to refer to both men and women. See the note on “someone” in 2:2.

[2:16]  ⁶⁴ tn Grk “what is necessary for the body.”

[2:1]  ⁶⁵ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[2:1]  ⁶⁶ tn Or “partiality.”

[2:1]  ⁶⁷ tn Grk “do not have faith with personal prejudice,” with emphasis on the last phrase.

[2:1]  ⁶⁸ tn Grk “our Lord Jesus Christ of glory.” Here δόξης (doxhs) has been translated as an attributive genitive.

[3:1]  ⁶⁹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[3:1]  ⁷⁰ tn Grk “will receive a greater judgment.”

[4:17]  ⁷¹ tn Or “knows how to do what is good.”

[4:17]  ⁷² tn Grk “to him it is sin.”