Genesis 33

Notes

1. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 2, 6

   חָצָה is the verb of 32:8, where Jacob halved the people, the flocks and the camels into two camps. Here the children are set out over three mothers' groups, and the verb is the same. The gloss holds (2), so the reader hears the night before in the morning's arrangements. The verb is the halving of an ox's price in Exod 21:35 and of the spoil in Num 31:27, 42.

2. Decision↩ Back to the text

   Expected: "Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindermost" (KJV) / "then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all" (RSV)

   Rulings 2, 6

   אַחֲרֹנִים is the same word twice, "last" and "last." The KJV and RSV vary it to make a sequence of three. The Hebrew ranks only first against last, and the order among the last is told in vv. 6–7 (6). רִאשׁוֹן and אַחֲרוֹן are the pair of Isa 44:6 and 48:12, "I am first and I am last." Rashi: the dearer to him, the further behind.

3. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 97, 91

   The vassals of the Amarna letters write to Pharaoh, "at the feet of the king my lord seven times and seven times I fall." Jacob's prostration is the court's. Isaac blessed him with "let your mother's sons prostrate themselves to you" (27:29). Here the blessed brother prostrates himself to the other. פַּעַם is "turn" (97). The WPRB has "times."

4. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Ruling 79

   Every letter of וַיִּשָּׁקֵהוּ "and kissed him" carries a dot above it in the Masoretic text, one of the ten dotted places of the Torah (Avot de-Rabbi Natan A 34). The word is translated as written (79). The dots drew two readings. Sifre Numbers 69 has Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai: it is known that Esau hates Jacob, but at that hour his compassion was moved and he kissed him with all his heart. Genesis Rabbah 78:9 has Rabbi Yannai: he meant not to kiss (נָשַׁק) but to bite (נָשַׁךְ), and Jacob's neck turned to marble; so "they wept," the one for his neck and the other for his teeth. The embrace, the falling on the neck and the kiss return when the father runs to the son in Luke 15:20.

5. Decision↩ Back to the text

   Expected: "the children which God hath graciously given thy servant" (KJV, RSV)

   Rulings 2, 95

   חָנַן is the verb of חֵן "favor," the noun Jacob uses three times in the chapter (vv. 8, 10, 15): he seeks favor in Esau's eyes, and says that Elohim has favored him (vv. 5, 11). Verb and noun share the English as one root (95), so the chain is visible. With two objects it is to favor someone with something: "favor me with your Torah" (Ps 119:29). The verb is singular, so Elohim takes the capital (9).

6. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Ruling 6

   In v. 2 the order is "Rachel and Joseph"; here it is "Joseph… and Rachel," and the verb is singular before the two names. Rashi, after Genesis Rabbah 78:10: Joseph stepped in front of his mother to hide her from Esau's eyes. The reversal is kept (6).

7. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 2, 6

   מִי "who" asks here after a thing, as in "who is your name?" (Judg 13:17) and "who is the revolt of Jacob? is it not Samaria?" (Mic 1:5); the home gloss is kept. The camp is the gift sent ahead in droves with its herdsmen (32:14–22), and the word is the camp of the night before (32:8, 11) and of Mahanaim (32:3).

8. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 2, 123

   רָב is the adjective "vast" (123d, with no counted plural), standing as a noun: "there is to me a vast deal." In v. 11 Jacob answers with the same construction, "there is to me all" (כֹל). Rashi sets the two side by side: Esau says he has much, more than he needs; Jacob says he has all he needs. The WPRB has "plenty."

9. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Ruling 128

   כִּי עַל־כֵּן "for therefore" gives the reason as one already settled (18:5; 19:8; 38:26; Num 10:31), the construction of 128(i). The KJV keeps it ("for therefore I have seen thy face"); the RSV has "for truly."

10. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "as though I had seen the face of God" (KJV) / "to see your face is like seeing the face of God" (RSV)

    Rulings 128, 129, 107

    פְּנֵי אֱלֹהִים has no verb to agree with in its clause. Capitals go by the scene (128d, 129n), and in this scene Jacob twice names Elohim with a singular verb, "Elohim has favored" (vv. 5, 11): so the capital. The face is the word of Peniel, where Jacob saw elohim face to face (32:31), and of his plan, "perhaps he will lift my face" (32:21). The versions differ on whose face it is. The LXX has θεοῦ, the Vulgate Dei; Targum Onkelos softens it to "like seeing the face of the great ones"; Rashi, after the midrash, takes it of the angel he wrestled. The capital follows the scene and settles nothing more.

11. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "thou wast pleased with me" (KJV) / "you have received me with favor" (RSV)

    Rulings 2, 39

    רָצָה is the verb of a sacrifice accepted: "it shall be accepted for him" (Lev 1:4; 22:27; Amos 5:22). Mal 1:8 joins it to the face and the gift, as here: "offer it to your governor: will he accept you, or lift your face?" Jacob had planned to atone Esau's face with a gift (32:21). Here he says the gift was accepted. The gift is מִנְחָה, the word of Cain's and Abel's gifts (4:3–5).

12. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 2, 109

    Jacob calls the gift "my blessing," as Abigail calls hers (1 Sam 25:27) and as David and Naaman do (1 Sam 30:26; 2 Kgs 5:15). Esau had said, "he has taken my blessing" (לָקַח בִּרְכָתִי, 27:35–36), and paired it with the birthright (בְּכֹרָה / בְּרָכָה, 27:36). Now Jacob says "take my blessing" (קַח־נָא אֶת־בִּרְכָתִי), with the same verb and noun. "Blessing" and "bless" are one root (109).

13. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Ruling 25

    עָלוֹת is the participle of עוּל, said of ewes and cows with sucklings: the two nursing cows yoked to the ark (1 Sam 6:7, 10), David taken "from behind the nursing ewes" (Ps 78:71). Isa 40:11 has the nursing ones and the guiding of v. 14 together: "the nursing ones he will guide." "On me" is "my charge."

14. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "if men should overdrive them one day" (KJV) / "if they are overdriven for one day" (RSV)

    Rulings 2, 25

    דָּפַק is to beat or knock: the men of Gibeah beating on the door (Judg 19:22), the beloved knocking (Song 5:2). Here the herd is beaten along too fast. "Beat" keeps the blow; the KJV's "overdrive" names its result. The subject "they" is unnamed, the herdsmen or anyone. The WPRB has "driven hard."

15. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "I will lead on softly" (KJV) / "I will lead on slowly" (RSV)

    Rulings 2, 25

    נָהַל is to guide a flock to water and pasture: "he guides me beside waters of rest" (Ps 23:2); "you guided them in your strength" (Exod 15:13); Isa 40:11; 49:10. Here it is the hithpael, the shepherd guiding himself along with the flock. אַט is gentleness: Ahab "walked gently" (1 Kgs 21:27), the waters of Shiloah "go gently" (Isa 8:6), "deal gently for my sake with the young man" (2 Sam 18:5). "At my gentleness" keeps the noun and its suffix.

16. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "according as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure" (KJV) / "according to the pace of the cattle which are before me and according to the pace of the children" (RSV)

    Rulings 2, 39

    מְלָאכָה "work" is what a man has in his charge, livestock included: a neighbour's goods left in keeping (Exod 22:7, 10), Amalek's flocks "all the work" (1 Sam 15:9). The home gloss holds (2); the KJV's "cattle" names what the work is here. לְרֶגֶל "at the foot of" is the pace, and the body idiom is kept (39). Jacob told Laban "Adonai has blessed you at my foot" (30:30).

17. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 17, 18

    סֻכּוֹת is the plural of סֻכָּה "booth": Jacob makes "booths" and names the place "Booths." English cannot keep the name and the noun in one word, so the name is printed in its familiar form (18) and the pun is here (17). The Feast of Booths recalls the booths of the wilderness (Lev 23:42–43). Succoth is in the Jordan valley east of the river (Josh 13:27; Judg 8:5–16; Ps 60:8).

18. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem" (KJV) / "Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem" (RSV)

    Rulings 1, 2

    שָׁלֵם is read two ways. The LXX (εἰς Σαλημ πόλιν Σικιμων), the Vulgate (in Salem urbem Sychimorum) and the KJV take it as a place, Shalem. Targum Onkelos reads the adjective, "whole," and b. Shabbat 33b, followed by Rashi, says how: whole in his body, healed of the limp (32:32); whole in his wealth, after the gift; whole in his Torah. The OSHB tags the adjective, and its settled gloss "complete" is printed. It answers the vow of 28:21, "if I return in peace (בְשָׁלוֹם) to my father's house." English cannot print the name and the adjective together (1). The word returns in 34:21: "these men are complete with us."

19. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "a parcel of a field" (KJV) / "the piece of land" (RSV)

    Rulings 2, 20, 95

    This חֶלְקָה is not the "smoothness" of 27:16, though Strong's files the two under one number. It is the plot of the root חָלַק "divide, portion," whose noun is חֵלֶק "portion" (14:24; 31:14): "the portion of the field belonging to Boaz" (Ruth 2:3), "the portion of Naboth" (2 Kgs 9:21, 25), "one portion was rained on" (Amos 4:7). "Portion" keeps the word with its own root (95). The source tag is kept.

20. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Ruling 18

    The name חֲמוֹר is the noun "donkey" (34:28; 49:14). The sons of Hamor reappear when Joseph's bones are buried in this plot (Josh 24:32), and "the men of Hamor, father of Shechem" in Judg 9:28.

21. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "an hundred pieces of money" (KJV) / "a hundred pieces of money" (RSV)

    Rulings 5, 25

    קְשִׂיטָה is a unit of value, found only here, at Josh 24:32 of the same purchase, and at Job 42:11, where each friend gives Job a qesitah and a gold ring. Its worth is unknown. The LXX (ἑκατὸν ἀμνῶν) and the Vulgate (centum agnis) have "a hundred lambs." b. Rosh Hashanah 26a has Rabbi Akiva saying that in Africa the coin called a ma'ah was called a qesitah. The word is transliterated, as the beka is (24:22). This is the second piece of Canaan a patriarch acquires, after Abraham's cave for four hundred shekels (23:16–20). Stephen's speech folds the two purchases together (Acts 7:16), and John 4:5 knows the plot "that Jacob gave to Joseph his son."

22. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Ruling 123

    The hiphil of נָצַב is "station" (123d). It is the verb of a standing stone set up (35:14, 20), and only here does it take an altar. Elsewhere an altar is "built" (8:20; 12:7; 35:7).

23. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "El-elohe-Israel" (KJV, RSV)

    Rulings 9, 107, 18, 46

    The name has two readings. It is a name, "El, Elohim of Israel," or a sentence, "El is the Elohim of Israel." The comma keeps both. Elohim stands in apposition to El, a singular divine name, so it takes the capital (107). Israel is the name given at the Jabbok (32:29), here first used by Jacob, in a name for his own Elohim. וַיִּקְרָא־לוֹ is the construction "call to it [a name]" (the gloss note of קָרָא), and "it" is the altar (41). b. Megillah 18a reads it otherwise: "and El, the Elohim of Israel, called him [Jacob] El." The WPRB has "God, the God of Israel."