Genesis · 20 verses
Genesis 33
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
Jacob approaches Esau with seven bows and a carefully arranged family, while Esau answers the whole performance by running to embrace him. Then, after Jacob says he will follow Esau to Seir, the brothers part company and Jacob goes to Succoth instead.
The brother who ran forwardvv. 1–11
Jacob sees Esau approaching with four hundred men and places the maidservants and their children first, Leah and her children next, and Rachel with Joseph at the rear. Jacob goes ahead alone, bowing seven times; Esau runs forward, embraces him, kisses him, and weeps with him. The women and children bow in their order, and Jacob explains the company, then presses a gift upon Esau until he accepts it. The encounter has been arranged like a military danger and concludes like a family reunion, with a great many bows still involved.
Two roads from the meetingvv. 12–20
Esau proposes that they travel together, but Jacob points to the frailty of the children and the nursing livestock, asking Esau to go ahead while he follows at a comfortable pace to Seir. Esau offers some of his people, and Jacob declines. Esau returns to Seir; Jacob goes to Succoth, builds a house and shelters for the livestock, and later arrives safely at Shechem in Canaan, camping outside the city. He buys the plot from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, and sets up an altar called El-Elohe-Israel. The chapter leaves the change from Seir to Succoth without explanation, which is a rather conspicuous silence in an otherwise well-travelled account.
The text
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Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Gen 33:1Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming toward him with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two maidservants.
Gen 33:2He put the maidservants and their children in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph at the rear.
Gen 33:3But Jacob himself went on ahead and bowed to the ground seven times as he approached his brother.
Gen 33:4Esau, however, ran to him and embraced him, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. And they both wept.
Gen 33:5When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he asked, “Who are these with you?” Jacob answered, “These are the children God has graciously given your servant.”
Gen 33:6Then the maidservants and their children approached and bowed down.
Gen 33:7Leah and her children also approached and bowed down, and then Joseph and Rachel approached and bowed down.
Gen 33:8“What do you mean by sending this whole company to meet me?” asked Esau. “To find favor in your sight, my lord,” Jacob answered.
Gen 33:9“I already have plenty, my brother,” Esau replied. “Keep what belongs to you.”
Gen 33:10But Jacob insisted, “No, please! If I have found favor in your sight, then receive this gift from my hand. For indeed, I have seen your face, and it is like seeing the face of God, since you have received me favorably.
Gen 33:11Please accept my gift that was brought to you, because God has been gracious to me and I have all I need.” So Jacob pressed him until he accepted.
Gen 33:12Then Esau said, “Let us be on our way, and I will go ahead of you.”
Gen 33:13But Jacob replied, “My lord knows that the children are frail, and I must care for sheep and cattle that are nursing their young. If they are driven hard for even a day, all the animals will die.
Gen 33:14Please let my lord go ahead of his servant. I will continue on slowly, at a comfortable pace for the livestock and children, until I come to my lord at Seir.”
Gen 33:15“Let me leave some of my people with you,” Esau said. But Jacob replied, “Why do that? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.”
Gen 33:17but Jacob went on to Succoth, where he built a house for himself and shelters for his livestock; that is why the place was called Succoth.
Gen 33:18After Jacob had come from Paddan-aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan, and he camped just outside the city.
Gen 33:19And the plot of ground where he pitched his tent, he purchased from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of silver.
Gen 33:20There he set up an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.
01 — Also here
Who else the chapter reaches
Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.
Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 141 passages were voted onto 16 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 4Genesis 45:14–15Then Joseph threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin wept as they embraced.
- 4Psalms 34:4I sought the LORD, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears.
- 5Psalms 127:3Children are indeed a heritage from the LORD, and the fruit of the womb is His reward.
- 4Luke 15:20So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.
- 5Isaiah 8:18Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me as signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD of Hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.
- 5Genesis 48:9Joseph said to his father, “They are the sons God has given me in this place.” So Jacob said, “Please bring them to me, that I may bless them.”
- 8Genesis 32:5I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, menservants, and maidservants. I have sent this message to inform my master, so that I may find favor in your sight.’”
- 15Ruth 2:13“My lord,” she said, “may I continue to find favor in your eyes, for you have comforted and spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not like one of your servant girls.”
- 19John 4:5So He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
- 19Acts 7:16Their bones were carried back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a price he paid in silver.
- 1Genesis 32:6–7When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you—he and four hundred men with him.”
- 3Genesis 42:6Now Joseph was the ruler of the land; he was the one who sold grain to all its people. So when his brothers arrived, they bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.
- 4Genesis 32:28Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men, and you have prevailed.”
- 10Job 33:26He prays to God and finds favor; he sees God’s face and shouts for joy, and God restores His righteousness to that man.
- 111 Samuel 25:27Now let this gift your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow you.
- 11Philippians 4:18I have all I need and more, now that I have received your gifts from Epaphroditus. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.
Onward