Genesis 33:20

Summary

After settling near Shechem, Jacob (referred to by the narrative's subject pronoun) sets up an altar at that location and gives it a name that incorporates the divine title "El" together with "the God of Israel." The verse closes the narrative unit describing his arrival and settlement in the land.

Key words

• yatzev ("he set up", H5324) — Hiphil (causative) narrative verb: the subject causes the altar to stand; the causative stem marks a deliberate, constructive act rather than a spontaneous state.
• yiqra ("he called", H7121) — Qal narrative verb continuing the sequence ("and then he called"); paired with the prefixed l- + suffix -o ("to it"), it functions in Hebrew as "he named it," with the following words serving as the name given.
• l-o ("to it", H9005 + H9033) — preposition plus pronominal suffix; the referent is grammatically the masculine noun mizbeach ("altar", H4196) mentioned just before, so "it" points back to the altar, not to a person.
• El ("El", H0410) — construct-state noun, meaning it is grammatically bound to what follows, forming a compound naming phrase rather than a standalone sentence.
• Elohei ("Elohe/God of", H0430) — plural construct form of Elohim, likewise bound to the following name Yisrael ("Israel", H3290), producing the chained phrase "El, God of Israel" as the altar's name.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as two sequential narrative clauses joined by the vav-consecutive: first "he set up there an altar," then "he called to-it El Elohei Yisrael." The second clause's verb yiqra takes an indirect object marked by l- + suffix (lo, "to it"), a construction Biblical Hebrew regularly uses for naming ("he called it X"). Because the closest available antecedent for the masculine suffix is mizbeach ("altar"), the grammar indicates that what receives the name "El Elohei Yisrael" is the altar itself, and the compound phrase El Elohei Yisrael functions as that name, built from two nouns in construct chains ("El, God of Israel").

Differences between versions

The Hebrew grammar (verb yiqra + lo, referring to the altar) supports reading the altar as receiving a name, as reflected in the BSB ("called it El-Elohe-Israel") and SBLIBRE ("lo llamó El Elohe Israel"). The LXX instead renders the clause as ἐπεκαλέσατο τὸν θεὸν Ἰσραήλ ("he called upon the God of Israel"), and the Vulgate similarly gives invocavit super illud fortissimum Deum Israël ("he invoked over it the most mighty God of Israel"). Both LXX and Vulgate treat the verb as an invocation directed toward God rather than as the assignment of a name to the altar, differing from how the Hebrew lo construction is structured.