Genesis 32:7-11

32:7 Jacob was very afraid and upset. So he divided the people who were with him into two camps, as well as the flocks, herds, and camels. 32:8 “If Esau attacks one camp,” ¹  he thought, ²  “then the other camp will be able to escape.” ³ 

32:9 Then Jacob prayed, ⁴  “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, you said ⁵  to me, ‘Return to your land and to your relatives and I will make you prosper.’ ⁶  32:10 I am not worthy of all the faithful love ⁷  you have shown ⁸  your servant. With only my walking stick ⁹  I crossed the Jordan, ¹⁰  but now I have become two camps. 32:11 Rescue me, ¹¹  I pray, from the hand ¹²  of my brother Esau, ¹³  for I am afraid he will come ¹⁴  and attack me, as well as the mothers with their children. ¹⁵ 

Genesis 32:24-28

32:24 So Jacob was left alone. Then a man ¹⁶  wrestled ¹⁷  with him until daybreak. ¹⁸  32:25 When the man ¹⁹  saw that he could not defeat Jacob, ²⁰  he struck ²¹  the socket of his hip so the socket of Jacob’s hip was dislocated while he wrestled with him.

32:26 Then the man ²²  said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” ²³  “I will not let you go,” Jacob replied, ²⁴  “unless you bless me.” ²⁵  32:27 The man asked him, ²⁶  “What is your name?” ²⁷  He answered, “Jacob.” 32:28 “No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, ²⁸  “but Israel, ²⁹  because you have fought ³⁰  with God and with men and have prevailed.”

Psalms 56:3-4

56:3 When ³¹  I am afraid,

I trust in you.

56:4 In God – I boast in his promise ³²  –

in God I trust, I am not afraid.

What can mere men ³³  do to me? ³⁴ 

Isaiah 37:3-6

37:3 “This is what Hezekiah says: ³⁵  ‘This is a day of distress, insults, ³⁶  and humiliation, ³⁷  as when a baby is ready to leave the birth canal, but the mother lacks the strength to push it through. ³⁸  37:4 Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God. ³⁹  When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said. ⁴⁰  So pray for this remnant that remains.’” ⁴¹ 

37:5 When King Hezekiah’s servants came to Isaiah, 37:6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master this: ‘This is what the Lord says: “Don’t be afraid because of the things you have heard – these insults the king of Assyria’s servants have hurled against me. ⁴² 

Jonah 1:16

1:16 The men feared the Lord ⁴³  greatly, ⁴⁴  and earnestly vowed ⁴⁵  to offer lavish sacrifices ⁴⁶  to the Lord. ⁴⁷ 

Matthew 10:28

10:28 Do ⁴⁸  not be afraid of those who kill the body ⁴⁹  but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. ⁵⁰ 

[32:8]  ¹ tn Heb “If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it.”

[32:8]  ² tn Heb “and he said, ‘If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it.” The Hebrew verb אָמַר (’amar) here represents Jacob’s thought or reasoning, and is therefore translated “he thought.” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:8]  ³ tn Heb “the surviving camp will be for escape.” The word “escape” is a feminine noun. The term most often refers to refugees from war.

[32:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “said.”

[32:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “the one who said.”

[32:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “I will cause good” or “I will treat well [or “favorably”].” The idea includes more than prosperity, though that is its essential meaning. Here the form is subordinated to the preceding imperative and indicates purpose or result. Jacob is reminding God of his promise in the hope that God will honor his word.

[32:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “the loving deeds and faithfulness” (see 24:27, 49).

[32:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “you have done with.”

[32:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “for with my staff.” The Hebrew word מַקֵל (maqel), traditionally translated “staff,” has been rendered as “walking stick” because a “staff” in contemporary English refers typically to the support personnel in an organization.

[32:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “this Jordan.”

[32:11]  ¹¹ tn The imperative has the force of a prayer here, not a command.

[32:11]  ¹² tn The “hand” here is a metonymy for “power.”

[32:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau.”

[32:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for I am afraid of him, lest he come.”

[32:11]  ¹⁵ sn Heb “me, [the] mother upon [the] sons.” The first person pronoun “me” probably means here “me and mine,” as the following clause suggests.

[32:24]  ¹⁶ sn Reflecting Jacob’s perspective at the beginning of the encounter, the narrator calls the opponent simply “a man.” Not until later in the struggle does Jacob realize his true identity.

[32:24]  ¹⁷ sn The verb translated “wrestled” (וַיֵּאָבֵק, vayye’aveq) sounds in Hebrew like the names “Jacob” (יַעֲקֹב, ya’aqov) and “Jabbok” (יַבֹּק, yabboq). In this way the narrator links the setting, the main action, and the main participant together in the mind of the reader or hearer.

[32:24]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “until the rising of the dawn.”

[32:25]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:25]  ²⁰ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:25]  ²¹ tn Or “injured”; traditionally “touched.” The Hebrew verb translated “struck” has the primary meanings “to touch; to reach; to strike.” It can, however, carry the connotation “to harm; to molest; to injure.” God’s “touch” cripples Jacob – it would be comparable to a devastating blow.

[32:26]  ²² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:26]  ²³ tn Heb “dawn has arisen.”

[32:26]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and he said, ‘I will not let you go.’” The referent of the pronoun “he” (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.

[32:26]  ²⁵ sn Jacob wrestled with a man thinking him to be a mere man, and on that basis was equal to the task. But when it had gone on long enough, the night visitor touched Jacob and crippled him. Jacob’s request for a blessing can only mean that he now knew that his opponent was supernatural. Contrary to many allegorical interpretations of the passage that make fighting equivalent to prayer, this passage shows that Jacob stopped fighting, and then asked for a blessing.

[32:27]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and he said to him.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:27]  ²⁷ sn What is your name? The question is rhetorical, since the Lord obviously knew Jacob’s identity. But since the Lord is going to change Jacob’s name, this question is designed to bring focus Jacob’s attention on all that his name had come to signify.

[32:28]  ²⁸ 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]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ 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).

[56:3]  ³¹ tn Heb “[in] a day.”

[56:4]  ³² tn Heb “in God I boast, his word.” The syntax in the Hebrew text is difficult. (1) The line could be translated, “in God I boast, [in] his word.” Such a translation assumes that the prepositional phrase “in God” goes with the following verb “I boast” (see Ps 44:8) and that “his word” is appositional to “in God” and more specifically identifies the basis for the psalmist’s confidence. God’s “word” is here understood as an assuring promise of protection. Another option (2) is to translate, “in God I will boast [with] a word.” In this case, the “word” is a song of praise. (In this view the pronominal suffix “his” must be omitted as in v. 10.) The present translation reflects yet another option (3): In this case “I praise his word” is a parenthetical statement, with “his word” being the object of the verb. The sentence begun with the prepositional phrase “in God” is then completed in the next line, with the prepositional phrase being repeated after the parenthesis.

[56:4]  ³³ tn Heb “flesh,” which refers by metonymy to human beings (see v. 11, where “man” is used in this same question), envisioned here as mortal and powerless before God.

[56:4]  ³⁴ tn The rhetorical question assumes the answer, “Nothing!” The imperfect is used in a modal sense here, indicating capability or potential.

[37:3]  ³⁵ tn In the Hebrew text this verse begins with “they said to him” (cf. NRSV).

[37:3]  ³⁶ tn Or “rebuke” (KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV), or “correction.”

[37:3]  ³⁷ tn Or “contempt”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “disgrace.”

[37:3]  ³⁸ tn Heb “when sons come to the cervical opening and there is no strength to give birth.”

[37:4]  ³⁹ tn Heb “all the words of the chief adviser whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God.”

[37:4]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “and rebuke the words which the Lord your God hears.”

[37:4]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “and lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant that is found.”

[37:6]  ⁴² tn Heb “by which the servants of the king of Assyria have insulted me.”

[1:16]  ⁴³ tc The editors of BHS suggest that the direct object אֶת־יְהוָה (’et-yÿhvah, “the Lord”) might be a scribal addition, and that the original text simply read, “The men became greatly afraid…” However, there is no shred of external evidence to support this conjectural emendation. Admittedly, the apparent “conversion” of these Phoenician sailors to Yahwism is a surprising development. But two literary features support the Hebrew text as it stands. First, it is not altogether clear whether or not the sailors actually converted to faith in the Lord. They might have simply incorporated him into their polytheistic religion. Second, the narrator has taken pains to portray the pagan sailors as a literary foil to Jonah by contrasting Jonah’s hypocritical profession to fear the Lord (v. 9) with the sailors’ actions that reveal an authentic fear of God (v. 10, 14, 16).

[1:16]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “they feared the Lord with a great fear.” The root ירא (yr’, “fear”) is repeated in the verb and accusative noun, forming a cognate accusative construction which is used for emphasis (see IBHS 167 §10.2.1g). The idea is that they greatly feared the Lord or were terrified of him.

[1:16]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “they vowed vows.” The root נדר (ndr, “vow”) is repeated in the verb and accusative noun, forming an emphatic effected accusative construction in which the verbal action produces the object specified by the accusative (see IBHS 166-67 §10.2.1f). Their act of vowing produced the vows. This construction is used to emphasize their earnestness and zeal in making vows to worship the God who had just spared their lives from certain death.

[1:16]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “they sacrificed sacrifices.” The root זבח (zbkh, “sacrifice”) is repeated in the verb and accusative noun, forming an emphatic effected accusative construction in which the verbal action produces the object (see IBHS 166-67 §10.2.1f). Their act of sacrificing would produce the sacrifices. It is likely that the two sets of effected accusative constructions here (“they vowed vows and sacrificed sacrifices”) form a hendiadys; the two phrases connote one idea: “they earnestly vowed to sacrifice lavishly.” It is unlikely that they offered animal sacrifices at this exact moment on the boat – they had already thrown their cargo overboard, presumably leaving no animals to sacrifice. Instead, they probably vowed that they would sacrifice to the Lord when – and if – they reached dry ground. Tg. Jonah 1:16 also takes this as a vow to sacrifice but for a different reason. According to Jewish tradition, the heathen are not allowed to make sacrifice to the God of Israel outside Jerusalem, so the Targum modified the text by making it a promise to sacrifice: “they promised to offer a sacrifice before the Lord and they made vows” (see B. Levine, The Aramaic Version of Jonah, 70; K. Cathcart and R. Gordon, The Targum of the Minor Prophets [ArBib], 14:106, n. 29).

[1:16]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “The men feared the Lord [with] a great fear, they sacrificed sacrifices, and they vowed vows” (cf. v. 10). By pairing verbs with related nouns as direct objects, the account draws attention to the sailors’ response and its thoroughness.

[10:28]  ⁴⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[10:28]  ⁴⁹ sn Judaism had a similar exhortation in 4 Macc 13:14-15.

[10:28]  ⁵⁰ sn See the note on the word hell in 5:22.