Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 33:17

"And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built him a house, and made booths for his cattle: therefore the name of the place is called Succoth." — Genesis 33:17 (ASV)

JACOB’S SETTLEMENT IN CANAAN—DINAH’S WRONG, AND THE FIERCE VENGEANCE OF SIMEON AND LEVI (Genesis 33:17–34:31).

Succoth. —That is, booths. There are two claimants for identification with Jacob’s Succoth. One is in the tribe of Gad, on the east of the Jordan, in the corner formed by that river and the Jabbok. The other is the place still called Sakût, on the west of the Jordan; but as it lies ten miles north of the junction of the Jordan and Jabbok, it is not likely that Jacob would go so far out of his way.

Jacob ... built him an house, and made booths for his cattle. —This is something quite unusual, as cattle in Palestine remain in the open air all year round, and the fact that the place retained the name of the booths shows that it was noticed as remarkable.

But the fact, coupled with the right translation of Genesis 33:18, is a strong but undesigned testimony to the truth of the narrative.

Jacob had been pursued by Laban and suffered much from anxiety and the labour attendant upon the hurried removal of so large a household.

Delivered from danger in the rear, he has to face a greater danger in front and passes many days and nights in terror. At last Esau is close at hand, and having done all that man could do, Jacob stays behind to recover himself and prepare for the dreaded meeting the next day. But instead of a few calm, restful hours, he has to wrestle fiercely all night, and when at sunrise he moves forward, he finds that he has sprained his hip.

He gets through the interview with Esau with much feeling, agitated alternately by fear, hope, and joy, enduring all the while his bodily pain as best he can, and then, delivered from all danger, he breaks down.

The word “journeyed” simply means that he broke up his camp from the high ground where he had met his brother and went into the corner close by, where the two rivers would both protect him and provide his cattle with water and pasture.

There he not only put up some protection for his cattle—probably wattled enclosures made with branches of trees—but also built a house for himself, something more solid than a tent.

There he lay until he was healed of his lameness. The strained sinew would require some months of perfect rest before Jacob could move about; but it was healed, for Jacob came whole and sound to the city of Shechem. (See next verse.)