Genesis 33:17

Summary

The verse narrates that Jacob traveled to Succoth, where he built a house for himself and shelters for his livestock. The text closes with an etiology explaining that the place received the name Succoth because of this action.

Key words

• na.Sa' ("he set out", H5265) — qal perfect, a completed action marking Jacob's departure toward Succoth as a discrete narrative event.
• su.Ko.ta ("Succoth", H5523G) — the place name with the directional he (H9011) attached, indicating motion "toward" Succoth.
• i.Yi.ven ("he built", H1129) — qal narrative form (vav + imperfect), the classic "and then he built" construction that advances the storyline after the initial perfect.
• mik.Ne.hu ("his livestock", H4735 + H9023) — a construct noun with pronominal suffix, literally "livestock-of-him," specifying whose animals received shelters.
• su.Kot ("shelters", H5521) — feminine plural noun describing the structures made for the livestock, distinct in form from the place name su.Kot (H5523G) though written identically in consonantal text.

What the text says

The verse opens with the conjunction ve ("and", H9002) attached to Ya'aqov ("Jacob", H3290), a construction that shifts focus back to Jacob after preceding material about Esau's route. The verb na.Sa' ("he set out", H5265) is a qal perfect, presenting Jacob's travel as a completed, summarized action rather than an ongoing narrative beat — this is reinforced by the directional he suffix on Sukkotah, showing motion toward the destination without a separate preposition.

The narrative then shifts into the vav-narrative chain typical of Hebrew storytelling: va-yiven ("and he built", H1129) uses the narrative vav (H9001) to link sequential events — Jacob builds a house (bayit, H1004B) for himself. The text then pairs this with u-le-miqnehu 'asah sukkot ("and for his livestock he made shelters", H4735/H6213H/H5521), using the same qal perfect verb form 'asah ("he made", H6213H) as with na.Sa', framing the shelter-making as a completed act.

The final clause, 'al-ken qara' shem-ha-maqom Sukkot ("therefore he called the name of the place Succoth"), employs the standard etiological formula found elsewhere in Genesis, linking the noun sukkot ("shelters", H5521) — the structures Jacob made — to the resulting place name Sukkot (H5523G). Both words share the same consonantal root and spelling in Hebrew, though the grammatical data distinguishes them as separate lexical entries (H5521 for the common noun, H5523G for the toponym).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders bayit ("house", H1004B) in the plural as οἰκίας ("houses"), where the Hebrew has a singular noun. The Vulgate compresses the two building actions (house and shelters) into a single clause ("ædificata domo et fixis tentoriis") and adds the gloss "id est, Tabernacula" ("that is, Tabernacles") after the place name, an explanatory addition not present in the Hebrew text itself.