What Does Genesis 33:20 Mean?
And he set up an altar there, and called it God, the God of Israel.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And he erected there an altar, and called it El-elohe-Israel.THE KEY
The altar’s name turns a place of offering into a declaration of belonging: God is the God of Israel.
THE MEANING
The verse joins a tangible place with a spoken recognition: God is the God of Israel. The name makes that relationship visible and gives the altar its witness. Encounter here takes shape in both what is built and what is called aloud.
THE ROOT
מִזְבֵּחַ
mizbeach
GROWS FROM
זבח
to slaughter or sacrifice
The word for altar grows from the root for sacrifice, so the altar is named for what takes place there. Its name then carries the offering into a declaration about who God is to Israel.
ALSO GROWS
zavach: to sacrifice or slaughter
זָבַח
This verb shows the altar’s root in the act of offering.
zevach: a sacrifice or sacrificial meal
זֶבַח
The offering can also become a shared meal, joining sacrifice to a lived relationship.
וַיִּקְרָא
wayyiqra
GROWS FROM
קרא
to call, proclaim, or summon
“called” in this verse is wayyiqra. The Hebrew verb carries the sense of speaking something into the open, not merely assigning it a label. The altar’s name is a public declaration: El, the God of Israel.
ALSO GROWS
miqra: a reading or assembly
מִקְרָא
This branch shows how calling can gather people around words that are spoken aloud.
qeri'ah: a calling or reading aloud
קְרִיאָה
It makes the spoken quality of the altar’s name audible: this is a proclamation of relationship.
THE PATTERN
An offering becomes a witness when it is joined to the name of the one recognized there.
And he pulled up from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and stretched out his tent, with Bethel to the west and Hai to the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD, and called upon the nature of the LORD.And Moses built an altar and called its name Jehovahnissi, the LORD my lifted banner.Through him, then, let us always carry up a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.THE THREAD
And he pulled up from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and stretched out his tent, with Bethel to the west and Hai to the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD, and called upon the nature of the LORD.Both verses use קרא (qara), “call,” alongside an altar. Genesis 12:8 calls upon the LORD’s name; here the altar itself receives a name, making the declaration part of the place.
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