So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir.
Open map →The second half of a parting, and the brothers are not in the same place againGenesis 33:16 · 0 places plottedThe meeting Jacob had dreaded ends without violence. Esau turns for home the same day, and the brothers part. Commentators read this short verse as the moment when two portions and two kinds of men separate for good.
Esau Returns to His Own Portion
Esau goes home, but he does not take the promise with him. It stays with Jacob:
J. N. DarbyEsau now leaves the promise, however, to him, and goes to the place God hates — to his own portion.
Seir is Esau's own country, the land of Edom, and it is no neutral ground:
William KellyEsau returned the same day to his own place. It was a land hostile to Israel and hateful to God, and the close family tie only deepened His hatred of it. For vengeance belongs to Jehovah, who will not let guilty men, who have no right to it, take it into their own hands.
The Man of the World Goes Home
Seir suited Esau because it matched his character. One writer sets the two brothers side by side:
J. G. BellettThe man of God was found in Jacob, the man of the world in Esau; the principle of faith was in the one, the principle of nature in the other... So Esau made the earth the place of his energies, his enjoyments, and his expectations. He was "a man of the field," and "a skillful hunter." He prospered in his own day. He loved the field, and he knew how to use the field. He set his heart on the present life, and he knew how to use what it offered for his own pleasure.
Not a Hair of His Head Touched
Esau had a grievance and the power to act on it. God held him back — and later held Israel back from Edom:
C. H. MackintoshEsau had a serious grudge against Jacob. Yet God acted directly, and Esau was not allowed to touch a hair of his brother's head. On the other hand, Israel must not meddle with Esau's possessions... So we see that the same God who would not allow Esau to touch Jacob, in Genesis 33, now will not allow Israel to touch Edom, in Numbers 20.
Jacob Never Meant to Follow
Esau leaves for Seir expecting his brother to follow. Commentators read Jacob's promise as an evasion:
William KellyThe truth is that he was most anxious to get rid of his brother, and that he had not the smallest intention of going to Seir. He was going to Succoth. Seen in God's light, Jacob was not truthful in what he said to his brother. The evil in the people around him had still not been judged, and he spoke with little conscience but with his usual gift for excuses.
His route gives him away:
F. B. HoleJacob turned down the help Esau offered, and Esau left. Then Jacob again shows the crookedness that seems to have been his natural bent. He had said to Esau, "I come to my lord to Seir," yet he travelled at once to Succoth, which lay in a completely different direction.
Free of Esau, but Still Short of Bethel
Esau's departure left Jacob free to go where God had called him. He stopped short:
C. H. MackintoshAfter all this display of God's goodness, we find Jacob settling down in Succoth. He builds a house there, as if it were his home. That goes against the spirit and principles of a pilgrim life. Now, Succoth was clearly not the place God had appointed for him. The Lord had not said to him, "I am the God of Succoth." He had said, "I am the God of Bethel." So Bethel, not Succoth, should have been Jacob's great aim. But the heart is always ready to settle for a place and a portion that fall short of what God would graciously give.
Commentators differ on how hard to judge this stop. One takes a gentler view:
The Bible TreasuryGod's patience does not leave him until he crosses the outer limits. Succoth is still on God's path, though at its edge. He can still deal in grace.
Summary
- Portion. Esau goes home to Seir and takes his own portion — the place God hates — leaving the promise with his brother.
- Appetite. He goes there gladly because his heart is already there. He was a man of the field, and he set his heart on the present life.
- Protection. The peaceful parting was God's doing. He would not let Esau touch a hair of Jacob's head, and later He would not let Israel touch Edom.
- Evasion. Jacob promised to follow to Seir, then went the other way. He bought freedom from Esau with an untruth.
- Shortfall. Free of his brother, Jacob still settled at Succoth instead of Bethel. The danger is always stopping short of what God has appointed.