Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan Aram; and encamped before the city.
Parallel Translations
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Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan Aram; and encamped before the city.
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And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padan-aram; and pitched his tent before the city.
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And Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan-aram; and encamped before the city.
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to Genesis 33:18 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Joshua 24:1 Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God.
- Judges 9:1 Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s brothers, and spoke with them and with all the family of the house of his mother’s father, saying,
- Acts 7:16 and they were brought back to Shechem, and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a price in silver from the children of Hamor of Shechem.
- Genesis 25:20 Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian, to be his wife.
- John 4:5 So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph.
- Genesis 28:2 Arise, go to Paddan Aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father. Take a wife from there from the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.
- Genesis 28:6-7 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan Aram, to take him a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a command, saying, “You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan;” and that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Paddan Aram.
- Genesis 35:9 God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan Aram, and blessed him.
- Genesis 46:15 These are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan Aram, with his daughter Dinah. All the souls of his sons and his daughters were thirty-three.
- John 3:23 John also was baptizing in Enon near Salim, because there was much water there. They came, and were baptized;
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (15 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Or, Mesopotamia.
Or, Mesopotamia.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Gen 33:18 And Jacob came to Shalem, a city…
Gen 33:18 And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem, which [is] in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padanaram; and pitched his tent before the city.
Ver. 18. Came to Shalem.] Or, Came safe and sound to Shechem, as the Chaldee interprets it.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Shalem; most take it for the proper name of…
Shalem; most take it for the proper name of a place belonging to
Shechem, as it here follows, called Salim, Joh 3:23, and Sichem or Sychar, Joh 4:5. But others take it for an appellative noun, and render the place thus, he came safe or whole to the city of Shechem; to note either that he was then cured of the lameness which the angel gave him; or rather, to note the good providence of God that had brought him safe in his person, family, and estate through all his dangers, first from Laban, then from Esau, till he came to this place, where it seems he intended to make his abode for a good while, had not the following miscarriages obliged him to remove.
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Before the city, i.e. near to it, but not in it, for the conveniency of his cattle.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And he bought a parcel of a field,.... Not…
And he bought a parcel of a field,.... Not the whole, but a part of it; this he did, though he was heir of the whole country, because, as yet, the time was not come for him or his to take possession of it:
where he had spread his tent; the ground that it stood upon, and what was adjoining to it, for the use of his cattle: this he bought
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at the hand of the children of Hamor; of some one of them, in whose possession it was, and perhaps with the consent of the rest, and before them, as witnesses:
for an hundred pieces of money; Onkelos, the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Samaritan, Syriac, and Arabic versions render it a hundred lambs or sheep, cattle being used to be given in exchange for things in trade and commerce; but as money was in use before the times of Jacob, and Stephen expresses it as a "sum of money", Act 7:16; and this best agrees with the use of the word in Job 42:11, the only place besides this, excepting Jos 24:32, in which it is used, it seems best so to interpret it here; and the pieces of money might be such as were of the value of a lamb or sheep, or rather had the figure of one impressed upon them. Laban, from whom Jacob might have them, or his neighbours, and also Jacob himself, being shepherds, might choose thus to impress their money; but the exact value of these pieces cannot be ascertained: the Jewish writers generally interpret them of a "meah", which was the value of one penny of our money, and twenty of them went to a shekel; so that a hundred of these must make a very small and contemptible sum to purchase a piece of ground with.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem…
And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem - Or rather he came safe, or in peace, to the city of Shechem. After a perilous journey, in which he had met with many difficulties, he came safe at last, into Canaan.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 18. And Jacob came to Shalem, a city…
Verse 18. And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem] The word שלם shalem, in the Samaritan שלום shalom, should be translated here in peace, or in safety. After resting some time at Succoth, which was necessary for the safety of his flocks and the comfort of his family, he got safely to a city of Shechem, in health of body, without any loss of his cattle or servants, his wives and children being also in safety. Coverdale and Matthews translate this word as above, and with them agree the Chaldee and the Arabic: it is not likely to have been the name of a city, as it is nowhere else to be found. Shechem is called in Ac 7:16, Sychem, and in Joh 4:5, Sychar; in the Arabic it is called Nablous, and to the present day Neapolis. It was near to Samaria; and the place where the wretched remains of the sect of the Samaritans were lately found, from whom Dr. Huntington received a perfect copy of the Samaritan Pentateuch.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain The town of Salem, which was the first town…
The town of Salem, which was the first town of Chanaan that he came near after his return. It was afterwards called Sichem, and Sichar, John iv. 5, and Naplosa. Salim, mentioned John iii. 23, was probably more to the east. Some translate, "He came quite sound to the city of Sichem;" where, Demetrius says, he dwelt ten years, Eusebius, præp. ix. 21, having stopped at Socoth six months. (Calmet) --- This seems very probable, as Dina met with her misfortune a little before he left the country; and as she was six years old when she came from Haran, she would be about 15 when she began to go a visiting, &c., chap. xxxiv. 1. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Shalem--that is, "peace"; and the meaning may be that…
Shalem--that is, "peace"; and the meaning may be that Jacob came into Canaan, arriving safe and sound at the city Shechem--a tribute to Him who had promised such a return (compare Gen 28:15). But most writers take Shalem as a proper name--a city of Shechem, and the site is marked by one of the little villages about two miles to the northeast. A little farther in the valley below Shechem "he bought a parcel of a field," thus being the first of the patriarchs who became a proprietor of land in Canaan.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 18. Came to Shalem, a city of Shechem —…
18. Came to Shalem, a city of Shechem — So the Sept., Vulg., and Syr. But it is better to render Shalem adverbially, in peace. Jacob came in peace to a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan. It was doubtless at or near “the place of Sichem,” mentioned Gen_12:6, and the city had probably been built here since the time of Abraham’s first arrival. The city may have taken its name from the shoulder of land on which it was built, (Gen_12:6, note,) or from Shechem, the son of Hamor, or, possibly, from one of his ancestors of the same name.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 18–20. Jacob at Shechem
18–20. Jacob at Shechem
18. in peace] R.V. marg. to Shalem, a city of. The rendering in the margin is possible. It is supported by LXX and Vulg. There is a village, Salim, still to be found near Shechem. On the other hand, the context speaks of Jacob “before the city” of Shechem; and the fact of his arrival there “in peace” is not without significance in view of the events narrated in ch. 34.
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Canaan … Paddan-aram] The transition in this verse is abrupt. Jacob is suddenly transferred from the east to the west side of the Jordan. The clause, “when he came from Paddan-aram,” seems to ignore the previous chapters, and is clearly taken from a different source, viz. P.
before the city] “In front of it,” lit. “in the presence of the city” of Shechem. It is the preposition rendered “before” in Gen_19:13.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (18) Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem.—The…
(18) Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem.—The Sam. Pent. has shalom,”safe”; but shalem is right, and means whole, sound. Onkelos, however, followed by most modern commentators, renders it in peace, but this too would not mean peaceably, but that his troubles were now at an end, and his lameness cured. Philippsohn’s rendering, however, is more exact, namely, wohlbehalten, in good condition. Rashi also, no mean authority, sees in it an allusion to the cure of Jacob’s lameness. As Shechem was a man, his city would not be Shalem, but that called after his own name. In Gen_12:6 it is called “Sichern,” where see Note. Sichern was probably the old name, but after the cruel fate brought upon it by Shechem’s misconduct the spelling was modified to suit the history.
In the land of Canaan.—Jacob therefore had now crossed the river Jordan, and so far completed his homeward journey. Probably as soon as he had recovered from his lameness he visited his father, but as his possessions were large, and Esau was the chief at Hebron, there was no room at present for him to dwell there, nor in fact was this possible until Isaac’s death. But as we find Deborah with them soon afterwards, it is plain that he had gone to visit Isaac, and, finding his mother dead, had brought away with him her beloved nurse.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And Jacob (leaving Succoth) came to Shalem the word…
And Jacob (leaving Succoth) came to Shalem the word rendered by some expositors as here (LXX, Vulgate, Syriac, Luther, Calvin, Peele, Wordsworth), is better taken as an adverb signifying in peace or in safety (Onkelos, Saadias, Rashi, Dathius, Rosenm Gesenius, Keil, Kalisch, et alii), meaning that Jacob Was now sound in his limb (Jarehi) and safe in his person, being no more endangered by Esau (Gerundensis in Drusius), or that he had hitherto met with no misfortune, though soon to encounter one in the instance of Dinah (Patrick), or that the expectations of Jacob expressed in Gen_28:21 (to which there is an obvious allusion) were now fulfilled (Keil) a city of Shechem, if Shalem be the name of the town, then probably Shechem is the name of the person referred to in Gen_34:2; viz., the son of Hamor the Hivite (Drusius, Peele) but if Shalem mean incolumis, then the present clause must be rendered "to the city of Shechem," the city being already built and namedwhich is in the land of Canaan, Bush thinks that Jacob had originally contemplated entering Canaan from the south after rounding the Dead Sea, probably with a view to reach Beersheba, but that, after his interview with Esau, he suddenly altered his route, and entered Canaan directly by crossing the Jordan and driving up his flocks and herds to Shechem, the first halting-place of Abraham, (vide Gen_12:6) which may perhaps lend additional interest to, if they do not explain, the words that followwhen he came from Padan-aram (as Abraham previously had done); and (he) pitched his tent before the city because he did not wish to come in contact with the inhabitants (Lyre), or because his flocks and herds could not find accommodation within the city walls (Murphy), or perhaps simply for convenience of pasturage (Patrick).
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem,.…
Gen_33:18
And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem,. . . and pitched his tent before the city
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Jacobs mistake
God had not said, Go to Shechem; but, I am the God of Bethel.
Bethel, rather than Shechem, was his appointed goal. But alas! we are all too ready to fall short of Gods schemes for our elevation and blessedness. And so Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem. But he did worse; he pitched his tent before the city--as Lot did, when he pitched his tent before Sodom. What took him there? Was it that Rachel persuaded him that a little society would be a pleasant relief to the monotony and seclusion of the camp life? Was it that his children urged him to it against his better mind? Was it some idea of obtaining eligible alliances for his children among the children of the land? Whatever may have been his reason, there stands the sad and solemn fact that Jacob pitched his tent before the city. Are not many Christians doing so still? They live on the edge of the world, just on the borderland; far enough away to justify a religious profession, yet near enough to run into it for sweets. They send their children to fashionable schools, that they may acquire the false veneer of the world, and past muster in its drawing rooms. They remove into the fashionable quarters of a town; and adopt a certain style; and throw themselves into the swim of all manner of worldly engagements--that they may get in with society. They choose their church, their pastimes, their friendships, on the sole principle of doing as others do; and of forming good alliances for their children. What is all this but pitching their tents towards Shechem? But what are we to do? say they; our children must have society; they cannot be recluses, or be for ever shut up in our homes. But why need we cater for them by rushing into the world? Are there not plenty of innocent pastimes, on which worldliness has never breathed its withering breath? Are there not enough elements in the bright social intercourse of the family circle; in the play of imagination and wholesome merriment; in games of skill; in the charms of books; in the recital of travel and adventure; in the witchery of wholesome songs and music; and even in the revelations of modern popular science--to beguile the hours of long winter evenings, without calling in the aid of worldly society, whose brightest hours leave a sense of vacuity and thirst, to say nothing of a positive sting? The most earnest religion does not debar us from manly sports: the swift movement of the skater over the frozen lake; the evening row; the exhilarating climb: or from the culture of the faculties of art; and music; and imagination; of science and poesy. Surely, in all these there is enough to brighten Christian homes, without grieving the Holy Spirit, or lowering their tone. But if parents and guardians will insist on something more exciting and stimulating than these, they must reckon on being called upon to pay the price. They may have the dice-box, the theatre, the dance, if they will; but they must learn, by sad experience, the bitter cost. He needs a long spoon who sups with the devil. The fact is, it is much easier to give these things than to arouse oneself to provide something better. The something better needs time and thought; and staying at home from religious meetings, to give it effect: but the ultimate benefit will more than repay the self-denial. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
Shechem
I. RELIGIOUS REVIVAL.
II. FAMILY TRIALS. (T. S. Dickson.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
This starts a new part of the story. The author describes what Jacob did after he rested in Succoth.
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When Jacob came from Paddan Aram
"After Jacob left Paddan Aram"
When Jacob ... he arrived ... He camped
This only mentions Jacob because he is the leader of the family. It is implied that his family was with him. (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
He camped near
"He set up his camp near"
piece of ground
"piece of land"
Hamor
This is the name of a man. (See: How to Translate Names)
Shechem's father
Shechem is the name of a city and the name of a man.
a hundred
"100" (See: Numbers)
El Elohe Israel
Translators may add a footnote that says: "The name El Elohe Israel means 'God, the God of Israel.'" (See: How to Translate Names)
translationWords
Jacob
Paddan Aram
Shechem
Canaan
silver
altar
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 33:18-20 These verses form an epilogue to Jacob’s adventures…
33:18-20 These verses form an epilogue to Jacob’s adventures outside the land. He returned in peace with a large family and many possessions. • Jacob, like Abraham, built an altar at Shechem (see 12:6-8) and purchased land from the family of Hamor.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.