And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, he bought for a hundred pieces of money the piece of land on which he had pitched his tent.
Jacob has come back into Canaan. Near the city of Shechem he does something Abraham and Isaac never did: he buys land. He pays a hundred pieces of money to Hamor's sons for ground his tent already stood on. Commentators read that purchase in two ways: what it shows about Jacob, and what God later made of the field.
The price and the sellers
The "pieces of money" have a Hebrew name: qesitah. One writer weighs it against a price paid earlier in Genesis.
Morrish Bible DictionaryAbout '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.
The seller has a name, and his story does not end well. Hamor was the local ruler, and Shechem was his son.
Morrish Bible DictionaryPrince 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).
A tent exchanged for a title deed
Abraham and Isaac lived in the land without owning any of it. Jacob has just built himself a house at Succoth. Now he buys a field, and writers see a change of position, not just a change of address.
J. G. BellettAt 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.
Why Shechem of all places
Shechem was not neutral ground. Abraham met the Lord there first in Canaan, and first heard the promise of the land. That sharpens what Jacob does on the same spot — and what God must do to move him on.
William KellyYet 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.
From grave to pledge
Jacob later gave this ground to Joseph, and Joseph's grave was in it. Writers read that as God turning a poor purchase into a down payment.
F. B. HoleWe 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.
Long after, the Lord came to this same ground. One writer sees the choice of place as deliberate.
F. W. GrantWe 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.
Stephen's summary in Acts 7
Stephen says Abraham bought a tomb at Shechem, which looks like a conflict with this verse.
Morrish Bible DictionaryIt 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.
Summary
- Purchase — Jacob paid Hamor's sons a hundred qesitah, about four shekels each, for the ground under his tent.
- Position — the price was more than money. The tent-dweller became a landowner, in a land where God gave Abraham not one foot of ground.
- Place — the failure was sharpest at Shechem, the very spot where Abraham first heard the promise of the land.
- Grave — the bought field gave Joseph only a burial plot. Yet God made that plot a pledge of the whole land.
- Gift — on that same ground the Lord offered water no one has to buy, turning a place of death into a spring of life.