Genesis 33
DOYLYfore of God.] He regarded Esau’s kind reception of him as a token of the Divine favour. Bp. Patrick.
— Succoth.] So the place was afterwards called: it is situated not far from the Jordan, to the East. Dr. Wells.
Genesis 33:11
- — my blessing.] That is, my present: as we expound it in the margin of 1 Sam. xxv. 27. Bp. Patrick.
Genesis 33:15
- — let me find grace in the sight of my lord.] In this also be so kind as to gratify my desires. Bp. Patrick.
Genesis 33:16
- — Esau returned that day.] All things considered, Esau was not that very bad man, which some would make him. His generous and open temper appears in his affectionate deportment towards his brother, and his speedy and utter oblivion of the treatment he had received from him. And though St. Paul calls him a “profane person,” and says that he was “listed by God;” yet all that he means by the word hated is no more than that God did not shew him the same mark of distinction which he did Jacob: for the Apostle’s purpose is to shew, that God had, all along, bestowed the favours, which led to the Messiah, on whom He pleased; on Abraham, not on Lot; on Jacob, not on Esau; as at the time he wrote, the Gentiles were made the people of God, and not the Jews. And he calls him profane for this reason; not because he was more wicked than other men of his age; but because he seems to have been not so mindful of the spiritual promises made to his family, as Jacob was; and consequently was not so fit to be the heir of the mercies peculiar to it. Shackford, Stackhouse.
Genesis 33:17
- And Jacob journeyed to Succoth.] Esau invited Jacob to Seir, and offered to conduct him thither; but Jacob had no design to accept the invitation, and yet was afraid directly to refuse it. Shackford.
Genesis 33:19
- — an hundred pieces of money.] In the margin it is “lambs.” It was probably some sort of coin, which had a lamb stamped upon it, and was originally of the real value of a lamb: and may have been called by that name, as we used to call a certain coin an angel from the stamp which it bore. Stackhouse, Bp. Wilson.
Genesis 33:20
- And he erected there an altar.] At the same place, where Abraham had built his first altar, chap. xii 7. Abraham dedicated his “unto the Lord, who appeared unto him;” Jacob his, unto “God the God of Israel,” which was the new name that God had given him. The place was at or near Shechem: so that the woman of Samaria might well say as she did to our Saviour, that “their fathers worshipped God in that mount.” Shechem seems to have been one of the oldest cities in all Canaan. Dr. Wall. The first thing that good men do, is to provide for the honour and service of God. Bp. Wilson.
Chap. XXXIV. The fatal history of Dinah is recorded to convince future ages of this truth; that the sins of impurity are so hateful to God, that they seldom go unpunished in this world; if they do, worse will be their punishment in the next. Bp. Wilson.
Ver. 1. — Dinah — went out to see &c.] When this happened, the Scripture does not inform us. From the exploit of her brothers, she was probably fifteen or sixteen years of age. The occasion of the calamity, Josephus tell us, was a great festival, held at Shechem, which
The condition of circumcision offered to the Shechemies. Before CHRIST about 1783.