Genesis 33:3
Read Genesis 33:3 Using Other Translations
What does Genesis 33:3 mean?
And he passed over before them
At the head of them, as the master of the family, exposing
himself to the greatest danger for them, and in order to protect
and defend them in the best manner he could, or to endeavour to
soften the mind of his brother by an address, should there be any
occasion for it: and bowed himself to the ground seven
times;
in a civil way, as was the manner in the eastern countries
towards great personages; and this he did to Esau as being his
elder brother, and as superior to him in grandeur and wealth,
being lord of a considerable country; and at the same time
religious adoration might be made to God; while he thus bowed to
the ground, his heart might be going up to God in prayer, that he
would appear for him at this instant, and deliver him and his
family from perishing by his brother; and so the Targum of
Jonathan introduces this clause,
``praying, and asking mercies of the Lord, and bowed''seven times, perhaps, may not design an exact number, but that he bowed many times as he came along: until he came near to his brother;
he kept bowing all the way he came until they were within a small space of one another.
