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Genesis 48 · a question people ask

When did Jacob take land "with my sword and with my bow"?

Interpretation

Jacob says, "I have given to you one portion above your brothers, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow" (48:22). Genesis records Jacob buying land at Shechem (33:19) and Simeon and Levi taking the city with the sword (34:25-29), which Jacob condemned (34:30). It records no battle fought by Jacob himself. Readers explain the words in different ways.

How Christians read it

Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.

An event Genesis doesn't record

Those who hold this view take Jacob's words at face value as a battle Genesis doesn't describe.

Genesis 48:22

Shechem

Those who hold this view note that the Hebrew word for "portion", shechem, is spelled the same as the city Shechem (Strong's calls the place name "the same as" the word), where Jacob bought land (33:19) and where Joseph was later buried "in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought" (Joshua 24:32). John calls it "the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph" (John 4:5). They connect the sword and bow with the taking of Shechem (34:25-29), though Jacob condemned what his sons did there (34:30).

Genesis 33:19 · Genesis 34:25-30 · Joshua 24:32 · John 4:5

The verses

“Moreover I have given to you one portion above your brothers, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.””
Genesis 48:22 · World English Bible
“He bought the parcel of ground where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for one hundred pieces of money.”
Genesis 33:19 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Genesis 48

Genesis 48: Crossed hands

Jacob took Joseph's sons as his own, "even as Reuben and Simeon", and the birthright passed to Joseph's line (1 Chronicles 5:1-2). With his eyes dim, he put his right hand on the younger, Ephraim, on purpose: "I know, my son, I know." He blessed them in the name of "the God who has fed me all my life long" and "the angel who has redeemed me from all evil".

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions