Jacob and Esau Embrace With Their Familiesby KandD
33:6Genesis 33:6
Then the handmaidens came near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves.
At the meeting Jacob himself passed before his family and bowed seven times, Esau ran to meet and embrace him, and then the two handmaids with their children came near first and bowed themselves before Esau, followed by Leah with her children and then by Joseph and Rachel. That meeting was Jacob's miraculous deliverance from Esau, achieved without the use of the sword. It is also set forth as the handmaidens approaching Jacob with their children and bowing before him.
The chapter belongs to the wider account of the painful consequences of Jacob's having more than one wife, including partiality, jealousy, envy, low moral standards, and crime. It belongs to Jacob's return to Palestine, the crisis through which he becomes Israel, God's intervention in changing Esau's purpose, and the dedication of Jacob's household to God. The verse takes place after Jacob's blessing at Peniel, where he was met by angels and received a changed heart and a changed name, about ten or eleven years before Joseph was seventeen, and the meeting leads to Jacob coming in peace to the city of Shechem.
Jacob had power with men because he had power with God through full surrender and change of heart in the night of wrestling, when he clung to the Angel for the blessing God alone could give and received the new name Israel, a prince of God, instead of Jacob the supplanter. The rough and cunning supplanter was gone and a humble, kind, truly noble prince filled with the persuasive power of love stood in his place, his character greatly modified and refined, and he was ever after reverenced by all who knew him. Esau had once waited for his father's death to take revenge on Jacob for stealing his blessing, and came with four hundred armed men determined to kill, but his feelings were greatly changed from murderous anger to tender love and friendliness, so that Jacob had no use for an army to meet his brother's army.
Jacob was now wealthy and returned to Esau the blessing of possession that Esau had recklessly sold for a mess of pottage, and Jacob's humble attitude in the meeting shows his mind with reference to his former course concerning the birthright. That transformation took away all ground for Esau's quarrel. The bowing belongs to a humble, peaceful, reconciling meeting in which the brothers were no longer separated by enmity, jealousy, and hatred, showing the power of the Lord to change men's hearts, and it calls for the spirit of forgiveness in the heart. The two brothers afterward parted from each other because their possessions required it, and because Jacob knew their religious faith was so unlike that it was better to live apart.
At the meeting Jacob himself passed before his family and bowed seven times, Esau ran to meet and embrace him, and then the two handmaids with their children came near first and bowed themselves before Esau, followed by Leah with her children and then by Joseph and Rachel. That meeting was Jacob's miraculous deliverance from Esau, achieved without the use of the sword. It is also set forth as the handmaidens approaching Jacob with their children and bowing before him.
The chapter belongs to the wider account of the painful consequences of Jacob's having more than one wife, including partiality, jealousy, envy, low moral standards, and crime. It belongs to Jacob's return to Palestine, the crisis through which he becomes Israel, God's intervention in changing Esau's purpose, and the dedication of Jacob's household to God. The verse takes place after Jacob's blessing at Peniel, where he was met by angels and received a changed heart and a changed name, about ten or eleven years before Joseph was seventeen, and the meeting leads to Jacob coming in peace to the city of Shechem.
Jacob had power with men because he had power with God through full surrender and change of heart in the night of wrestling, when he clung to the Angel for the blessing God alone could give and received the new name Israel, a prince of God, instead of Jacob the supplanter. The rough and cunning supplanter was gone and a humble, kind, truly noble prince filled with the persuasive power of love stood in his place, his character greatly modified and refined, and he was ever after reverenced by all who knew him. Esau had once waited for his father's death to take revenge on Jacob for stealing his blessing, and came with four hundred armed men determined to kill, but his feelings were greatly changed from murderous anger to tender love and friendliness, so that Jacob had no use for an army to meet his brother's army.
Jacob was now wealthy and returned to Esau the blessing of possession that Esau had recklessly sold for a mess of pottage, and Jacob's humble attitude in the meeting shows his mind with reference to his former course concerning the birthright. That transformation took away all ground for Esau's quarrel. The bowing belongs to a humble, peaceful, reconciling meeting in which the brothers were no longer separated by enmity, jealousy, and hatred, showing the power of the Lord to change men's hearts, and it calls for the spirit of forgiveness in the heart. The two brothers afterward parted from each other because their possessions required it, and because Jacob knew their religious faith was so unlike that it was better to live apart.