Genesis 33:17–20

Temporary shelters made from tree branches. They were used especially at the Feast of Tabernacles. Jonah made himself such a shelter. They were also used for cattle. The Hebrew is succoth.

Jacob had refused the help offered him, and Esau had gone. Again Jacob shows the crookedness that seems to have been his natural bent. He had said to Esau, "I come to my lord in Seir," and then he went straight to Succoth, which lay in a different direction altogether. And once he arrived there, the record is that he built a house and made booths for his cattle. This shows he had a mind to settle down in the land, rather than keep the character of a stranger, as his grandfather Abraham had done.

Jacob slips away to Succoth, which should be marked east of the Jordan... The serious sign of the patriarch's state was that he built a house for himself. That was a plain departure from the pilgrim practice of his fathers, and indeed his own. Matthew Henry says Jacob "was glad of booths," as if the contrast were with his descendants in houses of stone. That is incorrect. The very point of God's word here is that he "built himself a house," while his fathers lived in tents even in the land of promise. It was marked indifference and decline in this respect; all the more because Jacob was only on his way to the land.

Jacob had exchanged the tent for a house, and the pilgrim stranger had become a citizen and a freeholder.

After all this display of God's goodness, we find Jacob settling down in Succoth. Succoth was not the destination God appointed for him. The Lord had not said to him, "I am the God of Succoth"; no, but "I am the God of Bethel." Bethel, then, and not Succoth, should have been Jacob's great object. But the heart is always prone to settle for a position and a portion short of what God would graciously give.

Rather than going on to Bethel (God's house), he built a house for himself. This was only half-way obedience. It did not satisfy his own conscience, for he left all these buildings behind and travelled to Shalem, a city of Shechem.

However small, it was a turn away from the path of a pilgrim. It was also a halt on a road he should have followed without stopping until he reached Bethel. And since one shortcoming always leads to another, the next thing we read of him is that he bought a piece of a field from the children of Hamor... God Himself is not the first object of the soul. His gifts, sadly, too often shut out God Himself.

One wrong step away from our true position before the Lord leads to many a sin, scandal and sorrow... His stay at Succoth and Shechem covers some ten years. He had to be unsettled to get him back to his pilgrim place. The way was painful for all, and it brought deep shame, humiliation and fear to the patriarch.

"God has spoken in His holiness: 'With exultation I will divide up Shechem and portion out the Vale of Succoth'" (Psalm 60:6). Shechem and Succoth remind us how Israel's history began with Jacob, their father. These are the first places where he settled when he came back to the land of promise, after his years in a foreign land. One day it will be the same for the remnant of Israel. They will gather around the true David and take back their land as they follow Him.

This is judged not to be a proper name. The passage should read that Jacob came 'safely' to the city of Shechem (Gen. 33:18). The Revised Version has 'came in peace.'

There is little need to defend "in peace" against "to Shalem," the reading of the King James Version. "In peace" stands in contrast with his troubled mind, when dread of Esau filled him between Peniel and Succoth. That contrast is surely to the point. Yet as he failed at Succoth, so he failed still more at Shechem. Shechem had a pointed claim on him beyond Shalem. For it was there that Abraham, the father of the faithful, first saw Jehovah appear to him in Canaan, and received the promise that God would give that land to his descendants. And there Abraham built an altar to Jehovah who appeared to him.

God's secret providence kept Jacob in this way. There was nothing in him to approve. Yet God secretly secured blessing and preservation for him, and Jacob returns to the land of promise.

Rather than going to Bethel (God's house) he built a house for himself. This was only half-way obedience. It clearly did not satisfy his own conscience, for he left all these buildings behind and travelled to Shalem, a city of Shechem. Shalem means "peace." Jacob was not at peace at Succoth, but he seems to find it at Shalem. Shechem means "shoulder." It implies that we cannot enjoy peace unless we take responsibility on our shoulders. Here he does not build a house, but pitches his tent. At least he seems to realise that, in being away from Bethel, he should keep his pilgrim character.

Here, though he had a tent and an altar, we can again see that his separation from the people of the land was being weakened. He pitched his tent close to the city, and then bought the land where he had camped.

He buys a field near Shechem and settles down there. Abraham had only been a stranger in that place. Abraham knew the will of God, and owned no spot of ground there to set his foot on.

One wrong step away from our true position before the Lord leads to many a sin, scandal, and sorrow. So we find here as the result of Jacob's buying the land of the Hivite, and building himself a house. His stay at Succoth and Shechem covers some ten years. He has to be unsettled before he returns to his pilgrim place. But the way was painful for all. It brought deep shame, humiliation and fear to Jacob.

"God has spoken in His holiness: I will exult, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth" (Ps. 60:6). Shechem and Succoth remind us of how Israel's history began with Jacob, their father (Gen. 33:17-20). These are the first places where he settled when he returned to the land of promise after wandering in a strange land. So it will one day be for the remnant of Israel. They will gather round the true David and take back their land as they follow Him.

About 'piece of money' (Gen. 33:19; Job 42:11) and 'piece of silver' (Joshua 24:32) — qesitah — Gesenius compares Gen. 33:19 with Gen. 23:16 and supposes the weight to equal 4 shekels.

Prince of the Hivites and father of Shechem, of whose family Jacob bought a piece of ground in which Joseph was buried. He is called EMMOR in Acts 7:16. Simeon and Levi killed him with the sword, along with Shechem and every male in the city, to avenge their sister Dinah (Gen. 34:2-26).

At Succoth, where Jacob first arrived, he builds a house. Then at Shalem, in Shechem, he buys a field — something Abraham and Isaac, truer to the call of God, never did and never would have done. How could he count on moral safety in such circumstances? He had exchanged the tent for a house, and the pilgrim stranger had become a citizen and a landowner… And again, the Lord did not give Abraham so much land as to set his foot on (Acts 7:5). Yet here at Shalem in Shechem, Jacob will still have a piece of ground, and buys it for an inheritance.

Yet as he failed at Succoth, so he failed still more at Shechem. That place had a special claim on him beyond Shalem. It was there that Abraham, the father of the faithful, first saw Jehovah appear in Canaan, and there he received the promise that God would give that land to his descendants. And there he built an altar to Jehovah who appeared to him. How different from the man who received no inheritance in the land — not even enough to set his foot on! All he ever held there was a burial place, bought later for his dead. So Jacob moved further and further from the position of a stranger passing through… Jacob must go through more and more humbling experience, and God must dislodge him from settling on the field he had bought from the Hivite, to bring him to the place of his vow.

We read of "the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph" (John 4:5), and Joshua 24:32 seems to refer to this gift too. If so, we must identify it with what is recorded in Genesis 33:19… Jacob gained a portion in the land through conflict as well as purchase. He gave it to Joseph, who became lord of that little portion of the land as well as lord of all Egypt. It was something of a foretaste and pledge that his descendants would one day possess the whole land.

We find the Lord now at Sychar, a name that means "purchased." The town took its name from the piece of land Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor and gave to Joseph, who was buried there. All that Jacob had purchased, then (though he meant it otherwise), and all that he could give to his best-loved son, was the place of a grave. It was a good place to speak of another gift and another purchase, free to all who wanted and sought it — a spring of life instead of a place of death.

It is called SYCHEM in Acts 7:16, where it says that Abraham bought a tomb there. This is thought to clash with Gen. 33:19, which speaks of Jacob buying it. But nothing is said in the latter passage about a tomb: Jacob bought a piece of ground to spread his tent in.

This is the name Jacob gave to the altar he built near Shechem. God had just before changed his name to Israel, which means "a prince of God." Jacob tied the blessing carried in this name to a piece of land he bought, instead of to God's house at Bethel. So he calls the altar he had built "God, the God of Israel."

The name El-elohe-Israel means "God the God of Israel." He did use his new God-given name, not his old name of Jacob. Yet even so he connected God with himself instead of connecting himself with God. In effect he was saying "God belongs to me," instead of "I belong to God."

He builds an altar at Shechem for the first time, after he has returned to the land. The name of the altar recalls the blessing of Israel, but not the name of the God who made the promises. He calls the altar "God, the God of Israel." Thankfulness does recognise the blessing Jacob has received. But the God who blessed him is not yet revealed.

Jacob clearly meant to stay at Shechem. He had bought his field, so he built an altar there and called it El-elohe-Israel. His intentions were good, but it seems clear that he had not entered fully into the mind of God. It was Bethel that God had spoken to him about while he was still in Paddan-aram, for had He not said, "I am the God of Bethel"?

The altar comes next in the list, after the house and the field. At first it may look like a relief, something that makes the whole scene holy — the one good thing in the middle of the corruption. But it is perhaps the worst of all. It was not raised to Him who had appeared to him. There had been no communion between the Lord and Jacob at either Succoth or Shechem. Shechem was not Bethel… It looks like an attempt to get the Lord's approval of Jacob's loss of his separated, pilgrim character.

The name of our altar and the character of our worship express the same idea. El-Bethel worship is higher than El-elohe-Israel worship, for this simple reason: it conveys a higher idea of God. True, there is beautiful grace in the title "God, the God of Israel." The soul is always glad to see God connect Himself with every single stone of His house and every single member of the body. But God is the God of His house. When our understanding grows enough to see Him that way, we enjoy a higher kind of worship than the worship that comes from only grasping what He is to us as individuals.

This was only a half-way measure. There he bought a parcel of a field, a picture of a part of the world. It was not a large part, but it drew him into a compromise that brought sad results. He erected an altar there, but it was not because of God's word that he did so. God told him later to make an altar at Bethel… For it was still not God's honour he was chiefly seeking, but his own blessing. At Bethel his altar's name was "El-Bethel," "God of the house of God." There he finally learned that God's glory was more important than Jacob's blessing.