The Fallible Study Bible

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Genesis33:18–20

Jacob Settles in Shechem

✦ Public-domain source — quoted & attributed⚙ AI synthesis — generated, verify

Genesis 33:18–20 — Jacob Settles in Shechem. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

18

After Jacob had come from Paddan-aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan, and he camped just outside the city.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

ya·‘ă·qōḇ way·yā·ḇō mip·pad·dan ’ă·rām bə·ḇō·’ōw šā·lêm ‘îr šə·ḵem ’ă·šer bə·’e·reṣ kə·na·‘an way·yi·ḥan ’eṯ- pə·nê hā·‘îr

Word by word15 · parsed
יַעֲקֹ֨בya·‘ă·qōḇAfter JacobH3290
√ Yaʻăqôb — Jaakob, the Israelitish patriarchNounpropermasculine singular
Yaʿăqōb (H3290), "heel-grabber, supplanter" — pointedly still Jacob here, not yet Israel in the narration, though he will name his altar with the new name in v. 20.
וַיָּבֹא֩way·yā·ḇōhad comeH935
√ bôwʼ — to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
מִפַּדַּ֣ןmip·pad·danvvvH6307
√ Paddân — Paddan or Paddan-Aram, a region of SyriaPreposition
אֲרָ֑ם’ă·rāmfrom Paddan-aramH758
√ ʼĂrâm — Aram or Syria, and its inhabitantsPrepositionNounproperfeminine singular
בְּבֹא֖וֹbə·ḇō·’ōwhe arrivedH935
√ bôwʼ — to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)Preposition-bVerbQalInfinitive constructthird person masculine singular
שָׁלֵ֜םšā·lêmsafelyH8003
√ shâlêm — complete (literally or figuratively)Adjectivemasculine singular
šālēm (H8003) shares the consonantal root of šālôm, peace, and of Shalem/Salem and the later Jeru-salem. Keil and Delitzsch and the Pulpit Commentary both hear a deliberate echo of Jacob's Bethel vow to return bᵉšālôm (Genesis 28:21): the man who left fleeing now arrives whole. The word does double duty — geography for some readers, character for others.
עִ֣יר‘îrat the cityH5892
√ ʻîyr — a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post)Nounfeminine singular construct
שְׁכֶ֗םšə·ḵemof ShechemH7927
√ Shᵉkem — Shekem, a place in PalestineNounproperfeminine singular
Shechem (H7927), "shoulder, ridge" — the saddle of land between Mounts Ebal and Gerizim. Abraham's first altar in Canaan stood here (Genesis 12:6-7); it will become the burial-place of Joseph's bones (Joshua 24:32) and the well of John 4. The name is also a man's name (34:2), and the narrative trades on the ambiguity.
אֲשֶׁר֙’ă·šerH834
√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative
בְּאֶ֣רֶץbə·’e·reṣin the landH776
√ ʼerets — the earth (at large, or partitively a land)Preposition-bNounfeminine singular construct
כְּנַ֔עַןkə·na·‘anof CanaanH3667
√ Kᵉnaʻan — Kenaan, a son a HamNounpropermasculine singular
Canaan (H3667) — the land of promise. The clause "which is in the land of Canaan" is doing covenantal work: Jacob has crossed Jordan; the homeward vow is kept. Cambridge notes the abrupt geographic transition, attributing the clause to a distinct source.
וַיִּ֖חַןway·yi·ḥanand he campedH2583
√ chânâh — properly, to inclineConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
wayyiḥan (H2583): the tent-peg verb. To camp is to confess oneself a stranger and sojourner — exactly the patriarchal self-understanding (Genesis 23:4) that the land-purchase in v. 19 both honors and quietly defies.
אֶת־’eṯ-. . .H854
√ ʼêth — properly, nearness (used only as a preposition or an adverb), nearDirect object marker
פְּנֵ֥יpə·nêjust outsideH6440
√ pânîym — the face (as the part that turns)Nouncommon plural construct
pᵉnê (H6440), construct of pānîm, "faces" — the same word that names Jacob's wrestling-place Peniel, "the face of God" (Genesis 32:30), only one chapter earlier. He who saw God's face now camps before a city's face.
הָעִֽיר׃hā·‘îrthe cityH5892
√ ʻîyr — a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post)ArticleNounfeminine singular
19

And the plot of ground where he pitched his tent, he purchased from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of silver.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

ḥel·qaṯ haś·śā·ḏeh ’ă·šer nā·ṭāh- šām ’ā·ho·lōw way·yi·qen ’eṯ- mî·yaḏ bə·nê- ḥă·mō·wr šə·ḵem ’ă·ḇî bə·mê·’āh qə·śî·ṭāh

Word by word15 · parsed
חֶלְקַ֣תḥel·qaṯAnd the plotH2513
√ chelqâh — properly, smoothnessNounfeminine singular construct
ḥelqat haśśādeh, "the smooth-portion of the field" — Cambridge connects "parcel" through Old French parcelle to Latin particula, a little part. The patriarchs hold the land only in small particles (compare Machpelah, ch. 23): a deposit, not the deed to the whole.
הַשָּׂדֶ֗הhaś·śā·ḏehof groundH7704
√ sâdeh — a field (as flat)ArticleNounmasculine singular
אֲשֶׁ֤ר’ă·šerwhereH834
√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative
נָֽטָה־nā·ṭāh-he pitchedH5186
√ nâṭâh — to stretch or spread outVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular
שָׁם֙šām. . .H8033
√ shâm — there (transferring to time) thenAdverb
אָהֳל֔וֹ’ā·ho·lōwhis tentH168
√ ʼôhel — a tent (as clearly conspicuous from a distance)Nounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular
nāṭāh ... ʾāholô, "he stretched out his tent" (H5186 + H168). The verb nāṭāh is the same one Scripture uses for God who "stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent (ʾōhel) to dwell in" (Isaiah 40:22 — shares both H5186 and H168). No commentator here presses the parallel, so it is offered only as a quiet resonance, not a claimed allusion: the sojourner pitching his frail tent on a hundred-qᵉśîṭāh parcel, beneath the LORD who pitches the sky.
וַיִּ֜קֶןway·yi·qenhe purchasedH7069
√ qânâh — to erect, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
wayyiqen (H7069): the act that JFB calls making Jacob "the first of the patriarchs who became a proprietor of land in Canaan." K&D reads it theologically — "Jacob, in reliance upon the promise of God, regarded Canaan as his own home and the home of his seed."
אֶת־’eṯ-H853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker
מִיַּ֥דmî·yaḏfromH3027
√ yâd — a hand (the open one (indicating power, means, direction, etcPreposition-mNounfeminine singular construct
בְּנֵֽי־bə·nê-the sonsH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine plural construct
bᵉnê-Ḥămôr, "sons of Hamor" (H1121 / H2544). Hamor means "donkey" — a Hivite chieftain who founded the town and named it for his son. Cambridge notes that the LXX, confused by "sons of Hamor, Shechem's father" against "Shechem son of Hamor" in 34:2, simply dropped "sons of."
חֲמ֖וֹרḥă·mō·wrof HamorH2544
√ Chămôwr — Chamor, a CanaaniteNounpropermasculine singular
שְׁכֶ֑םšə·ḵemShechem’sH7927
√ Shᵉkem — Shekem, a place in PalestineNounpropermasculine singular
אֲבִ֣י’ă·ḇîfatherH1
√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine singular construct
בְּמֵאָ֖הbə·mê·’āhfor a hundredH3967
√ mêʼâh — a hundredPreposition-bNumberfeminine singular
קְשִׂיטָֽה׃qə·śî·ṭāhpieces of silverH7192
√ qᵉsîyṭâh — an ingot (as definitely estimated and stamped for a coin)Nounfeminine singular
qᵉśîṭāh (H7192) — the unit of payment occurs in only three verses in the whole Hebrew Bible; this purchase and Joseph's burial in this very field (Joshua 24:32) account for two of them. The third is Job 42:11. The rare word is itself a thread.
20

There he set up an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

šām way·yaṣ·ṣeḇ- miz·bê·aḥ way·yiq·rā- lōw ’êl ’ĕ·lō·hê yiś·rā·’êl

Word by word8 · parsed
שָׁ֖םšāmThereH8033
√ shâm — there (transferring to time) thenAdverb
וַיַּצֶּב־way·yaṣ·ṣeḇ-he set upH5324
√ nâtsab — to station, in various applications (literally or figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbHifilConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
wayyaṣṣeb (H5324): the standing-up verb. Cambridge: "A verb used elsewhere, not of an altar, but of a 'pillar' or upright stone." The Geneva Bible glosses the whole act, "He calls the sign, the thing which it signifies, in token that God had mightily delivered him."
מִזְבֵּ֑חַmiz·bê·aḥan altarH4196
√ mizbêach — an altarNounmasculine singular
mizbēaḥ (H4196), "altar," literally "place of slaughter/sacrifice," from zābaḥ. Abraham raised the first altar in Canaan on this same ground (Genesis 12:7); Jacob now consecrates it anew. "Where we have a tent," writes Matthew Henry, "God must have an altar."
וַיִּ֨קְרָא־way·yiq·rā-and calledH7121
√ qârâʼ — to call out to (iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
ל֔וֹlōwit
Prepositionthird person masculine singular
אֵ֖ל’êlEl-Elohe-IsraelH410
√ ʼêl — strengthNounmasculine singular construct
ʾēl (H410): the most ancient Semitic name for deity, "Strength, the Mighty One." Ellicott observes that "the title of Jehovah could not be used here, as the altar had a special reference to the change of Jacob's name" — Israel means "he strives with El" (32:28), so the altar-name and the man's name interlock around the single syllable El.
אֱלֹהֵ֥י’ĕ·lō·hê. . .H430
√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseNounmasculine plural construct
ʾĕlōhîm (H430): grammatically plural, theologically singular — "God." The construct chain ʾēl ʾĕlōhê places the generic name El in apposition to the covenant relation "God of Israel": the Mighty One is none other than the God who keeps covenant with this man.
יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃סyiś·rā·’êl. . .H3478
√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular
Yiśrāʾēl (H3478), "he strives/persists with God" — the wrestling-name from Peniel, here woven into worship. Benson: "Though he be styled a prince with God, God shall still be a prince with him, his Lord and his God."

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. Arrived whole — the contested word šālēm — Genesis 33:18

The unit opens on a single word that splits the witnesses. The Hebrew says Jacob came šālēm (H8003) to the city of Shechem. The ancient versions — LXX, Vulgate, Syriac — heard a place-name, Shalem, and Luther and the AV followed them; Keil & Delitzsch object that it is "not a proper name … but an adjective, safe, peaceful, equivalent to bᵉšālôm, 'in peace,' in Genesis 28:21, to which there is an evident allusion." Albert Barnes argues the adjectival reading on three counts — the default is common-noun unless a name is forced, the place was already called Shekem in Abraham's day, and "the statement that Jacob arrived in safety accounts for the additional clauses." The Hebrew tradition presses the bodily sense: Ellicott reports that "Rashi also, no mean authority, sees in it an allusion to the cure of Jacob's lameness," preferring Philippsohn's wohlbehalten, "in good condition." The reader should know this is a genuine fork in the text, not a settled gloss — and that the BSB's smooth safely picks the predicative side without showing its work.

ii. The first deed in the land — ḥelqat haśśādeh and the rare qᵉśîṭāh — Genesis 33:19

Jacob does what no patriarch before him had done with un-burial intent: he buys ground to live on. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown mark the moment — "he bought a parcel of a field, thus being the first of the patriarchs who became a proprietor of land in Canaan." The price is a hundred qᵉśîṭāh (H7192), and the word's rarity is its own argument: Cambridge notes it is "mentioned only in Joshua 24:32; Job 42:11," so archaic that "whether it denotes a small coin, or an ingot, cannot be determined," and the old versions guessed lambs. Poole offers the numismatic conjecture — coins "called lambs possibly from the figure of a lamb stamped upon it, as the Athenian money was called an ox." Beneath the antiquarian detail runs a theology of land: Keil & Delitzsch read the purchase as faith made tangible — "Jacob, in reliance upon the promise of God, regarded Canaan as his own home and the home of his seed." Ellicott follows the parcel forward: "In this, the first parcel of ground possessed by Jacob, the embalmed body of Joseph was buried (Joshua 24:32 … John 4:5); and it is remarkable that the possession of it was secure, even when the owners were far away in Egypt."

iii. El-Elohe-Israel — the altar that preaches a name — Genesis 33:20

The unit closes in worship. Where there is a tent there is now an altar — Matthew Henry's aphorism, "Where we have a tent, God must have an altar," catches it exactly — and Jacob names it El-Elohe-Israel, "God, the God of Israel." The naming is reflexive: God had just renamed the man Israel at Peniel (32:28), and Benson hears the answering symmetry — "God had lately called him by the name of Israel; and now he calls God the God of Israel." Ellicott explains the deliberate choice of El over Jehovah: "the altar had a special reference to the change of Jacob's name … an acknowledgment on his own part of his now being Israel, a prince with El." Cambridge reads the confession in its setting — "a profession of faith in the one true God made at the moment when Jacob comes to dwell among the heathen Canaanites" — and flags a textual subtlety: the verb "set up" (wayyaṣṣeb, H5324) is used elsewhere of a pillar, not an altar, so some prefer to read maṣṣēbāh (pillar) for mizbēaḥ (altar). The Geneva note holds the two together: "He calls the sign, the thing which it signifies, in token that God had mightily delivered him."

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

Read under Sola Scriptura, these three verses are a single confession spelled out in stone. Jacob left Canaan a fugitive who had taken a name (Yaʿăqōb, supplanter) by grasping; he returns šālēm, whole, having been given a name (Israel, one who strives-with-God-and-prevails) by surrender at the Jabbok. The geography preaches the change: he who camped at Peniel, "the face of God" (32:30), now camps before the face of a city (pᵉnê hāʿîr, 33:18, same word H6440) — the man who has seen God's face can dwell among men. The land-purchase and the altar are then two halves of one act of faith: with the rare qᵉśîṭāh he stakes a literal claim that Canaan belongs to his seed (the very field where Joseph's bones will rest, Joshua 24:32), and with the altar he confesses Whose gift the claim is. The altar's name is the whole gospel of the chapter compressed to three Hebrew words — not "Israel is great," but "El is the God of Israel." The new name is not a trophy; it is an address for prayer. This is the tool's own reading and is offered to be tested against the text, not in place of it.

He left grasping a name and returned given one — and his first deed in the land was to build God an address. (an interpretive line, not Scripture)

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The same parcel of ground — Jacob's field becomes Joseph's grave verbal / quotation — confirmed

The field Jacob buys here for a hundred qᵉśîṭāh is the field where Joseph's bones are buried at the end of the conquest. Joshua 24:32 shares an extraordinary verbal cluster with Genesis 33:19: the rare qᵉśîṭāh (H7192, in only 3 verses), plus Hamor (H2544), the "portion" ḥelqāh (H2513), Shechem (H7927), the verb "bought" qānāh (H7069), and "field" (H7704). This is not a thematic echo but the same transaction, recorded twice across the span of Genesis-to-Joshua — the deed and its eventual use. The density of shared lexemes, anchored by the rare qᵉśîṭāh, makes this the firmest cross-reference in the unit.

Joshua 24:32

basis: rare shared lexeme H7192 qᵉśîṭāh (only 3 vv) plus H2544 Chămôwr, H2513 ḥelqāh, H7927 Shᵉkem, H7069 qānāh, H7704 śādeh — the same land-transaction recorded twice

A hundred qᵉśîṭāh — the rare coin of the patriarchs verbal / quotation — confirmed

The word qᵉśîṭāh (H7192) occurs in only three verses in the entire Hebrew Bible; two are this unit and its sequel (Genesis 33:19; Joshua 24:32), the third is Job 42:11, where Job's restored friends each give him "a qᵉśîṭāh and a ring of gold." Cambridge and Ellicott both note the word's isolation and its patriarchal-era flavor. The shared rare lexeme is a genuine verbal link; whether Job is deliberately archaizing to set his tale in patriarchal times, or simply preserves an old unit of weight, is a matter for argument — but the lexical fingerprint is real and rare.

Job 42:11

basis: rare shared lexeme H7192 qᵉśîṭāh — occurs in only 3 verses total (Gen 33:19; Josh 24:32; Job 42:11)

Two altars at Shechem — Abraham and Jacob on the same ridge structural / thematic — confirmed

Abraham built his first altar in Canaan at Shechem when God appeared to him there (Genesis 12:6-7); Jacob, returning, builds an altar at the same place (33:20). The link to 12:7 rests on shared mizbēaḥ (H4196, "altar") and šām (H8033, "there"), and the link to Abraham's arrival in 12:6 on the place-name Shechem (H7927). These are common words, so the connection is structural-thematic rather than a quotation: the narrative deliberately patterns Jacob's homecoming on Abraham's first entrance, consecrating the same ridge anew. Keil and Delitzsch and Ellicott both make the parallel explicit.

Genesis 12:6 · Genesis 12:7

basis: shared H4196 mizbēaḥ + H8033 šām (vs 12:7); shared place-name H7927 Shᵉkem (vs 12:6) — pattern of patriarchal altar-building, no quotation claim

El-Elohe-Israel and the Bethel altar El-Bethel structural / thematic — confirmed

Jacob's altar-naming here (33:20) is twinned with his later altar at Bethel, which he names El-Bethel (Genesis 35:7), "God of Bethel." Both verses share the altar-erecting and naming language — mizbēaḥ (H4196), qārāʾ (H7121, "called"), šām (H8033, "there"). The pattern is one of altar-naming bracketing Jacob's resettlement in Canaan: at Shechem he names God after his own new name (Israel); at Bethel he names God after the place of the original vow. The shared lexemes are common, so this is a structural-thematic link, not a verbal quotation.

Genesis 35:7

basis: shared H4196 mizbēaḥ + H7121 qārāʾ + H8033 šām — paired altar-naming episodes; common lexemes, motif not quotation

Came back in šālôm — the Bethel vow flagged — verify source

The commentators (Keil & Delitzsch, Barnes, the Pulpit Commentary) hear in Jacob's arrival šālēm (H8003) a deliberate fulfillment of his vow at Bethel to return bᵉšālôm, "in peace" (Genesis 28:21). The argument is real and ancient — and it is also exactly the kind of claim a synthesizer must not over-state: the Verifier finds no shared original-language lexeme in the index between this unit and 28:21 (šālēm H8003 and šālôm H7965 are distinct Strong's numbers, though from the same root š-l-m). The connection is therefore a consonantal/root resonance argued by the commentators, not a lexeme match the engine can confirm. Flagged accordingly.

Genesis 28:21

basis: no shared Strong's lexeme (šālēm H8003 ≠ šālôm H7965, though same root š-l-m); the vow-fulfillment link is a commentators' root-resonance argument, not an engine-confirmed verbal match

Before the storm — the city of Shechem in chapter 34 structural / thematic — confirmed

The peaceful settlement "before the city" of Shechem (33:18) is the immediate setup for the violence of chapter 34: the defilement of Dinah by Shechem son of Hamor (34:2) and the revenge of Simeon and Levi. The link rests on the place/person-name Shechem (H7927) and the object-marker, so it is structural-thematic. Cambridge and the Pulpit Commentary both observe that the narrative's note of Jacob arriving "in peace" gains its irony precisely from what follows — the šālēm of v. 18 set against the bloodshed of ch. 34.

Genesis 34:2

basis: shared name H7927 Shᵉkem (+ H854 ʾēth); narrative continuity, the peaceful arrival framing the coming catastrophe — motif, not quotation

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

Jacob's well and the field of Joseph — the Samaritan woman widely-held

This bought field, where Jacob pitched his tent and (by tradition) sank a well, is named in John 4:5-6 as "the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph" — the very plot of Genesis 33:19 — where Jesus sits at Jacob's well and reveals Himself as the giver of living water to a Samaritan woman, in the shadow of Mount Gerizim. Ellicott and Keil & Delitzsch both trace the field forward to this scene. Because this is a Greek text echoing a Hebrew narrative, there can be no shared Strong's lexeme; the link is the named place itself. The patriarch who confessed "El is the God of Israel" at this ground prefigures the One who there declares true worship is "in spirit and truth," neither at Gerizim nor Jerusalem (John 4:21-24). The typology — Jacob's altar and well becoming the meeting-place of Messiah and outsider — is widely held in the tradition.

John 4:5 · John 4:6 · John 4:21

El-Elohe-Israel — the God of Israel made flesh novel

Jacob, freshly renamed Israel, builds an altar confessing El to be "the God of Israel" (33:20). The New Testament identifies this God of Israel decisively with the Son: "the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has glorified His servant Jesus" (Acts 3:13), and in Christ "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily" (Colossians 2:9). The altar Jacob raises to El-Elohe-Israel anticipates the worship the gospel renders to the One in whom the God of Israel is fully revealed. This is a cross-Testament theological reading, not a verbal-lexeme link — no shared Strong's between the Hebrew of 33:20 and the Greek of the NT — and so it is offered as confession built on the canon's own identifications, novel in its specific framing here.

Acts 3:13 · Colossians 2:9

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

The pivot word is genuinely contested. Whether šālēm (33:18) is the place-name "Shalem" or the adjective "safe/whole" is a real textual-interpretive fork: LXX, Vulgate, Syriac, Luther and the AV read a place-name; the Hebrew tradition (Onkelos, Rashi), Gesenius, and Keil & Delitzsch read the adjective. The BSB's safely chooses the adjectival side; this synthesis follows the parse but flags the alternative throughout.

Altar or pillar? Cambridge notes that the verb wayyaṣṣeb (H5324, "set up," Hiphil of nāṣab) is elsewhere used of a standing-stone (maṣṣēbāh), not an altar (mizbēaḥ), and that some therefore emend or re-read v. 20. The parse and BSB both give "altar"; the textual question is recorded, not resolved here.

Cross-Testament links carry no Strong's basis. The threads to John 4 and Acts/Colossians are Greek-against-Hebrew and so can share no Strong's number; they are tiered as typological/theological and labeled by attestation, never as "verbal."

The Bethel-vow link is flagged. Although the commentators' šālēm↔šālôm allusion (33:18 ↔ 28:21) is ancient and persuasive, the two words are distinct Strong's numbers (H8003 vs H7965); the Verifier finds no shared indexed lexeme, so the connection is recorded as a root-resonance argument to verify against the sources, not an engine-confirmed verbal match.

Source note. Per the unit's source list, Matthew Henry's note is identical across vv. 18-20 (a single block on 33:17-20) and Keil & Delitzsch is identical across the three verses; each is quoted once, on the verse where its emphasis lands. All voices are verbatim contiguous excerpts of the provided voices_raw.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)