Genesis 32:30-31

32:30 So Jacob named the place Peniel, ¹  explaining, ²  “Certainly ³  I have seen God face to face ⁴  and have survived.” ⁵ 

32:31 The sun rose ⁶  over him as he crossed over Penuel, ⁷  but ⁸  he was limping because of his hip.

Genesis 32:1

Jacob Wrestles at Peniel

32:1 So Jacob went on his way and the angels of God ⁹  met him.

Genesis 12:1

The Obedience of Abram

12:1 Now the Lord said ¹⁰  to Abram, ¹¹ 

“Go out ¹²  from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household

to the land that I will show you. ¹³ 

¹ sn The name Peniel means “face of God.” Since Jacob saw God face to face here, the name is appropriate.

² tn The word “explaining” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

³ tn Or “because.”

⁴ sn I have seen God face to face. See the note on the name “Peniel” earlier in the verse.

⁵ tn Heb “and my soul [= life] has been preserved.”

⁶ tn Heb “shone.”

⁷ sn The name is spelled Penuel here, apparently a variant spelling of Peniel (see v. 30).

⁸ tn The disjunctive clause draws attention to an important fact: He may have crossed the stream, but he was limping.

⁹ sn The phrase angels of God occurs only here and in Gen 28:12 in the OT. Jacob saw a vision of angels just before he left the promised land. Now he encounters angels as he prepares to return to it. The text does not give the details of the encounter, but Jacob’s response suggests it was amicable. This location was a spot where heaven made contact with earth, and where God made his presence known to the patriarch. See C. Houtman, “Jacob at Mahanaim: Some Remarks on Genesis XXXII 2-3,” VT 28 (1978): 37-44.

¹⁰ sn The Lord called Abram while he was in Ur (see Gen 15:7; Acts 7:2); but the sequence here makes it look like it was after the family left to migrate to Canaan (11:31-32). Genesis records the call of Abram at this place in the narrative because it is the formal beginning of the account of Abram. The record of Terah was brought to its end before this beginning.

¹¹ tn The call of Abram begins with an imperative לֶךְ־לְךָ (lekh-lÿkha, “go out”) followed by three cohortatives (v. 2a) indicating purpose or consequence (“that I may” or “then I will”). If Abram leaves, then God will do these three things. The second imperative (v. 2b, literally “and be a blessing”) is subordinated to the preceding cohortatives and indicates God’s ultimate purpose in calling and blessing Abram. On the syntactical structure of vv. 1-2 see R. B. Chisholm, “Evidence from Genesis,” A Case for Premillennialism, 37. For a similar sequence of volitive forms see Gen 45:18.

¹² tn The initial command is the direct imperative (לֶךְ, lekh) from the verb הָלַךְ (halakh). It is followed by the lamed preposition with a pronominal suffix (לְךָ, lÿkha) emphasizing the subject of the imperative: “you leave.”

¹³ sn To the land that I will show you. The call of Abram illustrates the leading of the Lord. The command is to leave. The Lord’s word is very specific about what Abram is to leave (the three prepositional phrases narrow to his father’s household), but is not specific at all about where he is to go. God required faith, a point that Heb 11:8 notes.