Genesis 33:6

Then the maidservants and their children approached and bowed down.

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — Jacob’s household approaches his brother Esau during their reunion, following Esau’s inquiry about the women and children traveling with him. The maidservants and their offspring move forward first in the sequence of family members presenting themselves.

The words — הַ/שְּׁפָח֛וֹת (ha./she.fa.Chot) denotes the maidservants, and וַ/תִּֽשְׁתַּחֲוֶֽיןָ (va./Tish.ta.cha.Vei.na) records the physical act of bowing down.

The thread — This paired action of approaching and bowing repeats immediately in Genesis 33:7 with Leah’s household, and the same Hebrew verb for bowing down appears in Genesis 42:6 and Genesis 43:26 during the Joseph narrative.

Why it lands — The text records a structured, sequential submission of Jacob’s family to Esau, establishing a pattern of deference that the surrounding narrative will test. It requires the reader to track how formal gestures of respect function within a tense reconciliation.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

וַתִּגַּ֧שְׁןָva./ti.Gash.naand/ they approached הַשְּׁפָח֛וֹתha./she.fa.Chotthe/ maidservants הֵ֥נָּהHe.nahthey וְיַלְדֵיהֶ֖ןve./yal.dei./Henand/ children/ their וַתִּֽשְׁתַּחֲוֶֽיןָ׃va./Tish.ta.cha.Vei.naand/ they bowed down

King James Version

Then the handmaidens came near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves.