Genesis 32:28

32:28 “No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, ¹  “but Israel, ²  because you have fought ³  with God and with men and have prevailed.”

Nehemiah 1:11

1:11 Please, ⁴  O Lord, listen attentively ⁵  to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who take pleasure in showing respect ⁶  to your name. Grant your servant success today and show compassion to me ⁷  in the presence of this man.”

Now ⁸  I was cupbearer for the king.

Psalms 116:1

Psalm 116 ⁹ 

116:1 I love the Lord

because he heard my plea for mercy, ¹⁰ 

Proverbs 21:1

21:1 The king’s heart ¹¹  is in the hand ¹²  of the Lord like channels of water; ¹³ 

he turns it wherever he wants.

Acts 7:10

7:10 and rescued him from all his troubles, and granted him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made ¹⁴  him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.

Acts 10:4

10:4 Staring at him and becoming greatly afraid, Cornelius ¹⁵  replied, ¹⁶  “What is it, Lord?” The angel ¹⁷  said to him, “Your prayers and your acts of charity ¹⁸  have gone up as a memorial ¹⁹  before God.

[32:28]  ¹ tn Heb “and he said.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:28]  ² sn The name Israel is a common construction, using a verb with a theophoric element (אֵל, ’el) that usually indicates the subject of the verb. Here it means “God fights.” This name will replace the name Jacob; it will be both a promise and a call for faith. In essence, the Lord was saying that Jacob would have victory and receive the promises because God would fight for him.

[32:28]  ³ sn You have fought. The explanation of the name Israel includes a sound play. In Hebrew the verb translated “you have fought” (שָׂרִיתָ, sarita) sounds like the name “Israel” (יִשְׂרָאֵל, yisra’el ), meaning “God fights” (although some interpret the meaning as “he fights [with] God”). The name would evoke the memory of the fight and what it meant. A. Dillmann says that ever after this the name would tell the Israelites that, when Jacob contended successfully with God, he won the battle with man (Genesis, 2:279). To be successful with God meant that he had to be crippled in his own self-sufficiency (A. P. Ross, “Jacob at the Jabboq, Israel at Peniel,” BSac 142 [1985]: 51-62).

[1:11]  ⁴ tn The interjection אָנָּא (’anna’) is an emphatic term of entreaty: “please!” (BDB 58 s.v.; HALOT 69-70 s.v.). This term is normally reserved for pleas for mercy from God in life-and-death situations (2 Kgs 20:3 = Isa 38:3; Pss 116:4; 118:25; Jonah 1:14; 4:2) and for forgiveness of heinous sins that would result or have resulted in severe judgment from God (Exod 32:31; Dan 9:4; Neh 1:5, 11).

[1:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “let your ear be attentive.”

[1:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “fear.”

[1:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “grant compassion.” The words “to me” are supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness and style in English.

[1:11]  ⁸ tn The vav (ו) on וַאֲנִי (va’ani, “Now, I”) introduces a disjunctive parenthetical clause that provides background information to the reader.

[116:1]  ⁹ sn Psalm 116. The psalmist thanks the Lord for delivering him from a life threatening crisis and promises to tell the entire covenant community what God has done for him.

[116:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I love because the Lord heard my voice, my pleas.” It is possible that “the Lord” originally appeared directly after “I love” and was later accidentally misplaced. The translation assumes the prefixed verbal form is a preterite. The psalmist recalls that God heard his cry for help (note the perfect in v. 2a and the narrative in vv. 3-4).

[21:1]  ¹¹ sn “Heart” is a metonymy of subject; it signifies the ability to make decisions, if not the decisions themselves.

[21:1]  ¹² sn “Hand” in this passage is a personification; the word is frequently used idiomatically for “power,” and that is the sense intended here.

[21:1]  ¹³ tn “Channels of water” (פַּלְגֵי, palge) is an adverbial accusative, functioning as a figure of comparison – “like channels of water.” Cf. NAB “Like a stream”; NIV “watercourse”; NRSV, NLT “a stream of water.”

[7:10]  ¹⁴ tn Or “appointed.” See Gen 41:41-43.

[10:4]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Cornelius) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:4]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “said,” but in response to the angel’s address, “replied” is better English style.

[10:4]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the angel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:4]  ¹⁸ tn Or “your gifts to the needy.”

[10:4]  ¹⁹ sn The language used in the expression gone up as a memorial before God parallels what one would say of acceptable sacrifices (Ps 141:2; Sir 35:6; 50:16).