In the previous study we had Jacob and his family traveling to Seir to spend some time with his brother, Esau. The text mentions nothing of his arrival there or of his departure. In the context of the passage of time, we are told in the text that Jacob came to see his father, Isaac, just before his death (Genesis 35:27-28). This event occurred just after the birth of Benjamin (Genesis 35:19). Isaac would have been 180 years old at this time. The fact that the text doesn’t record everything Jacob did, vis-à-vis it doesn’t record his visit with Esau at Seir, is understood in the fact that he came to Canaan from Haran to visit his father (Genesis 31:18). Yet, we know that Jacob left Haran when he was 97 years old. However, at Isaac’s death Jacob was 108 years old. This means Isaac died 11 years after Jacob’s return to the land of Canaan. Therefore, it becomes obvious that the text doesn’t record Jacob’s first journey to see Isaac, after he spent some time in Seir with his brother Esau, and that visit occurred immediately after his arrival in Canaan from Haran. Therefore, Jacob’s settlement in Succoth (Genesis 33:17) had to have occurred sometime after he visited with Isaac, in Mamre,[1] where Jacob’s father dwelt (Genesis 28:10).
So, immediately after Esau and Jacob meet, and Esau left to return to Seir, the text says Jacob “journeyed to Succoth and built him a house…” (Genesis 33:17), which represents a more permanent settlement in the Land of Canaan, for both Abraham and Isaac dwelt in tents However, as we have deduced above, this had to have occurred sometime later, perhaps a year or more, because, not only did Jacob travel to Seir to visit awhile with his brother, and presumably Esau’s family, but Jacob must have also journeyed to Mamre to visit with Isaac.[2] However, Jacob’s mother, Rebekah, had probably died by this time, because afterward, we find her nurse, Deborah, with Jacob until her own death (Genesis 35:8). After Jacob’s visit with both Esau and Isaac, he returned northward to a place in Shechem, which he called Succoth. There he built a house for his family in the land, which he bought from Hamor (Genesis 33:18), and booths for his cattle, and for this reason the place was called Succoth (Genesis 33:17).
Having made the point that Jacob built his house sometime after his visit with his brother, Esau, in Seir, and after visiting his father in Mamre, it seems, therefore, Jacob came upon the city of Shalem, a city of Shechem, just after his return from Padan-aram (Haran). At that time, he pitched his tent near the city and bought a parcel of a field from the children of Hamor (Genesis 33:18-19). Hamor was Shechem’s father, and the land, which Jacob bought, was the same place where he camped. These things seem to have been done, while Jacob was on his journey from Mahanaim, where he wrestled with the Angel of the Lord, to visit with his brother, Esau, at Seir. After that visit, he journeyed to Mamre, where he greeted his father, Isaac.
Having announced his return to Canaan to his brother and his father, Jacob returned to Succoth, which is the parcel of land that he purchased from Hamor, and only after these things were done did Jacob build a house at Succoth (Genesis 33:17).
However, what we read in the text (Genesis 33:18-20) seems to have been done just after Jacob’s return from Haran, and after his peaceful meeting with Esau. Thus, thankful to the Lord for all he had done for Jacob in the face of such great trouble, both concerning Laban, his father-in-law and Esau, his brother, Jacob bought a parcel of land from the Canaanites and consecrated it to the Lord. At that time, he built an altar to El-Elohe-Israel, meaning “Mighty One, the God of Israel” (Genesis 33:20). The altar represents Jacob’s astonishment over what the Lord was able to do, when everything he promised to do for Jacob, was in jeopardy in the face of then current events. Thus, the more Jacob walked with the Lord, and wrestled with him in prayer, the more powerful the Lord grew in Jacob’s heart.
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[1] Both Isaac and Abraham dwelt in Mamre. It is where Abraham buried Sarah (Genesis 23:19), and where he died (Genesis 25:9), and, although Isaac did dwell for some time in Beersheba (Genesis 26:32-33), and it was from here that Jacob went to Haran (Genesis 28:10), Isaac came to dwell there temporarily due to the famine in the land (Genesis 26:1), but he died where he normally dwelt, in Mamre (Genesis 35:27).
[2] In fact, since Mamre was on the way to Seir, Jacob may have stopped off to visit his father first, before going on to Seir to visit with Esau.
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